American SitComs

[D.D.D.]

[Jrecee]

BALKY!

Ah, I remember when he bought that little girl who aged 5 years over a summer a pony on that show that wasn't the show he was first on.

[D.D.D.]

BALKY!

Ah, I remember when he bought that little girl who aged 5 years over a summer a pony on that show that wasn't the show he was first on.

5 years! What? Don't be meticulous~

[latenitevacancy]

i hate sitcoms with laugh tracks. they're fucking stupid and worthless, i hate that its just used as a cue for jokes. we're just being spoonfed the parts the writers think are funny. its annoying, intrusive, and i fucking hate it, and all shows that use it. that includes seinfeld.

now as for sitcoms i actually like.. arrested development is probably my favorite show of all time (tied with futurama. thats not really a sitcom though). I saw earlier comments that it lost steam in the 2nd season. I havent watched the series all the way thru in a while, but I don't remember a steep decline in quality. theres just more stories added in. some are silly, and some things that happen are VERY cartoony (the whole episode with the jetpack..) but I remember it being consistently funny through out. I'll rewatch and re-evaluate. but the 3 or 4 times I've watched it through.. no complaints

I thought the US office was good until around season 5. the characters are just dumbed down caricatures of what they originally were. the stories are dumb. its completely over the top. and theres WAY too many youtube things they parody. its annoying. but seasons 2-3 especially were rock solid. since greg daniels stepped down as the shows front runner, it's seen a huge decline. which leads me to

parks and rec. as stated: the first season was pretty much a wannabe of the office. the second season blossomed wonderfully though. they cast grew into their characters. ron swanson is probably the greatest thing I've ever seen on a sitcom, so they struck comedy gold with that character alone. andy started out kinda annoying but quickly became one of my favorites.

also, the edgar wright/ simon pegg collab spaced is amazing. i just finished the 2nd season. its awesome. its the precursor for hot fuzz and shaun, so if you like anything about those movies at all, you'll love that show. bloody brilliant.

[CFFJR]

I guess I'm gonna be that guy, but I have to say I don't like The Office in either of its incarnations.

I don't like the argument that everyone always makes, that the british version is supposedly so much funnier. I've watched both, and while they're both capable of pulling a smile out of me, for the most part they just bore me Sorry.

@JT: I've never seen Raising Hope, and I kinda go back and forth on watching it. On the one hand, it was created by the same guy who did My Name Is Earl, but on the other hand, its a comedy centered around a baby...

Or at least, that's the impression I've gotten. It looks like a "bumbling father" thing. Correct me if I'm wrong. Its just that I have a really hard time enjoying anything where the main drive of the story is centered around some damn kid.

I'm willing to check it out though. I've learned to trust your endorsements.

[J T]

@JT: I've never seen Raising Hope, and I kinda go back and forth on watching it. On the one hand, it was created by the same guy who did My Name Is Earl, but on the other hand, its a comedy centered around a baby...

Or at least, that's the impression I've gotten. It looks like a "bumbling father" thing. Correct me if I'm wrong. Its just that I have a really hard time enjoying anything where the main drive of the story is centered around some damn kid.

I'm willing to check it out though. I've learned to trust your endorsements.

I also thought it was going to suck based on the commercials because it looked like a bumbling father show that would have lots of poopie jokes and trashy redneck parenting moments, and while it does have a bit of that there's much more too it and I found myself falling in love with the show after the first 2 or 3 episodes. The characters are really endearing and the guy that plays Burt (the baby's grandpa) is insanely funny. I love every scene he is in. I think it's worth giving a shot. It's one of a handful of shows I watch faithfully every week.

[Betamax001]

This why I'm glad Arrested Development got cancelled.

[Limewater]

@Limewater

-How does shooting in four cameras or one camera make a difference to the SitCom being funny or not. They can as well use one camera and film the scene four times from different angles. Am sorry if i didn't get your point?
If you mean that shows are not shot like they are a home made video and they look serious
I have seen a few episodes and I just dont get them, they are not half as good as the old SitComs.
Maybe its a culture barrier or something am not sure?!
maybe I haven't watched enough to make a judgement

The shooting style shouldn't make a huge difference on whether a sitcom is funny or not. They do give the shows very different styles, though. I just mentioned them because you asked where all the sitcoms went. I think there are still a lot out there, but they are more likely to be single-camera shows, so you might not notice them when you are flipping channels or seeing commercials.

-I might have a sampling bias, I don't look at who created the shows especially from USA. Companies are so huge and diversed I never thought the same people would work on different shows.
for example, I wouldn't say "Look, this is made by Viacom and this is made by Viacom, they must be the same people doing the show!"
but now that you say it I do agree.

There's that, but I was actually referring to the selection of which shows you get to see. I don't know which, if any, shows have been localized for your country or are broadcast there, or how you are seeing the shows you are seeing. I don't expect you to have had exposure to that wide a range of American sitcoms, because there are major cultural differences, and comedy doesn't tend to translate across cultures terribly well. There are a couple of exceptions-- like Friends. I'm sure Friends is just as terrible a show in Bahrain as it is in the US.

-Any current SitComs that follow the old formula? I don't think Laugh tracks are used any more? in all honesty I think the laugh track is lame, but it works on good shows and fires back on the bad ones. Like I really don't mind it on Fresh Prince or Friends, it actually helps the scene.

How I met your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, and some others. I think pretty much all of the comedies on CBS follow this format, as someone mentioned earlier. I don't really watch that much current TV, so I'm not a great source.

Also, Nickelodeon and Disney make a bunch of sitcoms targeted at children that all follow the format you describe. I don't know what the current ones are, but they always have a bunch. Recent ones I can remember existing are Hannah Montana, Zoey 101, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, Suite Life On Deck, iCarly, That's So Raven. I'm under the impression that most of these shows aren't that great if you're older than twelve, though. I think a dad I know said that the Nickelodeon shows are much better than the Disney ones. Or maybe it was the other way around.

[dsheinem]

@dsheinem

the Office...am amazed you favor the US one

I never said that...

[Ack]

Image

X-Files comes to mind for that one.