Talk:Situation comedy

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WikiProject Comedy      (Rated B-Class)

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[edit] Situation Comedy Formula

While I see the some notations in the explanation of what a sitcom is, I feel more could be added. Focus more on the cliches, character development, typical plot runners, parallel A-B story lines, mutli-camera AKA "three camera sitcom" [under 30 mins runtime, typical cast, canned laughing, amicable story closure]

Since TV comedies have to fit a demographic/ratings, time constraints, and fixed budgets they formula of storytelling, unlike feature films which have very little constraints. --Neoursa (talk) 09:34, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Too US Based

This article is too US focused. I am happy for it to remain largely US biased as I cannot dispute the claims that it was the first to develop the genre.

But once we get down to paragraph 5 the reader is barraged.

I vote that that para is moved to a new page: 'US sitcom' or 'American sitcom'.

This article should remain broad and provide a springboard to a list of sub-genres and countries.

One thing that's intresting to note is although this is article seems to be US based the US section seems to not relate to the rest of the article. Deathawk 00:57, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

--bodnotbod 16:36, May 1, 2004 (UTC)

I agree that the article is too exclusively focused on USA tv. While seperate articles about situation comedies in different nations may be a good idea eventually, we don't seem have much material yet. Perhaps a light rewrite of the article into a general introduction, then a sub-heading for "U.S. Sitcoms"? Perhaps someone can add at least a few sentences as a start on situation comedies in other nations? -- Infrogmation 17:07, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

I agree. What about 'Fawlty Towers'? That was a sitcom and preceded much of the US' creations. It's a little too US. Tolo 07:07, Jul 25, 2004 (UTC)

With this huge section 3 on other countries, I guess it's safe to say that we've expanded the previously limited geographic scope. --Brazucs (_TALK | ^CONTRIBS) 18:24, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

That's somewhat odd. I came back to this talk page to mention that I thought the wiki article didn't have enough about US sitcoms. --129.110.197.84 08:11, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Is not situation comedy quite the same what you see p.e. on German Bauernbühnen?

[edit] Australia section

I have made a start on the Australia section. There are many early sitcoms I am yet to describe, including "My Name's McGooley, What's Yours" and "The Group", and I'm sure many others. There are some later ones too including "All Together Now". There are also MANY shortlived flops like "Bingles", "Late for School". When I have more time I'll do the research and add them in. Asa01 18:58, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

--The Australian section is too long-winded. There is absolutely no reason that it needs to be longer than any of the other countries that have contributed so much more to the sit-com. I read the first few sentences, one or more of which basically stated that Australia doesn't/hasn't contribute(d) a great deal to the sit-com, and that most of the sit-coms shown in Australia are American, and yet it goes on, five times longer than any of the other nation's sections. Most people are going to skim over it. Most of the rest who bother to read it will end up wishing they hadn't. I'm not going to clean it up, but i suggest whoever contributed all the "longwindedness" however, should do so. If you'd like to make an Australian sitcom article then go ahead and do that. It's cluttering this one. Also, it seems that most of the information is just a time line of the sitcoms that have been produced in Australia or other such specific and useless information. There is a reason that the UK and US sections are shorter even though they clearly have produced more sitcoms that are more universally popular. If someone did to the American and UK sections what's being done to the Australian section, then the two sections would combine to be three times as long as the rest of the entire page put together. Don't add anything else about any more specific Australian sitcoms. The Nations section of the article shouldn't exist for the purpose of listing all the sitcoms someone can think of and on which network they aired on which time slots. Briefly list what's been culturally impact full, or important; Tell us about what makes Australian sitcoms unique give a few examples, and move on. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.251.51.90 (talk) 08:42, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite

I see Bodnotbod is doing a good rewrite. I started a modified article myself, then got the edit conflict note. I'm placing my text here for a limited time, in case I want to incorporate any bits of it into the article when Bodnotbod is through. -- Infrogmation 17:30, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

I'm finished  ;o) I'm going to list the article on Articles Needing Attention or something like that, asking for input from mainland Europe and elsewhere... I, for one, am curious about non-US/UK sitcoms.

