| A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on
television. Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a format in
which there are one or more humorous story lines centred around a common environment, such as a family home or workplace.
The situation comedy seems to have originated in the United States,
but today they are produced around the globe. Many countries, such as Britain, have embraced the form and so sitcoms have become among the most popular programmes on the
schedule.
History
The situation comedy format originated on radio in the 1920s. The first situation
comedy is often said to be Sam and Henry which debuted on the
Chicago clear-channel station
WGN in 1926, and was partially inspired by the notion
of bringing the mix of humor and continuity found in comic strips to the
young medium of radio. The first network situation comedy was Amos &
Andy which debuted on CBS in 1928, and was one
of the most popular sitcoms through the 1930s.
Situation comedies have been a part of the landscape of broadcast television since its early days. The first was probably
Mary Kay and Johnny, a fifteen minute sitcom which
debuted on the DuMont Television Network in
November of 1947.
This type of entertainment seemed to originate in the United States,
which continues to be a leading producer of the genre, but soon spread to other nations.
Characteristics
Traditionally, situation comedies were largely self-contained, in that the characters themselves remained largely static and
events in the sitcom resolved themselves by the conclusion of the show. One example of this is the animated situation comedy
The Simpsons, where the characteristics of animation has rendered
the characters unchanging in appearance forever -- although the characters in the show have sometimes made knowing references to
this (the writers have made reference to that by calling The Simpsons a "frozen-in-time" show).
Other sitcoms, though, use greater or lesser elements of ongoing storylines: Friends, a hugely popular US sitcom of the 1990s, contains soap opera elements such as regularly resorting to an end-of-season cliffhanger, and has gradually developed the relationships of the characters. Other
sitcoms have veered into social commentary. Examples of these are sitcoms by Norman Lear including All in the Family
and Maude in the US, and the controversial Till Death Us Do Part in Britain.
A common aspect of family sitcoms is that at some point in their run they introduce an addition to the family in the form of a
new baby. One exception to this are the several sitcoms starring Bob Newhart,
who insisted that his sitcoms not have babies or children. However while babies are cute and give adult characters opportunities
to act silly, toddlers are of little use in comedy as besides the difficulties of the "terrible twos" they basically can only
look cute and say a few words - thus most sitcom kids are aged to four or five within two years of their birth - for example
"Andrew Keaton" on Family Ties and "Chrissy Seaver" on Growing Pains. Cases of sticking with the same child such as Erin Murphy's "Tabitha Stephens" on
Bewitched or The Olsen twins' "Michelle Tanner" on Full
House are the exception to the rule.
Most contemporary situation comedies are filmed with a multicamera
setup in front of a live studio audience, then edited and broadcast
days or weeks later. This practice has not always been universal, however, especially prior to the 1970s when it became more common. Some comedies, such as M*A*S*H, were not filmed before an audience. (In the case of M*A*S*H, the use of multiple
sets and location filming would have made this impractical.)
Specific countries of origin
Most US sitcoms are written to run 30 minutes in length with commercial breaks, leaving about 22 minutes of showtime, although
ones made outside the US may run somewhat longer. US sitcoms are often characterised by long series runs of 20 or more episodes,
whereas the British sitcom is traditionally comprised of distinct series of six episodes each. US sitcoms often have large teams
of script writers firing gags into the script and round-table sessions, whereas the British sitcom is usually written by two
co-writers or is the work of one person.
Canada
See also: Canadian humour
Despite Canada's wealth of comedic talent, Canadian TV's conventional sitcoms have
generally fared poorly with both critics and audiences. One particularly notorious example is The Trouble with Tracy, regarded by many Canadians as one
of the worst TV shows ever made. Other Canadian sitcoms have included Snow Job, Check it Out!,
Mosquito Lake and
Not My Department, all of which were mocked in their time
as being particularly unfunny.
The few successful Canadian sitcoms have included: La famille Plouffe and its English version, The Plouffe Family, King of Kensington, Hangin' In and Corner Gas.
Canadian TV networks have had much more success with sketch comedy shows such as The Kids in the Hall, CODCO, SCTV, This Hour
has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air
Farce, and quirky dramedies such as Twitch City, The Newsroom, Made in Canada, Trailer Park Boys, The
Beachcombers, and Seeing Things.
One of Canada's most enduring comedic television series airing today, The Red Green Show, is essentially a cross between a sitcom and a sketch series. Each episode
unfolds through short comedic sketches rather than a conventional sitcom plot, but unlike a true sketch series, the sketches
always draw from a single set of characters and no actor plays more than one role.
A notable Quebec sitcom in recent years was La Petite Vie; one episode of that show holds the world record for the highest market
share ever achieved by a television program. A popular current Quebec sitcom is Les Bougon.
New Zealand
New Zealand began producing television programmes later than many other developed countries.
Early sitcoms included Joe & Koro and Buck House. Later there was The Billy T James Show (subsequently rerun in early 2004 as part
of the first year's offering on Maori Television). The team of
David McPhail and Jon Gadsby produced and/or starred in quite a
number (such as Letter to Blanchy), with help from writer A K Grant.
Many British and US sitcoms have been popular in New Zealand, including most of those mentioned in this article.
United Kingdom
Main article: British sitcom
The United Kingdom has produced a wealth of sitcoms, many of which
have been exported to other nations or redone in adaptation. Classic British sitcoms include Only Fools and Horses, Porridge, Fawlty Towers, Dad's Army, Blackadder,
Open All Hours, and The Young Ones. More recent successes have
included Father Ted (a partly Irish sitcom), The Royle Family, and The Office.
The British sitcom tends to rely less on quick-fire jokes and quirky characters than plots, the analysis of the British
individual and exaggerated caricatures of everyday stereotypes. There are, or course, some exceptions. Bottom gained popularity through its exaggerated comical
violence and childish humour mixed with adult situations, Red Dwarf was a
parody of the Sci-Fi genre, and The League of
Gentlemen revolves around the macabre. There is also a tendency towards black humour - Porridge, for example, is
set in a prison, The Fall
and Rise of Reginald Perrin involves a man who is suicidal, Steptoe and Son can be heart-breaking as the ambitions of Harry are quashed by his needy, manipulative
father, and the end of each series of Blackadder involved the ritual slaughter of the cast.
Many British sitcoms are re-made for American audiences. For example, Till Death Us Do Part became All
in the Family and the hugely popular Steptoe and Son became Sanford and Son. However, most British sitcoms usually fare better in their original forms. Re-makes of
Red Dwarf, Men Behaving Badly, Coupling, and One Foot in the Grave fell victim to adaptations that largely
removed the essence of the comedy and did not stand the test of time. Possibly the best example of this was Fawlty Towers, where the character of Basil became a woman. This eliminated
the roles of the hen-pecked lead and the dragon-like wife. Reports of plans for a re-make of The Office, with David Brent, the comedy powerhouse who made the British version so popular in
America, taking a backseat to the relationship between Tim and Dawn also seems destined for the scrap heap of British
crossovers.
United States
Mary Kay and Johnny was followed by The Goldbergs which
first aired on January 17, 1949. Probably
the most well-known and successful early television sitcom was I Love
Lucy, starring Lucille Ball, which is well known because the
producer took the step, unusual for its time, of recording the episodes, thereby inventing reruns.
Popular or notable sitcoms
United Kingdom
United States
Related topics
Further reading
- Lewisohn, Mark (2003) Radio Times" Guide to TV Comedy. 2nd Ed. Revised - BBC Consumer Publishing. ISBN 0563487550 -- Provides details of every
comedy show ever seen on British television, including imports.
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