Blog Prompt #7

The TV Sitcom has long been established and cherished by many people worldwide. TV started up in the late 1940s, crushing the movie monopoly due to the ease in watching TV from home. The Classic Sitcoms like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners are what our modern day Sitcoms have slowly evolved from over the years of television shows. Like the Classic Sitcoms, our modern Sitcoms are thirty minutes (including commercials), tend to be on the funny side and episodic for the most part. Episodic means that all the action in one episode is wrapped up by the end of the thirty minutes and is usually never mentioned again in the lifetime of the sitcom. Colin Tain also mentioned that along with the 'funny' aspect of these sitcoms, they are hyperbolic and absurd whereas in Dramas there is realism. So in a way, these comedic sitcoms on the air are going to stray from taking a real approach to the comedy. They'll have something crazy happen that would make you say to yourself, "That would never happen..." but, that is their goal! Their goal is to make you laugh instead of staying close to something that could actually happen. 

The series I am going to make an example of is an old show that I watched growing up because my mom loved the show. Cheers ran from 1982-1993. Cheers is a great example of an episodic sitcom. When it first started it stuck strictly to the formula of the episodic sitcom. Every episode took place in the bar during the first season. The 'meat' of the episode was usually never mentioned again after the episode wrapped up at the thirty minute mark. However, as Cheers gained popularity and the producers/writers realized the longevity of the series, they started embarking on trips outside the bar. In addition to having the sitcom-episodic characteristic of the cycles/repeated patters and character growth, they also added some dramatic flairs to the episodes, although the main feeling of the episode was always a comical one. For specifics, the episode where Fraiser Crane (Kelsey Grammar) has to be the one to tell Carla (Rhea Pearlman) that her boyfriend is in the hospital, he tells her that he has something important to tell her and he says, "John Allen Hill is in the hospital, I'm so sorry Carla." She laughs it off with, "Ha! I thought you were going to say something happened to my car!" Cheers usually took the lighter road in every issue as to not 'bring down the mood'. They wanted to make people laugh, not be sad. Also, as the seasons went on, the show tended to stray from the episodic range and went for a more serial outlook. Just like Friends, as Colin Tain mentioned on Wednesday, it eventually ends so they started making it more serial so as to be able to come to an end. What I mean when I say it became more serial is that there were longstanding events that happened over several episodes and where continuously mentioned throughout the rest of the season. One example is when Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson) and Kelly Gaines (Jackie Swanson) get married; the entire season is basically a lead-up to their actual wedding and the honeymoon. Ultimately, Cheers was a successful episodic sitcom that was loved by millions of viewers.

The Newlyweds - Woody Boyd & Kelly Gaines

(Woody Harrelson & Jackie Swanson)