Sitcoms

Structure of sitcoms

Different types of sitcom

Characterisation

Difference US British Sitcoms

Plot development

Scene analysis

Wizz through history of sitcom

Observational Comedy – Stand-up performances of
observations and insights into how the stand up comedians
world is.

Situational comedy : Focus is on the characters and their

dysfunctional interactions

Comedy drama – Usually 50 mins and has character

develop as the character grows – often more ambitious
and diverse settings – Shameless Fresh Meat etc. Narrative
arcs, plots sub plots, bigger budget, faster cutting
Need some sort of question to underpin – eg How can a
dysfunctional chav family function in a normal world.
Situational Comedy – focus is on characters often in
dead end situations - lacks overall narrative arch.
Characters rarely change or develop and series can be
watched out of order without the audience missing
much .

Limited settings for budgets- often home, work, or an

outside space

Canned laughter to enable script writers to tweak

material and see where the laughs are.

Structure –plot is trivial - two disasters – resolution for

main character returned to the place they began –
either that or left hanging
Characteristics

Weekly, serialised.

Short format, usually 28 minutes

Commonly recognisable situations, usually work or home.

Limited or ensemble cast who perform established roles

A weekly problem causes a humorous situation which is

resolved by the end of the programme

Basis in common experience to the viewer – something

they might have experienced or can observe in current
culture.
Characters

Archetypes
The Office
David Brent – Wants to be one of the lads
fails- thinks he is a comedian fails- bad boss
insensitive - crass
Gareth – Dim
Keith - Comotose
Finchy - Sexist and inappropriate
Tim - trapped in a job he hates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdBCFV6qa3A
 Characters :Groupings or ensemble casts

Clear Star to the show – Bernard Black, Basil Fawlty,

Edmund Blackadder,

An ensemble piece with many characters acting out familiar

tropes/roles. Friends, Roseanne, The Simpsons

Somewhere in the middle – less characters with less

obvious ‘roles’, but with a clear interplay between them;
The IT Crowd, Spaced, Bad Education
 Differences between UK and US sitcoms typically
UK
Six episode run
One or two writers
...writer is usually the star
and/or becomes a ‘known’
name.
One or two locations, often
highly iconic
Eg. The Office, the IT crowd
basement
Theme is usually repeated
throughout series
Eg. Blackadder wants to get rich
Characters dead end -
underdogs
This is how the world is
US
20 episode Season
Written by teams
...who are not in the
programme and remain
relatively unknown.
Multiple locations which are
more generic
Themes develop in soap style
more likely to be story arcs
Characters aspirational want to
develop but can’t
This is how we want the world
to be
How can we analyse sitcoms
1. Plot structure
Organic plot
Characters are more important than the plot.
Character response to situations is important.

Structured plot
Plot more important than characters:
Carefully plotted events lead to a specific conclusion.

May seem anarchic and random at first but evolve

into a ‘master plan’

Character motivation more important than plot.

 2. Episode Deconstruction of structure

Emphasis on characters within the mise en

scene.

Each character takes an extremist standpoint

Each character reacts to the situation

according to type

Elements are introduced that allow one or

more characters to exhibit their extremism
(subversion / destabilisation).

The group is reunited and asserts itself as a

cohesive unit (containment).
Chandler is angry, Monica is obsessive, Rachel is ditzy,
Phoebe is eccentric, Joey is a playboy and Ross is so
annoying that you want to kill him.

Friends often has a happy ending, signified either by

the group recounting the events of the episode to
each other in a safe haven (the cafe), or all laughing as
a ‘family’ unit in the home/kitchen
 Eg. Friends The One with the Lesbian Wedding
Ross' ex-wife Carol (Jane Sibbett) announces her plans to
marry her lesbian life partner Susan (Jessica Hecht);
Ross' sister Monica caters the wedding. Carol's parents
refuse to attend the wedding, leading Carol to doubt her
decision, but Ross finds himself in the position of being
the one to encourage her to go ahead with the
ceremony despite their opposition.
Joey makes his first appearance on the long running
soap opera Days of our Lives as Dr Drake Ramoray.
One of Phoebe's massage clients, Rose Adelman, dies on
the massage table and her spirit gets stuck in Phoebe.
Meanwhile, Rachel's mother Sandra makes a major life
decision after seeing how Rachel has learned to fend for
herself: she is divorcing Rachel's father
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlLno3iPKIE
 Sitcom analysis - Narrative Structure
The Hero’s Journey (or Monomyth)
A traditional set of steps which tell a story that can
be easily recognised in many forms (based on
analysis of folktales);
A hero rises and is given a quest to carry out
Friends helps the hero
The hero encounters enemies and trials
The hero initially fails in their quest and learns
humility
The hero succeeds!
(Campbell, The Hero with A Thousand Faces)
 Structural Episode Deconstruction such as;

Psychological state of protagonist is paramount.

Development of the mise en scene
Identification with the protagonist through common
cause or through complicity usually seeing them do
something inappropriate or mildly naughty (eg.
Eating someone else’s food or looking at their things
when they are absent)
Establishment of clever/foolish character
Slapstick or verbal superiority is established by the
lead character.
The lead character begins to become extreme (viewer
starts to distance themselves)

The lead character becomes further embroiled and

refuses to admitting their own failings or deviance (in
Blackadder’s case for eg. Eating the pigeon).

