Network TV Comedies Still Looking for a Laugh Track
One of the few network TV shows I’m looking forward to is a FOX creation called “Back to You” starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. My main interest in the show comes from wondering if it will be based on true stories or situations from TV news rooms, much like “Frasier” and “WKRP in Cincinnati” had some truth to the hilarious plot lines. Whether the show is actually funny and entertaining is yet to be seen though, as some people are hoping this sit-com can save the sit-com genre.
In an interesting article at Forbes.com, “Back to You” producer Christopher Lloyd (no relation to the actor) lays out why sit-coms have suffered in the ratings and in the general interest of the public over the past few years. Lloyd hits one component of this fall from grace right on the head: sit-coms became cookie-cutter shows in the late 90s and early part of this decade. Thanks to the success of NBC’s “Friends” and “Seinfeld”, and ABC’s “The Drew Carey Show” in the mid 90s, the stereotypical loser main character and his/her friends would sit around a coffee house/diner/bar and complain about their lives. One or two wacky jokes or plot twists would make the 22-minute shows entertaining and ratings winners for years. Then came the impostors: “Caroline in the City”, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place”, and the rather forgettable “It’s Like, You Know…”. Add to the fact that numerous sit-coms earlier this decade featured role players spun off from hit comedies (Jason Alexander, Michael Richards, Matt LeBlanc) the sit-com over-saturation was bound to collapse as the TV drama experienced a revival (CSI, Cold Case, the various spin-offs of “Law & Order”).
But it goes much deeper than just over-saturation, and Lloyd hints at this point here. It all comes down to great writing and character development. “Friends”, “Seinfeld”, and “The Drew Carey Show” all featured distinctly (and no exactly stereotypical) different personalities in situations you or I have been in before (or know of someone who has been in that situation). While the situation may have turned out differently for us in the real world, on TV it either comes out all good in the end or leaves us hanging for the next episode or next season.
Lloyd points out that the “new comedy” approaches of single-camera TV isn’t necessarily the answer to the problem, and he’s right. While comedy shows such as “My Name is Earl” or “The Office” feature a different style of comedy, it still comes down to writing and character development. We all know someone like Jason Lee’s Earl character, or his ex-wife Joy played by Jaime Pressly. We also all work with someone like Steve Carell’s character Michael or Rainn Wilson’s Dwight on “The Office”. Humor and personalities we can relate to is a winner. That’s why shows like CBS‘ “Everybody Loves Raymond” and ABC’s “According to Jim” hung around so long.
I can’t say if “Back to You” will be a hit, or the default “savior” of network comedies, but the writers of the show and other new comedies can take a lesson from current hit network comedy shows and from history. I already mentioned “Earl” and “The Office”, but even “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, and more and more “American Dad” manage to make the audience laugh, think, and feel despite the fact they are adult cartoons. And the sit-com has been through this routine before. Everyone thought it was dead in the early 90s when the success of “The Cosby Show”, “Family Ties”, and “Growing Pains” led to a glut of feel-good family-friendly shows. But with “Friends” especially, and the maturity of “Seinfeld” and the quirkiness of “The Drew Carey Show”, network sit-coms were refreshed with new ideas that were vastly different from the kid-tested, mother-approved programs of the 80s.
With a few new ideas in 2007 and 2008, the sit-com can be revived simply because in times like these America needs a good laugh.
