Sitcom

A situation comedy, often shortened to the portmanteau sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, with often humorous dialogue. Such programs originated in radio, but today, sitcoms are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. This form also includes mockumentaries such as The Office and Parks and Recreation.

A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated by the use of a laugh track.

History

The terms "situational comedy" or "sitcom" weren't commonly used until 1950s.^[1] Some of the characters, pratfalls, routines and situations as preserved in eyewitness accounts and in the texts of the plays themselves, are remarkably similar to those in earlier modern sitcoms such as I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. The first television sitcom is said to be Pinwright's Progress, ten episodes being broadcast on the BBC in the United Kingdom between 1946 and 1947.^[2][3] In the United States, director and producer William Asher has been credited with being the "man who invented the sitcom",^[4] having directed over two dozen of the leading sitcoms, including I Love Lucy, from the 1950s through the 1970s.

By country

Australia

There have been few long-running Australian-made sitcoms, but many U.S. and UK sitcoms have been successful there. UK sitcoms are a staple of government broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC); in the 1970s and 1980s many UK sitcoms also screened on the Seven Network. By 1986, UK comedies Bless This House and Are You Being Served? had been repeated by ABC Television several times, and were then acquired and screened by the Seven Network, in prime time.^[5]

In 1981, Daily at Dawn was the first Australian comedy series to feature a regular gay character (Terry Bader as journalist Leslie).^[6]

In 1987, Mother and Son was winner of the Television Drama Award presented by the Australian Human Rights Commission.^[7][8]

In 2007, Kath & Kim The first episode of series four attracted an Australian audience of 2.521 million nationally,^[9] the highest rating ever for a first episode in the history of Australian television,^[9] until the series premiere of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities in 2009 with 2.58m viewers.^[10]

In 2013, Please Like Me was praised by the critics,^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]} receiving an invitation to screen at the Series Mania Television Festival in Paris.^[18] and has garnered three awards and numerous nominations.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]} Also in 2013, At Home With Julia was criticised by several social commentators as inappropriately disrespectful to the office of Prime Minister,^[27] the show nevertheless proved very popular both with television audiences — becoming the most watched Australian scripted comedy series of 2011^[28] — and with television critics.^[29] Nominated to the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards for Best Television Comedy Series.^[30]

Canada

The popular show King of Kensington, aired from 1975 to 1980, prior to the start of the fourth season drew 1.5 to 1.8 million viewers weekly.^[31]

Corner Gas, which ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009, became an instant hit, averaging a million viewers per episode.^[32] 1.5 million viewers in its first episode on January 22, 2004. And has been the recipient of six Gemini Awards, and has been nominated almost 70 times for various awards.^[33]

Between 2007 and 2012, the Little Mosque on the Prairie premiere drew an audience of 2.1 million,^[34] but declined in its fourth season drawing 420,000 viewers a week, or twenty percent of its original audience.^[35]

China

Czech Republic

Denmark

Germany

India

Sitcoms started appearing on Indian television in the 1980s, with serials like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984) and Wagle Ki Duniya (1988) on the state-run Doordarshan channel. Gradually, as private channels were allowed, many more sitcoms followed in the 1990s, such as Zabaan Sambhalke (1993), Shrimaan Shrimati (1995), Office Office (2001), Khichdi (2002), Sarabhai vs Sarabhai (2005) to F.I.R. (2006- 2015) & Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (2008–present).^[36][37]

Mexico

El Chavo del Ocho, which ran from 1971 to 1980, was the most watched show in the Mexican television and had a Latin American audience of 350 million viewers per episode at its peak of popularity during the mid-1970s.^[38] The show continues to be popular in Hispanic America as well as in Brazil, Spain, United States and other countries, with syndicated episodes averaging 91 million daily viewers in all of the markets where it is distributed in the Americas.^[39][40] Since it ceased production in 1992, the show has earned an estimated billion in syndication fees alone for Televisa.^[40]

New Zealand

Gliding On, a popular sit-com in New Zealand in the early 1980s, won multiple awards over the course of its run, including Best Comedy, Best Drama and Best Direction at the Feltex Awards.^[41]

Pakistan

Russia

My Fair Nanny, a Russian comedy television series based on the American television sitcom The Nanny, earned two TEFI awards and it was so popular in Russia that some of the original American writers of the show were commissioned to write new scripts after all original episodes were remade.^[42][43]

