TV sitcoms at crossroads: is there life after Friends, Frasier?

Just read this interesting article on my work's Web site about the current state of sitcoms.
mytelus.com

TV sitcoms at crossroads: is there life after Friends, Frasier?

NEW YORK (AP) - This June, Fox presents rappers Method Man and Redman as stars of a new sitcom about adjusting to life in a stuffy gated community.

Sound familiar? It should. Will Smith walked the same road in the early 1990s on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Go back even further, and you'll find the same culture shock themes in The Beverly Hillbillies.

With the Friends finale on May 6, Frasier bowing out a week later, Sex and the City already gone and Everybody Loves Raymond on its last legs, sitcoms are at a crossroads.

Depending on how you look at it, the sitcom is either an exhausted format in need of new ideas or a time-tested but slumping genre just waiting for new personalities.

"It's clearly a genre in desperate need of reinvention," said Doug Herzog, Comedy Central president. "I say that as much as a viewer as a television executive."

The success of Friends, Frasier and the rest has masked how deep TV comedy's problems really are. So far this season, only five comedies are among Nielsen Media Research's list of top 25 shows, compared to nine dramas and nine reality shows (60 Minutes and sports fill out the list).

One is Friends. Another is Everybody Loves Raymond, which is most likely headed into its last season. Will & Grace, in its sixth season, is showing its age. Coupling lasted only a few weeks, this season's punch line for bad television.

That leaves Two and a Half Men, hardly innovative and unproven without its Raymond lead-in.

ABC has tried to rebuild behind comedies the past few years. But 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teen-Aged Daughter was derailed by John Ritter's death, and none of the others has reached a wide audience. With ABC just firing its management team, the strategy may be gone, too.

"People just don't care about sitcoms," said Stephen Fishler, a producer with Metropolis Entertainment who is experimenting with hybrids of reality and comedy. "Nobody is standing around the water cooler saying, 'did you see According to Jim last night?"'

Those who believe comedy is simply in a slump point to all of the "comedy is dead" articles that appeared two decades ago just before Cosby ushered in a golden period with Cheers and Seinfeld.

"The comedy resurgence is one good sitcom away," said Dick Wolf, executive producer of the Law & Order series. "I don't think anyone is coming out and saying, 'My God, nobody is watching these great new sitcoms.' "

Although Fox's Arrested Development has critical acclaim and dedicated fans, not many people believe the next great comedy is already on the air, waiting to be discovered.

Too many new sitcoms over the past few years are stylistically no different than those produced 40 years ago, Herzog said.

"They're just old-fashioned," he said. "They're all shot the same way. All have the same look, feel and tone. I feel as a viewer that they're horribly predictable. There's a whole generation that they don't speak to at all."

MTV, HBO and Comedy Central have changed the way people watch television and changed the type of humour that people enjoy, he said.

Sitcoms are a popular style for TV executives because when done right, they're a virtual gold mine. Shows like Seinfeld and Friends can live on in perpetuity in syndication, producing revenue long after the actors have moved on.

So networks keep trying, perhaps too hard, leaving viewers disgusted.

"I just feel like we've been bludgeoned with too many pale imitations," said Todd Holland, creator of Fox's short-lived series Wonderfalls.

NBC has been particularly aggressive developing comedies this spring, both because of its lack of recent success and its high-profile losses. The efforts range from the predictable - Friends spinoff Joey - to more adventurous fare like Father of the Pride, with computer-generated animation.

CBS has a pilot with Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander portraying a Washington Post sportswriter. Jeff Goldblum, Jessica Simpson and Rob Reiner are other big names attached to projects in development.

Fox has an agreement with a comic troupe in Los Angeles, the Naked Angels Theatre Group, as a workshop to try out new ideas, said Craig Erwich, the network's executive vice president for programming.

"We're definitely trying to take a lot of shots because we don't know which way it's going," Erwich said.

Other creators are also trying to stretch the boundaries of the form. HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, considered one of the funniest shows on the air, uses loose story structures that give actors room to improvise.

NBC is making an American version of BBC's The Office, which puts actors in settings that viewers can recognize as real life.

