This literature review explores television sitcom genre of the situation comedy or sitcom. It will look at the changes in style and sensibility since the 1950s, how it has evolved and also how it has stayed the same.
It can be comfortably stated that the sitcom is ‘arguably the most durable genre’ on television (Edgerton and Ross, 2008, p9). Although there are arguments about the variations between different particular sitcoms themselves, Brett Mills (Mills, 2012) gives an example of a definition of what constitutes a “classic” or “traditional” sitcom.
‘A half-hour series focused on episodes involving recurrent characters within the same premise. That is, each week we encounter the same people in essentially the same setting. The episodes are finite: what happens in a given episode is generally ‘closed off, explained, reconciled, solved at the end of the half hour’ (Mills, 2012).
The classic sitcom is also usually filmed before a live studio audience. A successful example of this is I love Lucy, which centred on the …show more content…
Like Taxi and Are you Being Served?, it is set within a workplace. However this office is the subject of a documentatry (or mockumentary) of the inner workings of a paper supply company and its employees. Each episode is filed with hand held camera shots and the concept of the fourth wall is completely disregarded. The same techniques are utilised within the ‘The American Office’ an US adaptation of ‘The Office’. In both programmes, one-to-one interviews with the ‘crew’ filming the documentary are featured heavily, and characters often glace at the camera. This is particularly evident in ‘The American Office’ with the character of Jim Halpet and his British counterpart Tim Canterbury. His head-shaking and eye-brow raising directly to the camera is the programme’s way of highlighting ridiculous situations or ignorant comments that other characters are making. (Detweiler
It can be comfortably stated that the sitcom is ‘arguably the most durable genre’ on television (Edgerton and Ross, 2008, p9). Although there are arguments about the variations between different particular sitcoms themselves, Brett Mills (Mills, 2012) gives an example of a definition of what constitutes a “classic” or “traditional” sitcom.
‘A half-hour series focused on episodes involving recurrent characters within the same premise. That is, each week we encounter the same people in essentially the same setting. The episodes are finite: what happens in a given episode is generally ‘closed off, explained, reconciled, solved at the end of the half hour’ (Mills, 2012).
The classic sitcom is also usually filmed before a live studio audience. A successful example of this is I love Lucy, which centred on the …show more content…
Like Taxi and Are you Being Served?, it is set within a workplace. However this office is the subject of a documentatry (or mockumentary) of the inner workings of a paper supply company and its employees. Each episode is filed with hand held camera shots and the concept of the fourth wall is completely disregarded. The same techniques are utilised within the ‘The American Office’ an US adaptation of ‘The Office’. In both programmes, one-to-one interviews with the ‘crew’ filming the documentary are featured heavily, and characters often glace at the camera. This is particularly evident in ‘The American Office’ with the character of Jim Halpet and his British counterpart Tim Canterbury. His head-shaking and eye-brow raising directly to the camera is the programme’s way of highlighting ridiculous situations or ignorant comments that other characters are making. (Detweiler