Serbia

Turkey

United Kingdom

In 2004, Are You Being Served? was ranked 20th in the countdown of Britain's Best Sitcom.^[44]

United States

Most American sitcoms generally include episodes of 20 to 30 minutes in length, where the story is written to run a total of 22 minutes in length, leaving eight minutes for commercials.^[45]

Some popular British shows have been successfully adapted for the U.S.^[46]

Sitcoms on U.S. radio

The sitcom format was born in January 1926 with the initial broadcast of Sam 'n' Henry on WGN radio in Chicago, Illinois.^[47] The 15-minute daily program was revamped in 1928, moved to another station, renamed Amos 'n' Andy, and became one of the most successful sitcoms of the period. It was also one of the earliest examples of radio syndication. Like many radio programs of the time, the two programs continued the American entertainment traditions of vaudeville and the minstrel show.

The Jack Benny Program, a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades, is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.^[48]

Sitcoms on U.S. television

1940s–1950s

Mary Kay and Johnny, aired from 1947 to 1950, was the first sitcom broadcast on a network television in the United States and was the first program to show a couple sharing a bed, and the first series to show a woman's pregnancy on television.^[49][50]

I Love Lucy, which originally ran from 1951 to 1957 on CBS, was the most watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings (an accomplishment later matched only by The Andy Griffith Show in 1968 and Seinfeld in 1998) . The show is still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world, and remains popular, with an American audience of 40 million each year.^[51] A colorized version of its Christmas episode attracted more than eight million viewers when CBS aired it in prime time in 2013 – 62 years after the show premiered.^[52] A second colorized special, featuring the "L.A. At Last!" and "Lucy and Superman" episodes, aired on May 17, 2015, attracting 6.4 million viewers.^[53] It is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms in history. In 2012, it was voted the 'Best TV Show of All Time' in a survey conducted by ABC News and People Magazine.^[54]

The Honeymooners debuted as a half-hour series on 1955 and was originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show,^[55] which was filmed in front of a live audience. Although initially a ratings success—becoming the #2 show in the United States during its first season—it faced stiff competition from The Perry Como Show,^[56][57] and eventually dropped to #19,^[57][58] ending its production after only 39 episodes (now referred to as the "Classic 39"). The final episode of The Honeymooners aired on September 22, 1956. Creator/producer Jackie Gleason revived The Honeymooners sporadically until 1978. The Honeymooners was one of the first U.S. television shows to portray working-class married couples in a gritty, non-idyllic manner (the show is set mostly in the Kramdens' kitchen, in a neglected Brooklyn apartment building).^[59] Steven Sheehan explains the popularity of The Honeymooners as the embodiment of working-class masculinity in the character of Ralph Kramden, and postwar ideals in American society regarding work, housing, consumerism, and consumer satisfaction. The series demonstrated visually the burdens of material obligations and participation in consumer culture, as well as the common use of threats of domestic violence in working class households.^[60] Art Carney won five Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Ed Norton — two for the original Jackie Gleason Show, one for The Honeymooners, and two for the final version of The Jackie Gleason Show. He was nominated for another two (1957, 1966) but lost. Gleason and Audrey Meadows were both nominated in 1956 for their work on The Honeymooners. Meadows was also nominated for Emmys for her portrayal of Alice Kramden in 1954 and 1957.^[61][62] In 1997, the episodes "The $99,000 Answer" and "TV or Not TV" were respectively ranked #6 and #26 on "TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time"^[63] and in 1999, TV Guide published a list titled "TV's 100 Greatest Characters Ever!" Ed Norton was #20, and Ralph Kramden was #2.^[64] In 2002, The Honeymooners was listed at #3 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and #13 on their list of the "60 Greatest Shows of All Time" in 2013.^[65]

1960s

The Andy Griffith Show, first televised on CBS between 1960 and 1968, was consistently placed in the top ten during its run.^[66] The show is one of only three shows to have its final season be the number one ranked show on television, the other two being I Love Lucy and Seinfeld. In 1998, more than 5 million people a day watched the show's re-runs on 120 stations.^[67]