Fishler believes these type of scripted reality shows represent the future. He's making two of them: Life After Skippy, which focuses on a has- been child actor, and another set in a make-believe local TV newsroom.

He provides the setting and the situations, then sets the actors free.

"It's a very subtle format and it's hard to describe to someone why it's appealing until they actually see it," he said. "It's a matter of creating funny, uncomfortable, subtle moments."

Some of what is considered "reality" today, like My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, is really comedy, Erwich said. The Simple Life is as much a fish-out-of-water comedy as The Beverly Hillbillies, only with wealthy people sent to live with the commoners instead of the other way around.

Others believe in being counterintuitive.

Some of the series that rely on production gimmicks, like Scrubs, lose lustre quickly, said Robert Thompson, head of the Centre for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. And an Arrested Development requires viewers to pay closer attention than many want when watching a comedy, he said.

"You could enjoy an episode of Friends if you're half-dead," Thompson said. "I would defy anyone - even if they've never seen the show before - to watch three minutes of Friends and remain confused."

The next great comedy will likely be very traditional in feel and form, he said.

One of television's top reality creators, Survivor and The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett, said people shouldn't be intimidated by the sorry state of comedy.

"I think it's an opportunity," Burnett said. "It's an opportunity to take risks. Clearly, playing it safe isn't working."

© The Canadian Press, 2004
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I gave up on the sitcom in the late 1990s, the year that both Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show retired. Nothing has grabbed my attention and got my laughter since those two shows. I was midly amused with Sex And The City during the first two seasons but haven't watched it since. Showcase specialty channel in Canada ran some episodes of the BBC comedy The Office a while back. I thought it was pretty good. But what do I know? I was one of about 10 people who faithfully watched the American version of Coupling, which I thought was fine. Then NBC yanked it before it could find it's audience.

 

Last sitcom I watched was Seinfeld...and even that got tired and stale.

Can honestly say I never watched an entire episode of Friends.....annoyed the hell out of me. Good riddance!

 

I only saw one episode - on a plane. Yuck!

 

One word- Scrubs. It 's the only fresh, funny sitcom out there right now.

 

I thought I was the only one around who has never watched more than five minutes of Friends! And I too think that the Larry Sanders Show was the sitcom high water mark...

 

It's one of the most consistently funny shows on the air. Excellent writing.

There are other funny shows out there, although they're not exactly sitcoms. MythBusters always cracks me up, the Furniture Guys was as witty as a Groucho/Chico conversation and Good Eats got me when he suggested serving a cheesecake on a Kiss Alive II LP.

 

I'll miss Frasier - for a time it was the funniest show on television.

Superb shows like Barney Miller, Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H, and Cheers were limited to a single "final episode."

Friends gets to have 5 final episodes.

Just puts the icing on the cake-of-hate that I had for this show - especially the cheesy theme that made the music charts. Blecchhh.

 

Scrubs is a great show.

So is Arrested Development.

My favorite shows these days, however, are the ones on the "indy" channels like Monk on USA, Karen Sisco's unrun shows on USA, and the show Significant Others on A&E (or was it Bravo?). Either way, the best TV out there today is not on the networks, but on the cable channels...

 

And the best theme song on TV. Lazlo Bane.

-BZync

 

Jamie, you and I have to get together and watch some TV some time!

 

I hope this isn't too much of an abject disaster. The BBC version is painfully funny, and is essential viewing for anyone who believes the sitcom is totally dead.

 

The only sitcom I watch these days is Life With Bonnie. I find Bonnie Hunt to be a real pro... a lot of her show is ad-libbed too. She's smart and funny, and never insults your intelligence. All that, and it's actually a family-oriented show! Proof that comedy doesn't necessarily have to be edgy to make you laugh.

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lifewithbonnie/index.html

 

Seinfeld was my exception to the fact that I hate sitcoms. It's all so- contrived and corny. And what's with laugh tracks- I can decide when to laugh for myself, thank you very much. I don't know why Seinfeld was the exception- I guess 'cause it was so absurd, and there were no "lessons learned" and "special episodes." Yes, actually, besides laugh tracks, that's what really bugs me about them. So Ross & Rachel are supposed to make me sad or teach me something? Please.
(Yeah, I've seen Friends, 'cause I had girlfriends and a sister and a mother, and they all watch that stuff. Blech.)

