Situation comedy: Encyclopedia II - Situation comedy - Characteristics

Situation comedy - Characteristics

Traditionally, situation comedies featured individual episodes that were largely self-contained; the regular characters themselves remained largely static and events of the episode resolved themselves by the conclusion of the episode. Most sitcoms took this format; events of previous episodes would rarely be mentioned in subsequent episodes and while school friends or beloved relatives might appear, often they would only be seen once in the series, something apparent in The Brady Bunch and many other programs.

This formula has been parodied many times by The Simpsons. Mr. Burns, despite repeated close interaction with his employee Homer Simpson, never recalls those incidents and does not remember who Homer is in subsequent episodes. The true identity of Seymour Skinner revealed in The Principal and the Pauper parodies the habit of traditional sitcoms introducing a major upheaval in the story of an episode before returning everything to how it was before and subsquently never mentioning that change in later episodes.

More recently sitcoms have introduced some ongoing storylines. Friends, a hugely popular US sitcom of the 1990s, had an overall story arc similar to that of soap operas; in addition to using traditional sitcom stories which were introduced and resolved in the same episode, the show also always had two or three ongoing stories taking place at any given point in the show's run. Friends also used other soap opera elements such as regularly resorting to an end-of-season cliffhanger, and gradually developed the relationships of the characters over the course of the series.

Friends was not without precedent, however, as a sit-com with continuing storylines. The Beverly Hillbillies, for example, frequently had continuing stories, during its successful 1960's-1970's run

Other sitcoms have veered into social commentary. Examples of these are sitcoms created by Norman Lear (including All in the Family and Maude) in the U.S., and Johnny Speight's Till Death Us Do Part in Britain.

A common aspect of family sitcoms is that at some point in their run they introduce an addition to the family in the form of a new baby. One exception to this are the several sitcoms starring Bob Newhart, who insisted that his sitcoms not have babies or children. The addition of a new baby to the family provides new story situations for the series as the family must adjust to a new member, however the new-born baby itself - while appearing cute - provides only a limited range of stories due to their limited mobility, mental development and limited vocabulary. In addition there are the practical problems of working with a baby on set. Thus most sitcom kids are aged to four or five within two years of their birth—for example Andrew Keaton on Family Ties and Chrissy Seaver on Growing Pains, allowing the characters a wider range of storylines. Instances in which sitcoms retained the same child without such age jumps, such as Erin Murphy as Tabitha Stephens on Bewitched and the Olsen twins as Michelle Tanner on Full House are the exception to the rule.

Most contemporary situation comedies are filmed with a multicamera setup in front of a live studio audience, then edited and broadcast days or weeks later. This practice has not always been universal and is used mainly for traditional style comedies. Several 1960s sitcoms such as The Munsters, The Addams Family, I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched used the single camera filming style which looked slicker and was more practical given the visual effects used in these shows. Overall the late 1960s was a period of increased production values for sitcoms, with others such as Get Smart also using the single camera filming style allowing it to feature carefully created and sharply edited sequences that parodied action and fight sequences of spy genre films and TV shows - something that would not have been achieved with the same level of finesse in a multi-camera production. In the 1970s M*A*S*H also used the single camera filming style which again was more suited to the show's naturalistic, and flowing style, and more practical given its multiple sets and frequent location filming. In the 1980s US sitcoms again predominantly used the multicamera style.

Situation comedy - Ensemble cast structure

Many sitcoms reuse a common mixture of character archetypes to achieve reliable comedic situations from week to week. The most common archetype appearing in sitcoms is the Holy Fool. Typically, this character accepts events and statements at face value, and often misunderstands situations in ways that create conflict in the plot. Examples of the naive fool character in sitcoms include:

• Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls
• Gilligan in Gilligan's Island
• Coach / Woody in Cheers
• Latka Gravas in Taxi
• Steve Urkel in Family Matters
• Joey in Friends
• Father Dougal in Father Ted
• Herman Munster in The Munsters
• Walter (Radar) O'Reilly in MASH
• Kramer in Seinfeld
• Barney Fife in The Andy Griffith Show
• Mork in Mork and Mindy
• Baldrick in Blackadder
• Uncle Fester in The Addams Family
• Kelso in That 70's Show
• Chrissy Snow in Three's Company
• Tim Taylor in Home Improvement

The Sage is another frequently-occurring archetype in sitcoms. In the standard sitcom ensemble, this character usually has either an elevated intellect, advanced age, or "outsider" experience. The Sage frequently comments wryly on the situation into which the other characters have placed themselves, and often suggests solutions to resolve the major plot conflict. Examples include:

• Niles in The Nanny
• Chandler Bing in Friends
• Professor Roy Hinkley Jr. in Gilligan's Island
• Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch
• Jeffery in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• Dr. Frasier Crane in Cheers
• Wilson in Home Improvement
• Lisa Simpson in The Simpsons
• Andy Griffith in The Andy Griffith Show
• Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable in The Cosby Show
• Debra Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond
• Steven Hyde in That 70's Show

Other recurring archetypal characters that appear in sitcoms include:

• The meddling or nosy neighbor
• The wisecracking curmudgeon
• The well-meaning blue collar worker
• The lovable loser (the always-second-best)
• The acerbic servant/worker
• The cutesy moppet

Situation comedy - Plot formulas

The plot and situations for many sitcom episodes arise out of a character's lying to or otherwise deceiving the other characters. Some sitcom television series, such as Mr. Ed, Bewitched, Three's Company, Spaced and Bosom Buddies based their fundamental premise on the main character's attempt to hide the truth through a series of deceptions and "white lies".

The most common comedic situations based on deception include:

• Attempts to hide egregious mistakes or acts of weakness.
• Attempts to protect friends and family members from bad news.
• Attempts to "correct" a mistake before others find out about it.
• Attempts to hide the breaking of pacts.
• Attempts to maintain an advantage based on deception.
• Attempts to dupe someone so as to achieve an advantage.
• Attempts to return stolen property before discovery of the theft.
• Attempts to ignore certain characters.
• Attempts to recreate scenarios.
• Attempts to fix situations but ends up making them worse.

The majority of sitcom episodes revolve around some form of the lying/deception premises listed above. Lesser-used sitcom plot formulas include:

• One or more characters going into a foreign environment only to return to "where they belong." Frequently, sitcom writers will use this plot formula to transplant the entire cast to Hawaii, Hollywood, or Europe in later seasons.
• A character choosing to make some fundamental change in their body, habits, job, or other component of their environment, only to return to "what feels normal."
• Characters entering contests or races.
• Characters being elevated to positions of responsibility they can't handle.
• Newcomers or strangers making one-time appearances that change the personal dynamics between the recurring characters.
• A special holiday episode, such as for Christmas or Halloween.
• A character thinks another character is going to die and does anything to please him/her, which the other character takes advantage of.
• Leaves gaps and silences at some endings for the viewers to recreate their own endings.
• Shows special programs for the shows anniversary or another special event.
• There is always the character that is hated and marginalised by one of the main characters

Situation comedy - Lifecycle

Landmarks in the lifecycle of a typical sitcom include:

• Development
• pilot episode
• Jumping the shark
• Cancelation
• Reruns in syndication
• Appearance in nostalgia-themed shows such as I Love the 70s

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Characteristics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki