sitcom questions
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004I think sitcoms are some of the most fascinating television, sociologically speaking. Every piece of entertainment tells us something about what resonates with the culture - the trick is to figure out why something resonates. Conspiracy theory is especially interesting for this kind of analysis - what is it about alien abduction that captivates the imagination to the point where many of us really believe it's happening? What about the JFK assassination, secret societies, or hidden military bases? Whether or not these things are true is beside the point; the interesting thing is why we're talking about them at all, why they have such a grip on us as a culture.
Situation comedies evolve in an interesting fashion. The first sitcoms are probably The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy; both are similar in that they reflect fairly realistic relationships, but they're distinct in that The Honeymooners illustrates an actual common working-class situation, whereas I Love Lucy illustrates a relatively exotic situation (the wife of a Cuban big band performer). Into the '60s, sitcoms begin to move towards the fantastical and surreal; shows like The Addams Family and Gilligan's Island, neither of which have much connection to reality at all, become wildly popular. In the '70s and early '80s, we return to "realistic" sitcoms, many of which turn on sexual humor or oddball familial situations; Three's Company and Bosom Buddies are the flagships for the sexual contingent, while The Odd Couple, Different Strokes and Family Ties lead the familial contingent.
From most of these shows, we can learn a few basic lessons about the popular view of human behavior:
1) Most people can be boiled down to "types" of people - the smart one, the goofy one, the rebel, etc.
2) Most people are fuck-ups.
3) The few people who aren't fuck-ups usually run the show.
4) Everyone is innately good and will do the right thing eventually.
5) Everything works out.
Keeping these rules in mind, it's interesting to compare Night Court and The Addams Family. They're essentially the same show.
There are a few rare exceptions to these rules prior to the 1990s, though even the exceptions tend to adhere to one or two of the rules. The grandest exception is All In The Family. Archie Bunker, race relations, generational conflicts and working class crises revolutionized sitcoms at the time; there was simply nothing like it. All In The Family seemed to make up for all of the failings of The Honeymooners, and introduced actual character development and confrontation of social issues into the sitcom industry. The other grand exception is M*A*S*H, which was the first sitcom to regularly intersperse war, tragedy and death with its comedy.
The most recent great revolution in situation comedy was, of course, Seinfeld. Seinfeld capitalized upon many things developed by previous sitcoms - character development, environmental cues, social anxieties - but turned almost all of the rules on their head. After Seinfeld, the rules for sitcoms often go like this:
1) Most people aren't types, but they don't change much over time.
2) All people are fuck-ups.
3) The people who run the show are best at covering up their fucked-uppedness.
4) People will try to get away with anything.
5) Nothing works out the way you planned it.
Seinfeld makes many of our best contemporary sitcoms possible; its aesthetic is responsible for Sex and the City, Everybody Loves Raymond, That 70s Show and a ton of other "smart, hip" sitcoms.
So, here are a few random questions about sitcoms:
- The Honeymooners is a show primarily about the working class. Who was watching it? Was the show successful because the working class watched it and found a connection with it, or because the upper class watched it and had a few laughs at the working class' expense?
- What sexual anxieties are reflected in Three's Company?
- Why were we so interested in the adoption of black children in the early 1980s?
- Seinfeld is a largely anxiety-driven show. What anxieties are constant? Are the neuroses of the characters realistic, or do they relate to real everyday anxieties? Do you find yourself laughing at them, laughing with them, or laughing because you're one of them?
- Sex and the City is often referred to as a "post-feminist" show, and lots of criticism has been written describing the show as pro- or anti-feminist. In what ways is the show empowering, and in what ways does it detract from empowerment? Are these real people? Does the show strike you (as it does me) anti-lesbian or somewhat racist?
- Do you feel that sitcoms are getting better at describing reality? Is their subject matter getting narrower, or broader?