--bodnotbod 17:44, May 1, 2004 (UTC)

The Russian Sitcom section (3.3) is seriously flawed, and was obviously written by a non-English speaker. I suggest it be removed for it's brevity and grammar issues.

--Sgm 10:15, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Invented in US?

The article claims the sitcom is a US invention, but the list of UK sitcoms lists many that predate the US list, which seems to be mostly 80's and 90's shows. Is it just that no one has listed any older US sitcoms, or is it that the US did not in fact invent them? 194.168.3.18 13:16, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Good point. I tossed in some shows from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. There were plenty more that I have not included (thank goodness ;) Gwimpey 21:45, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Forget the Brits; I have added historical background re plays by ancient and 16th and 17th c. authors that are essentially situation comedies, except that they were not series. However, some of the ancient Roman comedies of Terence and Plautus had stock characters who reappeared in several plays. User: siegfried19 23:49, May 31, 2008 —Preceding comment was added at 03:50, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Absolutely Fabulous

Does it count as a sitcom? It definitely should be mentioned as a successful British export to the USA, largely because it supplied elements of humour that had gone missing this side. -- Smerdis of Tlön 18:29, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

I was under the impression that it, like many such conversions (see Men Bahaving Badly) was a complete flop in the US. - Hayter 18:09, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

AbFab was most definitely NOT a flop in the US. It never aired on major US TV channels (no way it could with its subject matter), but it is generally considered one of the best UK imports of all time. It is espeically popular in the gay commmunity.--Victoria1286 01:33, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of Sitcoms?

Should we start a list of sitcoms, by decade in a separate Wikipedia entry? Many other areas of Wikipedia take this approach, such as the entries for Power Pop Music and Power Pop Bands.

I think a separate list (or lists) would be a very good idea. The list at the moment is almost exclusively American, and probably still only scratches the surface. A representative list would have the potential to be huge. JW 00:45, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sitcom Storyline

Usually what I would expect in a sitcom is that each episode would be independent of other episodes. Which means you can survive without knowing events that happened in previous episodes. Friends however is quite different as almost all episodes contain references to the past episodes or their past. It means to watch Friends, it is suggested that you start watching the 1st season and continue to watching in proper order to understand how the events came to be. That entire series revolves around several issues.

In the particular case of "Friends," I have no problem watching a syndicated episode from 2003 and then watching one from 1996. Sitcoms are written as stand-alone episodes, and Friends fits that rule BETTER than most sitcoms - the humor/story balance is probably 17/5 episode to episode, with the exception of season-to-season considerations (especially in Season 10). It is not necessarily crucial to know HOW or WHY an issue has come about, but rather simply to KNOW that it has come about - it's not something like "Lost." Sgm 10:25, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alphabetize?

I was going to alphabetize 80s and 90s to match 40s through 60s, but then realized they were in order of start date. Had their been prior discusson on this?BabuBhatt 21:05, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

• I'm more in favor of organization by year, versus alphabetical-- as that creates additional encyclopedic utility. (See, for example, how I reordered List of snowclones.) If users want to find a specific series, they can always use Wikipedia or their browser's "find" feature, but they have no other means to see which series appeared in which time sequence. Likewise, I'd rather see the 40s to 60s reordered by when they were on the air, versus their titles. —Leflyman^Talk 18:26, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Not a bad idea, but should it be by start date, posted in each year, or some other delineation? Many sitcoms have lasted into multiple decades. Kickstart70 05:20, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

• I'd suggest by year of first appearance. There aren't that many to worry about running into multi-decades. The longest running sitcom (prior to the The Simpsons, which is going on 17 years!) was Ozzie & Harriet at 14 season; My Three Sons ran 12 years; these ran for 11: The Danny Thomas Show / Make Room For Daddy, Happy Days, The Jeffersons, M*A*S*H, Cheers, Married... with Children, Frasier.

