Television Sitcom

Despite its global reach, longstanding popularity, and immense profitability, sitcom has been repeatedly neglected in theoretical work on television and media. This book demonstrates that this lack needs to be sorely addressed, by dragging analysis of sitcom up to date, with a wealth of contemporary examples, a range of new approaches to the genre, and examination of the roles sitcom and comedy play within society. The book takes as its starting point the variety of ways in which sitcom has traditionally been explored. A chapter on genre examines the history and development of sitcom, and the institutional structures which produce it. There is also analysis of differences between sitcoms produced in a range of countries, and what happens when a programme gets sold abroad and remade. A chapter on representation explores the debates about the ways in which sitcom chooses who to make jokes about and why, and whether this matters. And a chapter on performance argues that this is a vital, and underexplored, aspect of sitcom's funniness, and interrogates the ways in which comic actors make their performance funny. With specific case studies on Will and Grace, The Office, and The Cosby Show, as well as analysis of a broad range of contemporary and historical examples throughout, this book will be of interest to students of sitcom and comedy, as well as those of television and popular culture.

This new edition of Writing Television Sitcoms features the essential information every would-be teleplay writer needs to know to break into the business, including: - Updated examples from contemporary shows such as 30 Rock, The Office and South Park - Shifts in how modern stories are structured - How to recognize changes in taste and censorship - The reality of reality television - How the Internet has created series development opportunities - A refined strategy for approaching agents and managers - How pitches and e-queries work - or don't - The importance of screenwriting competitions

This volume demonstrates that television comedies are conduits through which we might resist normative ways of thinking about cultural crises. By drawing on Gramscian notion of crisis and the understanding that crises are overlapping, interconnected, and mutually constitutive, the essays in this collection demonstrate that situation comedies do more than make us laugh; they also help us understand the complexities of our social world’s moments of crisis. Each chapter takes up the televisual representation of a modern cultural crisis in a contemporary sitcom and is grounded in the extensive body of literature that suggests that levity is a powerful mechanism to make sense of and cope with these difficult cultural experiences. Divided into thematic sections that highlight crises of institutions and systems, identity and representation, and speculation and futurism, this book will interest scholars of media and cultural studies, political economy, communication studies, and humor studies.

"Lights, Laughter, Action: A Comprehensive Guide to Writing a TV Sitcom" is your ultimate companion on the journey to crafting comedic gold for the small screen. Whether you're a seasoned writer or a budding humorist, this book offers invaluable insights, practical advice, and insider tips from industry professionals. From developing unforgettable characters to pitching your sitcom to networks, each chapter is packed with actionable strategies and creative exercises to help you bring your sitcom vision to life. Get ready to tickle funny bones and leave audiences roaring with laughter as you embark on your sitcom-writing adventure.

The sitcom has proved to be one of the most enduring genres in British TV history, reflecting the social changes and national concerns of the time, and has brought many memorable and much-loved characters to our screens. Who can forget iconic figures like Frank Spencer, Basil Fawlty and Reggie Perrin or the antics of the Trotters, the Meldrews and the staff of Grace Brothers' department store, to name but a few? The 1,000 questions in The British TV Sitcom Quiz book will test your knowledge of your favourite series from yesteryear to the current day. From Steptoe and Son, Dad's Army and Porridge to Absolutely Fabulous, The Office, and My Family, this book is bulging with facts that will refresh your memory and help you to recapture some of those magical moments in situation comedy. With a fitting foreword by Brian Murphy from the hilarious ‘70s TV show George and Mildred and Nicholas Parsons OBE, this is a must-have book for all sitcom fans.

In this new Routledge Television Guidebook, Jeremy G. Butler studies our love-hate relationship with the durable sitcom, analyzing the genre’s position as a major media artefact within American culture and providing a historical overview of its evolution in the USA. Everyone loves the sitcom genre; and yet, paradoxically, everyone hates the sitcom, too. This book examines themes of gender, race, ethnicity, and the family that are always at the core of humor in our culture, tracking how those discourses are embedded in the sitcom’s relatively rigid storytelling structures. Butler pays particular attention to the sitcom’s position in today’s post-network media landscape and sample analyses of Sex and the City, Black-ish, The Simpsons, and The Andy Griffith Show illuminate how the sitcom is infused with foundational American values. At once contemporary and reflective, The Sitcom is a must-read for students and scholars of television, comedy, and broader media studies, and a great classroom text.

This is the first anthology that examines the TV sitcom in terms of its treatment of gender, family, class, race, and ethnic issues. The selections range from early shows such as I Remember Mama (George Lipsitz’s “Why Remember Mama? The Changing Face of a Woman’s Narrative”) to the more recent Roseanne (Kathleen Rowe Karlyn’s “Roseanne: Unruly Woman as a Domestic Goddess”). The volume also looks unflinchingly at major controversies; for example, the NAACP boycott of the stereotypical yet wildly popular Amos ‘n’ Andy and the queer reading of Laverne and Shirley. These diverse essays constitute a veritable history of postwar American mores. Some are classic, some forgotten, but all indicate the importance of considering text and subtext (social, historic, industrial) in the critical study of television. A final chapter by Joanne Morreale bids sitcoms adieu with the “cultural spectacle of Seinfeld’s last episode.”