The Dick Van Dyke Show, initially aired on CBS from 1961 to 1966, won 15 Emmy Awards. In 1997, the episodes "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" and "It May Look Like a Walnut" were ranked at 8 and 15 respectively on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[68] In 2002, it was ranked at 13 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time^[69] and in 2013, it was ranked at 20 on their list of the 60 Best Series.^[70]

1970s

The series M*A*S*H, aired in the U.S. from 1972 to 1983, was honored with a Peabody Award in 1976 and was ranked number 25 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time in 2002.^[71][72] In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it as the fifth-best written TV series ever^[73] and TV Guide ranked it as the eighth-greatest show of all time.^[74] The episodes "Abyssinia, Henry" and "The Interview" were ranked number 20 and number 80, respectively, on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time in 1997.^[75] And the finale, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", became the most-watched and highest-rated single television episode in the U.S. television history at the time, with a record-breaking of 125 million viewers (60.2 rating and 77 share),^[76] according to The New York Times.^[77]

Sanford and Son, who ran from 1972 to 1977, was included on the Time magazine's list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time" in 2007.^[78]

1980s

Seinfeld, which originally ran for nine seasons on NBC from 1989 to 1998, led the Nielsen ratings in seasons six and nine, and finished among the top two (with NBC's ER) every year from 1994 to 1998.^[79] A In 2002, TV Guide named Seinfeld the greatest television program of all time.^[80] In 1997, the episodes "The Boyfriend" and "The Parking Garage" were respectively ranked numbers 4 and 33 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time,^[81] and in 2009, "The Contest" was ranked #1 on the same magazine's list of TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time.^[82] E! named it the "number 1 reason the '90s ruled."^[83] In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named Seinfeld the No. 2 Best Written TV Series of All Time (second to The Sopranos).^[84] That same year, Entertainment Weekly named it the No. 3 best TV series of all time^[85] and TV Guide ranked it at No. 2.^[86]

1990s

The Nanny, aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999, earned a Rose d'Or and one Emmy Award, out of a total of twelve nominations.^[87][88] The sitcom was the first new show delivered to CBS for the 1993 season and the highest-tested pilot at the network in years.^[89] The series was also hugely successful internationally, especially in Australia.^[90]

Friends, which originally aired on NBC from 1994 to 2004, received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular television shows of all time.^[91] The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season. The show ranked no. 21 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and no. 7 on Empire magazine's The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.^[92][93][94] In 1997, the episode "The One with the Prom Video" was ranked no. 100 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time.^[95] In 2013, Friends ranked no. 24 on the Writers Guild of America's 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time and no. 28 on TV Guide's 60 Best TV Series of All Time.^[84][96] In 2014, the series was ranked by Mundo Estranho the Best TV Series of All Time.^[97]

Definition of Sitcom in the 21st century

Modern critics have disagreed over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century.^[98]

See also

• List of comedies
• List of sitcoms

References

Further reading

• Lewisohn, Mark (2003) Radio Times' Guide to TV Comedy. 2nd Ed. Revised - BBC Consumer Publishing. ISBN 0-563-48755-0, Provides details of every comedy show ever seen on British television, including imports.
• Padva, Gilad (2005) Desired Bodies and Queer Masculinities in Three Popular TV Sitcoms. In Lorek-Jezinska, Edyta and Wieckowska, Katarzyna (Eds.), Corporeal Inscriptions: Representations of the Body in Cultural and Homosexual Literature (pp. 127–138). Torun, Poland: Nicholas Copernicus University Press. ISBN 83-231-1812-4
• Asplin, Richard (2004) Gagged - A Thriller With Jokes - Arrow books. ISBN 0-09-941685-9 is a contemporary comic thriller set in London and Los Angeles that covers the financing, production, creation, ratings and marketing of a modern American network half-hour situation comedy
• Mary M. Dalton (1 February 2012). Sitcom Reader, The: America Viewed and Skewed. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-8263-6. 
• Antonio Savorelli (13 April 2010). Beyond Sitcom: New Directions in American Television Comedy. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5992-6. 
• Joanne Morreale (2003). Critiquing the Sitcom: A Reader. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2983-2. 
• Brett Mills (12 January 2006). Television Sitcom. British Film Institute. ISBN 978-1-84457-087-4. 
• Brett Mills (2009). The Sitcom. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3752-2. 

External links

• Situation Comedy Bibliography (via UC Berkeley) — mostly USA programs.
• Sitcoms Online
• British Comedy Guide

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