Oh, and I did use to like Frasier a while back, if only because instead of it being a show about people who were stupid, it was about people who were "too smart."

The funny comedy serials are animated, and now that Simpsons is stale and Family Guy is off the air, only South Park remains. The latter two shows are outrageous- animation frees them from the limits of "reality" and they're also the most daring.

But then, unlike apparently most of the TV audience, I have no desire for realistic television. If I want reality, I have my stupid life. Sitcoms are like reality but a weird white-washed canned-laughter parallel universe of it, which takes away everything interesting about it.

Maybe the article was right in that the format is so old-fashioned. I mean, every episode of every sitcom is the same: main character does something stupid, then their's a mix-up, then it's revealed by some whacky scenario, no one gets hurt, main character learns lesson, then forgets it by the next episode. Rinse, repeat.

I think all of the world's evils can be traced back to Full House.

 

I agree with you about "The Larry Sanders Show." I think it was the best comedy show on television in the '90s.

However, I don't think it classified as a sitcom. I believe its called a "single camera" program, like "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Scrubs." I believe that sitcoms are solely "three-camera" shows with a live audience.

There's a big difference - especially to me - who doesn't watch sitcoms (never liked "Seinfeld") and couldn't care less what the state of those shows are.

I do enjoy "Scrubs" when I catch it, but as long as they keep pumping out "The Simpsons" (which to me has more in common with "The Larry Sanders"-type shows than with a "Friends") then I'm happy!

JEFF!

 

Maybe I should see a shrink 'bout this but The Office makes me nervous, maybe from traumatic experiences from my corporate years.

Coupling is my favorite sitcom these days. "Manchild" is growing on me but don't want to get hooked on it so I watch it only when I catch it. Good music too.

Don't see the point of Bonnie at all.

 

Way, way, way too much formula. The only non-animated ones I've seen push any boundaries the past few years are "Arrested Development," which appears to be in limbo, and "Lucky," which it looks like F/X isn't bringing back.

 

Same here. The last really "modern" sitcom I ever liked was Perfect Strangers (partially due to the amount of slapstick in it). Anything else I like comes from the 70's. I just don't "get" these sitcoms today whose entire premise is to make crotch jokes for a half hour. No thanks--that kind of stuff was funny in junior high school. I am not a huge fan of M*A*S*H (I like the early years the best), but at least it combined intelligence with humor and didn't degrade into a half hour of PMS, orgasm and d**k jokes.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. I did read that Richter is starring in one starting this summer on Fox, so maybe that one will be good.

I should also say I don't have HBO, so I can't remark on some of the sitcoms they've broadcast, which seem to garner good reviews.

 

The sitcom was declared dead or near-dead in 1984. Then, a little show titled The Cosby Show debuted and it was as though the body had been shocked back to life with paddles.

Shows such as M*A*S*H, Cheers and Seinfeld have gone off the air and life went on. There's always the reruns.

I would like to see filmed sitcoms without a live audience have no laugh tracks, like Malcolm In The Middle and Arrested Development.

It's refreshing to not have my intelligence insulted - if I don't know where to laugh, then the writers and producers haven't done their job.

 

Sitcoms like Friends make me ever so grateful for Britcoms (Are You Being Served? rules)

 

What he said!

I never miss either of these shows. Speaking of Arrested Development, we should find out any day now if the show is coming back. Thank goodness TV Guide recently had it on the cover...maybe it will be the last minute call from the governor that AD needed.

 

I don't know if the quality is down or if I'm more demanding, but I don't make a point to watch sitcoms like I used to. Frasier has had great writing and acting, but not anymore. All Seinfeld and Friends did was annoy me. The last sitcom I made a point never to miss was Night Court, and even that became unwatchable in it's last year or two. The best sitcom ever, in my opinion, is still Taxi.