A claim for longevity might be made for Last of the Summer Wine a BBC series which has run (with abbreviated seasons) for 27 years! —Leflyman^Talk 05:43, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Every single person would need to be aware of every single start date, to be able to find the titles easily, in the order the titles were in. Not everybody knows the details of start dates. I personally had problems trying to find some titles. I therefore decided to alphabetize all titles (to the best of my ability), so that other people would not experience the same type of problems and frustration with finding details that I did. Also, there have been duplicate entries for some of the titles, which I became aware of when I was listing the titles in alphabetical order. Figaro 10:24, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

• Do we have a system in which we can see start and end dates simply by year? "Sitcoms beginning in 1990" or "Sitcoms ending in 1998," "Sitcoms running in 1994," in the case of Seinfeld. Sgm 10:24, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blackadder

and the end of each series of Blackadder involved the ritual slaughter of the cast

It did? I know they went over the top in Blackadder goes forth, presumably to their deaths, but I don't recall a slaughter of the cast in either Blackadder II or Blackadder the Third. It's too long since I've seen the first season to comment but this statement appears to be incorrect. - Hayter 18:32, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

In Blackadder II the entire cast was shown slaughtered after the end credits of the sixth episode. In Blackadder the Third. the Prince Regent is shot dead. - Saboteur 12:57, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Archetypes

I'm not sure that the current method of making up archetypes as desired is valid. The Archetypes page lists none of these (nor should it be expected to be 100% comprehensive). Right now there are archetypes with a single character that may fit better into other archetypes (Ed Norton from the well-meaning blue collar worker to the naive fool, for example). Unless there is a pressing need for multiple characters across multiple sitcoms, how about trying a 'best-fit' approach? Kickstart70 23:35, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kramer a sage?

I would have put Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer in the "meddling or nosy neighbor" category, not the sage category. Any objections if I move it?

No objection, and if you've got thoughts on the other archetypes, feel free to move those too. To put it bluntly, an archetype with only one or two members isn't really an archetype. --Kickstart70·Talk 02:09, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, Kramer thinks he is a sage, and he plays the role, but his advices suck, that's why he is so much fun. He is a nosy neighbor. Some nosy neigbors are like that. --201.152.157.118 05:51, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Coining

Where are we getting these terms like node or naive fool. I got comedy relief from the movie about Andy Kaufman, so I hope it fits fine. I do think that is a very common stereotype. Anyhow, I think we better start sourcing before some (what's the apropiate word for somebody with an anal retentive personality?) comes censoring this article. I've been there and these people makes the task of making an article out of a clever stub a hell of a mission. So I propose we do some reserch before expanding the lists more. Greetings!--201.152.157.118 05:50, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kramer

Strange that I should disagree with the same editor on the same day on two different topics, but I think most people would say Kramer is highly medling and nosy. He goes through Jerry's fridge, drawers, mail and inhabitshis living room and bedroom when Jerry is not home. He often (good-heartedly) tries to get his friends what they want, and in the process fouls things up. Kramer is the difition of sitcom nosy meddler. BabuBhatt 04:09, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Huge lists of characters

This is getting ridiculous. The section dedicated to sitcom character archetypes is now unreadable, taking up more than half of the entire article, with sections having bulleted lists of fifty or more names. The majority of new edits to this page are people adding their own favourite sitcom characters to the lists, and acceptance of this makes the article theoretically unlimited - every new sitcom that's made will feature some of the archetypes.