The lead character is exposed - first by friends, and then

by enemies.

Revelation and containment of the situation (or

sometimes, disaster).
 Sitcom Analysis - Comic strategies

The ludicrous
Things that happen when they are not supposed to or
are out of place.
 The ridiculous
People or situations are open to be ridiculed by their own
actions

The central difference between ludicrous and ridiculous is

usually who is responsible, or whose point of view we regard
the action from.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjxo4b
 Verbal Wit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM

An imaginative and often disruptive use of language:

Catchphrases, The Unsaid, Malapropisms, Freudian Slips,
Insults, Fast-talking, Free Association, Rearrangement of
ideas and structure etc etc.
 Slapstick
Violent and usually tendentious humour (works well
done on an innocent character)
 Goffman – Frame Analysis

The meaning of a social situation can be radically

altered by changing the frame in which we see things
We order the world by putting frames about it
as social life becomes an ‘endless negotiation’ of
different frames
-The edge of the
Frame is subversive
(overlooked at first,
could be different
from the rest of the
image)

Framebusters
therefore change our
perception of what
might have seemed a
calm or normal
situation.
 A Wizz through the History of Sitcoms

1950s, development of radio/tv drama such as

Hancock’s Half Hour (ran on both). Series format of the
sitcom is established.

Hancock’s Half Hour

 1960s
UK. Male pairs/groups
The Likely Lads, Steptoe and Son, Porridge, Dads Army
Single Women: The Liver Birds

US. Families and innovation

The Flinstones, Hanna-Barbera animation/writing team, one
of the first cartoon sitcoms, almost instant success.
US. Hybrids: Bewitched, and I Dream of Genie (use animated
intro sequences)
 1970s ‘the golden age of British Sitcom’.
UK
The Good Life, Fawlty Towers Are You Being Served?, Last of the
Summer Wine, Rising Damp, George and Mildred, Porridge, Some
Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

The era is now criticised for racist and homophobic

representations. Eg. Love Thy Neighbour and Are you Being
Served?
US.
M*A*S*H*: subversive, set in Vietnam War medical
camp. Title song ‘suicide is painless’.
Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in The family, Happy Days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A-DCWlLfOQ
 1980s - the good...

More anarchic sitcoms such as The Young Ones, Blackadder

and Red Dwarf emerged, and The Simpsons began in 1987.

- Still regularly syndicated

- Groups are not family related
- Emphasis on dysfunctional relationships
- Hybrid setting – eg science fiction, historical drama
- writers have background in stand up, not radio. Eg. Elton,
Curtis, Groening.
 1980s ...and the terrible

sitcom becoming generic due to mass popular appeal,

therefore also becoming more commodified (Adorno).

BBC and ITV early evening schedules were dominated by

Sitcoms,
- Re-runs of shows like The Good Life
- Many formulaic shows rehashing older themes.

Within these groups, families were extremely popular

Bread, Blossom, The Golden Girls, and Only Fools and Horses
 Good vs Evil in the 1980s

The Simpsons begins in 1989

My Two Dads begins in 1987...

Blackadder Goes Forth airs in September

October 1989.
 1990s – something new
Sitcoms started to move towards social groups rather than work
situations or families.
Last of The Summer Wine
Father Ted
One Foot in the Grave

Women started to take leading, rather than supporting roles.

The Vicar of Dibley
Absolutely Fabulous
Dinner Ladies

After the success of The Simpsons, more cartoons emerge

including Family Guy, South Park, Beavis and Butthead,
Futurama
In the US, the success of Cheers prompts more long haul sitcoms
Seinfield, Frazier, Friends.
 Millenial sitcom (2000-)

Mainstream sitcoms less popular.

Formulaic structure not as popular (overkill).
Increased popularity of the comedy drama with a
developing narrative arc

UK:

Cult sitcoms started to do well on digital and ‘alternative’

channels. Some of these redefine the rules of sitcoms (eg.
Extras).
Emphasis on small ensemble casts; actors have often come
from stand-up circuit.
Comedy Drama non family groups = more solidarity (eg. Sex
in the City – women ‘together’).
US
US moves towards hybridity: comedy/drama.

Politicised subgenre and intelligent television – eg. House and

the West Wing

US uses either unknowns or established actors/actresses

(sometimes a combination), very heavy female bias.

Eg.
America Ferrera
Allison Janey
Kim Cattrall
Teri Hatcher
UK

The Office, Extras

Spaced
Black
US Hybrids

Ugly Betty
Desperate Housewives
Sex in the City
Ally Mcbeal
Dead Like Me
Glee
House
The West Wing
Dexter
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (satirises Saturday Night Lives’
decision not to use 9/11 comedy) Books
The Inbetweeners
1.What are your personal top sitcoms
2.What do you like in sitcoms- visual humour, silliness or clever
retorts?
3.Do you like lots of silly behaviour or the sort of humour that
just produces a grin?
4.Do you prefer US humour or British?
5.Which are your least favourite and why?
6.Think about the development of a sitcom- what’s not been
done?
7.Generally sitcom characters remain stereotypical – can you
think of any exceptions or do they need to be created in type to
work comedically ?