Sitcoms

I don't know why I haven't seen it. Maybe because I've been so captivated by some of the really good drama being produced these days. Maybe because so many dramas have such a high level of humour. Whatever it was, as I looked through google calendar to chronicle my television shows, I realize I have very few 30 minute spots, the length of time that sitcoms take up, in the calendar. I could watch Nick at Night and revel in my own personal glory days of sitcoms, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Roseanne, The Cosby Show, A Different World or turn to TV Land for shows like Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons, All In The Family or, I can take you back to Nick at Night when I was 12, the first time I could watched tv with a free hand and picked shows like Dick van Dyke, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, My Three Sons... in fact, if it was black and white or had Lucy in the title, I watched it voraciously. I consumed sitcoms like peanut butter m&ms - by the pound bagfuls and without thought or effort. Maybe I should be ashamed, but I'm not.

Now, sitcoms are so sparse, I forgot they were even part of the television viewing landscape. I forgot, that is, until today, when I was forced to watch 'Til Death, Brad Garrett's new sitcom dealing with marriage, and Happy Hour, a new sitcom that looks at the lives of singles in NY through the eyes of a guy from Minnesota or Wisconsin or someplace with an accent the character didn't sport. I lamented that we lost Arrested Development to these shows, and will weep the bitter tears of rejection if either of these shows easily last to next season. I can't say we don't have excellent sitcoms airing. Who can watch The Office, Everybody Hates Chris, My Name Is Earl, Scrubs, or even How I Met Your Mother without at least one good laugh. To some of us, a laugh is just a name away. Barnie. Michael Scott. Dwight Shrute. Julius (although just saying "Chris's Dad" make us laugh as well). Anyway, if you watch these shows, you know what I mean.

Of course, people are experimenting with shows and the boundaries that comedy gets to push. The internet darling (at least for a little while) Nobody's Watching is one attempt at sitcomedy, following a normal sitcom format in an abnormal way. It is interesting, but it doesn't "bring it" like FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This has been one of the funniest new shows, mainly because of the ridiculous situations the writers(who are the characters) put the characters into and the issues they deal with. Well, not just the issues, but how they deal with those issues. Never in a healthy way, but it is right for them. They are not healthy. They continually make poor choices and they remind us of friends we know who still haven't figured it out. But on the Sunny crew, it's funny.

I look forward to the healthy resurgence of sitcoms. Tina Fey's 30 Rock seems promising. Even if it's not, I am glad that the chaff shows are sifted out from the rest, culled and branded "no good" and sent to languish in some version of Bad Sitcom Hell. And for me, that is good.