Ok, I'm sure there might have been much discussion of the question 'Who Killed The British Sitcom?'. Aside from the obvious answer being a national obsession with reality TV (suggesting a HUGE lack of imagination) I don't think the sitcom is dead. Ok, so there are less of them, and those there are rarely conform to traditional sitcom structure. But they have, however become more contemporary. Some of these series- The Office, Spaced, Black Books, Nighty Night, Human Remains, Nathan Barley, Marion & Geoff, Green Wing, Directors Commentary- might have cult status, but in my humble opinion-
they're f*cking brilliant!
Hope there are others out there continuing to write. And plenty who want to produce our work.
The trouble with that "who killed the british sitcom" was that it was mistitled, in the end the sitcom is alive & well, but fragmented amongst the audience share. What it should have been titled was "Who killed the prime time pre-watershed sitcom that the whole family could sit down & enjoy together sitcom?" I can't think why they didn't go with that snappy title...
Ahh, widespread access to broadband and yer whole video-on-demand thing will mean that TV companies will be able to broadcast niche stuff to niche markets dead cheaply. While getting better advertising revenues cos internet advertising is taking over from TV advertising, what with PVRs encouraging people to skip TV ads and stuff.
So yes, the end of mass-market TV, and more offbeat stuff for us to enjoy! Everyone's a winner!
She said, having had 8,000 coffees already this morning.
Fair point. I was exposed to a lot of comedy as I was growing up, and I suppose that whole idea of the family sitting and watching TV together exists much less. Unless parents want to insist their kids get off the playstation, come downstairs so they can all have a nice cup of tea and sit around to watch 'Celebrity Love Island' together. Those family sitcoms were amazing, but looking back, aren't they a bit cosy for modern culture? In my opinion, what the British do best is darkness, nitty-gritty, cynicism, sarcasm, awkward realism- something no one else can do as well as us. That's what I want to see.
Fran - its easy to fall into the trap of saying comedies in years gone by were all brilliant & todays are all dross. Remember there was an awful lot of dross back in the day that we just dont remember now eg 'Father dear father', 'and mother makes 5', 'Bless this house' roq - yes they will be able to transmit the goods very cheaply, but they still need to make it & I can see production values dropping through the floor (even more than they already have with digital telly)
But good or bad comedy aside, broadcasting companies and channels are commissioning something like 90% less sitcoms than 30 years ago. But why? It can't be that nobody's writing anything. Surely there's bucket-loads of undiscovered talent out there- I know it's a ridiculously difficult game to break into, but there's gotta be something out there. And there must be a market for comedy. Although I guess most writers would prefer that their series has cult status rather than commercial- it means they are alternative, contemporary. But everyone loves to laugh. So why? Any ideas?
Originally posted by Jim G: Fran - its easy to fall into the trap of saying comedies in years gone by were all brilliant & todays are all dross. Remember there was an awful lot of dross back in the day that we just dont remember now eg 'Father dear father', 'and mother makes 5', 'Bless this house' roq - yes they will be able to transmit the goods very cheaply, but they still need to make it & I can see production values dropping through the floor (even more than they already have with digital telly)
Aww!!! I liked Father Dear Father and Bless This house. I find the braodcast schedules are the problem. I have no opportunity to get into the new sitcoms because they are all on after my beddie-bies time. I only have sattelite, no terestrial ariel, so I can't record them when other family members want to watch something else when I'm in bed. (No I'm NOT 6! Just work earlies)
