Comments on: Death of the sitcom, again

By: raeda

raeda — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:37:31 +0000

I think that the death of sitcoms is real this time because of reality shows. I think it will be very hard, but not impossible, to have another great sitcom like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends, King of Queens, and others like Everybody Loves Raymond.

Many attempts were made, like Cashmere Mafia (which I loved but felt like it was more drama than comedy), and then quickly cancelled.

It seems the entertainment industry is having a hard time coming with new material even for movies. Thus, all the sequels and trequels and remakes. They were so desperate, we now have this LAME version of Beverly Hills 90210 sequel.

By: JZ

JZ — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 21:15:35 +0000

I enjoy Curb Your Enthusiasm a great deal. Which is strange as I was only a “once and awhile” watcher of Seinfeld and Costanza was probably my least favorite character (blueprinted from Larry David). It seems that amongst my friends, if you don’t like people arguing or specifically people having hour long arguements on TV…then Curb won’t be your cup of tea. As for me, watching Larry get into arguements and the “Three’s Company”-type misunderstandings…it makes my job (which I interact with people constantly) that much less annoying come Monday.
jz

By: Diane Patterson

Diane Patterson — Sat, 29 May 2004 21:35:39 +0000

>You don’t see any irony …

Nope. I see a poor choice of words on my part. I meant smart/intelligent in one place and smart/knowledgeable/familiar with the conventions in the other. Thanks for pointing that out!

By: Kymm

Kymm — Fri, 28 May 2004 20:48:15 +0000

The three best recent sitcoms (besides Arrested Development which really needs not to be on opposite Alias and Criminal Intent) were all in the same season and all suffered the same fate: Greg the Bunny, The Tick and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. And I think they were all on Fox, if I’m not mistaken.

So they pick shows trying to do something really different with the format, then give them five minutes to catch on to the viewing public. I won’t even discuss Firefly, a show that broke my heart when it left me.

On the other hand, TV goes in waves, first comedy is dead, then drama, everyone beats their breasts and claims that it’s all ashes, ashes, and those days of yore will never be seen again. Nor will they, but everything comes around new again, eventually.

Except for TV westerns. They were right about them.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 28 May 2004 03:37:54 +0000

Oh, and part of the problem with Firefly was that the network aired them out of order. Heck, they didn’t get around to airing the pilot until after they cancelled the show!

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 28 May 2004 03:35:40 +0000

Good news: A Firefly movie (I think it’s called “Serenity”) is in production right now.

Bad news: It’s slated for a release in January, that dumping ground for the movies the studios deem crappiest.

By: name

name — Thu, 27 May 2004 13:17:31 +0000

You don’t see any irony in claiming that sitcoms fail because audiences are smarter than they used to, and then in the next paragraph claiming that the three current brilliant examples of the genre are not run-away-favorites because they require a smarter audience?

By: Diane Patterson

Diane Patterson — Wed, 26 May 2004 04:30:21 +0000

You know, after the first episode of “Firefly” I would have totally agreed with you.

The next two? Ennh.

After that, I thought they improved a lot. I told Darin it took me a while to figure out who was who and who was doing what.

When the show was cancelled, the last episode they showed was the original pilot, which Fox nixed because it was too slow. Or something.

And I said, My God! If they’d put that on first, I would have had a clue as to what was going on!!

But even the mixed up first couple of episodes were better than ST:Enterprise. I mean, come on…

By: Michael Rawdon

Michael Rawdon — Wed, 26 May 2004 04:21:46 +0000

I felt the cancellation of Firefly showed a keen sense of good judgment on the part of the network. Ugh, after about five episodes I just couldn’t stand to watch that show anymore. Thoroughly unlikeable characters, and the setting rocketed my sense of disbelief into some other galaxy.

I actually liked the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise better. Not that I stuck around for the second season (or even all of the first)…