TV Rantings Part One

I was just sitting around this Memorial Day watching a hand-picked Scrubs marathon with my DVDs and was wondering to myself about the state of sitcoms on television. These days networks are giving up on sitcoms and switching over to high-concept hour long dramas. I believe that witty sitcoms have become to difficult to write and studios are taking the easy way out by creating high-concept dramas that are awful. So many of these dramas last a year or less and go by the wayside.

Looking at the proposed fall schedule for the networks breaks down like this: NBC has 4 sitcoms, ABC has 2 (one is the terrible Geico cavemen), CBS has 4, Fox has 6 (4 are animated), and the CW has 2. Every year 5 shows are nominated for best comedy. That means 1/3 of these shows will be nominated. The rest of the channels' lineup is filled with terrible dramas. Here's a run down of some of the dramas they tried out last year, some of them are sadly still on, but most were canceled.

1. A show about a guy who keeps repeating the same day until he corrected some mistake he made (the show never finished so viewers never learned what this was all about)
2. A show about a town after a nuclear explosion
3. A show about a detective who sees dead people who try to help him solve crimes
4. A incredibly racist show about the Irish mob
5. A show about survivors of a bank robbery and hostage situation
6. A show about people "forced" into this country wide race for some unknown prize

Whatever happened to the simple comedy. One where we can sit down for 30 minutes and laugh and not have to wonder what the hell is going on and have to wait week after week for answers. I found this clip of a Scrubs musical that show the simplicity of a simple comedy, just jokes.



Its so sad. Growing up every night every channel had 2 hours of sitcoms, and then just one drama from 9-10 (for your parents). The only way to watch quality sitcoms is on TBS, Comedy Central, or your local syndicated channels form 5-7 pm. I believe the fall started after Einfeld and Friends and no one was able to write simple sitcoms that could be viewed by all and respected in many different ways. Seinfeld is simple, and simple people can laugh at it. Seinfeld is also sophisticated and smart, adn sophistyicated and smart people can watch it. The final death blow to sitcoms was when Fox canceled Arrested Development for War at Home. Arrested Development was by far the funniest and smartest sitcom since Seinfeld, but some many people "didn't get it." To quote Elaine from Seinfeld, "Smart people get it Jerry." (when talking about her political cartoon for the New Yorker). Week after week Arrested Development made off the cuff and very dry jokes, but they didn't pause and wait for the audience to catch them, they kept on going. War at Home is the exact opposite. They race through episodes and when they think something funny is happening or being said they pause and make sure everyone at home got it.

Sometimes I just want to escape for a half hour and laugh, not think. I spend most of everyday sitting around thinking, trying to "figure things out," its nice to be able to turn that off every once in a while. The way studios are programming television now, any year now there will be no more sitcoms. Just high-concept dramas that make no sense and ridiculous reality shows that no one with half a brain would watch.