Situation Comedies

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·       Clark, V., Baker, J., & Lewis, E. (2002). Key Concepts and Skills for Media Studies. London, GBR: Hodder Education. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

·       It’s no Laughing Matter: Reading the Sitcom. Reading the media, conventions, genre, MediaMagazine 45, September 2013

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Situation Comedies

       A situation comedy, or often referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy that is based around a familiar set of ongoing characters that are based in recurring locations. The familiarity of these characters and locations allows the audience to gain knowledge of different weaknesses, traits and/or ambitions that in turns creates humour. Commonly, these locations are either a workplace or family home; this is because they are recognizable locations that would be relevant to the demographic, allowing them to find the storylines and plots relatable. However, if the locations and characters weren’t relatable for the target audience, for example a sitcom aimed at young children that haven’t reached their teens, yet it was set in a prison then the audience would not be able to watch it and connect to it, therefore this would not generate humour.

        Throughout a sitcom’s episodes there will be some kind of problem that is then resolved by the end of the episode, ready for the next one; this is called a series format. For example in the first episode of ‘Fawlty Towers’ the main character (Basil Fawlty) is faced with the issue of having a guest be a trickster that causes many dramas, but then by the end of the episode the trickster is arrested and therefore the next episode can start over with no issues. However, some sitcoms have taken up both series and serial formats, for example some 'Friends' episodes have done this meaning that sometimes the problems are resolved by the end, and other times they aren’t and continue into the next episode. An example of ‘Friends’ using a serial format would be the relationship between Ross and Rachel, which is carried out throughout the series. Unlike sketch-coms and stand up comedy, situation comedies always have a storyline, which is a comedic narrative, also they originally were performed in front of a live audience or a laughter track (canned laughter) would be edited in after. The humour of a sitcom is normally driven by its ‘snowballing’ effect with the running gags; the audience would become familiar with jokes made which would then be carried on throughout the series, creating an audience pleasure of familiarity. An example of this would be seen in the extremely successful, and popular sitcom ‘Friends’ that had the on going joke of the character Joey being a ladies man, and having the catchphrase “How you doing?”.

        Originally, sitcoms were aired on radio, and the first British radio sitcom was reportedly aired in the 1950s and was called ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ produced firstly by Dennis Wilson, then the role was taken by Tom Ronald. Later on, this then became a TV comedy (produced by Duncan Wood) called simply ‘Hancock’ and was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson and the stars of the show were Tony Hancock and Sid James. The show was based in East Cheam and revolved around Tony Hancock acting in an exaggerated and very poor version of his self; this could have created some kind of humorous irony in the fact that in real life Tony Hancock was famous and wealthy yet in the show he was the complete opposite. The show was known to be a huge influence on situation comedies, as it moved towards TV rather than radio, as well as focusing on a character's development. Like most situation comedies, the show has a regular setting, although being based in the fictitious East Cheam, the actual location changed a lot however eventually by the third series the setting was Hancock's house, which then eventually became the norm.

        Additionally, one of the most successful American sitcoms of all time is considered to be ‘Friends’ (shown on NBC USA from 1994-2004), it was created by the trio Kevin Bright, Marta Kaufman and David Crane. A lot of the show's budget was spent on hiring a young and creative writing team, which is partly why the show was such a success - it’s quality writing. The script was constantly full of quality gags, interesting storylines and characterization that always stayed high over the shows ten seasons. Furthermore, although originally aimed at a niche audience, the characters and plots changed this to a very broad age demographic. Teenagers could watch the show and daydream about their future of flat sharing (like the characters did) as well as people over forty who could watch it and think back to their young days when their friends meant everything.

         The show broadcasted over 100 countries and was subbed/dubbed to over 50 languages. It was mainly popular in England, America and Australia, but still popular everywhere else. As the show was based around a group of friends, some situations they found themselves in and catchphrases used, made a huge cultural impact; for example, Joey’s catchphrase. The last finale of the show gained a viewing rate of 52 million people (reportedly 80 million) but 52 million was the amount of people who watched the entire episode. Although the show has now stopped airing new episodes, it repeats episodes on ‘Comedy Central’, which still gain good ratings. ‘Friends’ gained a total of 21 major awards, 38 nominations and was named to be the greatest show of all time by ‘TIME’ Magazine. The last few seasons costs between $3-4million for any network to buy. Every member of the main cast was paid $1million per episode during the last season (which is the highest deal in TV history). In 2007 the show revenues apparently reached $948million, and the season finale adverts reached $2million for every 30 seconds of adverts (it was almost the same as ‘Superbowl’ prices that’s $2.3million); also, adverts for the normal episodes cost $500,000.