The simple one-paragraph summaries of the archetypes seem fine - maybe two or three examples, at most, from a representative selection of sitcoms. Looking at listcruft guidelines, I don't think there's any argument for splitting the lists off into separate articles. Time to be bold? --McGeddon 04:24, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree - cut and cauterise. PMA 07:27, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Kudos. --McGeddon 15:19, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

I've burned all this back again a year later. We don't need a run-on sentence listing twenty-five examples to illustrate the concept of the "naif" character in situation comedy - I'm not even convinced we even need one. --McGeddon 13:41, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My deletion from opening para

I just deleted changes from opening para. The list of examples was redundant. Para already noted that "Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a common environment, such as a family, home or workplace." and those shows listed fit that desc, so there was no need to list them. The newly added description of what the "situation" in the term means - they get into funny situations - is wrong. It refers to the fact that the shows exist within a fictional dramatic framework, mileu or story world - that is, a situation - unlike a sketch comedy program, a comic chat show, or a TV showcase for stand-up comedians, which have no fictional story world. Asa01 06:56, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Character Comedy

It should be said that Sit-com aka situation comedy is most often character driven and as such character comedy. the shows are driven and surround characters, we watch things happen to them. I think this is a crucial point which should be explained somewhere in the article. Bobbyfletch85 01:15, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First sentence

Does anyone think that saying what it is is more important than the fact that it originated on the radio, and therefore the former should precede the latter in the first paragraph? MBerrill 20:42, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ethnic Stereotypes

In the section concering ethnic stereotypes, I deleted the listing of the character Carla from "Scrubs." Carla is ethnic, but she is NOT an ethnic stereotype. There is a big difference. Viewers are not expected to laugh at the way she talks or the fact she is Latino, unlike characters such as Fez from "That '70s Show."--Victoria1286 01:38, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Ethnic Stereotypes

I think I see Victoria’s point, but ”ethnic” does not mean ”non-white” or ”non-Caucasian”. Einarw 02:46, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Start with history

I reworked the beginning of the article to begin with a chronological history rather than have the article jump right in with characteristics of the genre in a sort of ahistorical way.

I think the various other elements on the page should be folded into the historical narrative.

YMMV. -Broc7 05:53, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Radio deletions

People seem to like to delete parts of the radio portion of sitcom history. I know it's hard for some people to believe, but there is actually a lot of important cultural history that they are completely unaware of (i.e. sitcoms are more than just Friends and The Simpsons). If anything, the radio section deserves a lot more here than it currently has. So I humbly request two things: if you think what's there isn't currently sufficient, add to it, don't delete. If you actually think what's there doesn't belong there, please state your reasons. Deletions with no comment, even in the summary field, aren't helpful. Broc7 04:53, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Search Results

Why is it that this page does not show up in the first page of search results if I search for "sitcom"? Is there a way to make this page more 'findable'? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.161.249.172 (talk) 09:17, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

If you simply type "sitcom" in the search box and click enter or press the Go button it will redirect to this page. So I don't think finding this page is much of an issue. Although if you click the Search button after typing in "sitcom" you are right that it doesn't show up on the first page. This issue I wouldn't know how to change. LonelyMarble (talk) 07:57, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] No Mention of TGIF "kidcoms" or sitcoms on Cable?

Is missing LOTS of sitcoms in general, and tends to be just one point of view, ignoring sitcoms from The N, (Radio Free Roscoe), then entire ABC's TGIF line, which was a sitcom factory for the entire 1975-1990 generation, Britcoms on PBS, stuff like Maniac Mansion and Weird Science on cable, etc. There wasn't even a mention of Daria, but a mention of South Park. This article needs to be totally re-written, and International Perspectives ought be considered within the whole of article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Coffee4binky (talk • contribs) 13:31, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

"Kidcoms" are an important subgenre and I put them into the article with the audience fragmenting bit. Might need a little more, but there's no need to mention every sitcom & every outlet. Broc7 (talk) 01:59, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Too many examples

It says this page has too many example but i disagree there should be more sitcom examples such as absolutely fabulous and a few more modern sitcoms as this is useful to anyone studying GCSE or higher media studies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.131.226.67 (talk) 14:42, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The UK Channel 4 poll

I believe this section should be deleted from the article. It's unnecessary and is opinion based. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Getluv (talk • contribs) 21:37, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Animated Sitcoms

This should be mentioned her, possibly under Modern Sitcoms. Shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family etc. fit into this category.