The Sitcom

For roughly the past five years we’ve been warned that the end of the traditional sitcom is nigh. The mid-2000s saw the final episodes of three long-running sitcoms: Friends and Frasier in 2004, and Everybody Loves Raymond in 2005. These were traditional, multi-camera sitcoms with decade-long runs. Will and Grace also ended an eight-year run in 2006. These were sad times for dedicated fans of the shows and for the networks for whom they had been ratings winners, but they probably wouldn’t have provoked whispers of the Demise of the Sitcom without the premiere in 2005 of The Office.

A little background: the word sitcom comes from “situation comedy.” The sitcom is a half-hour show that aims to be funny. Famous examples include I Love Lucy, Cheers, The Wonder Years, Seinfeld, and the shows mentioned in the first paragraph. Traditional sitcoms are three-camera (now multi-camera) sitcoms. This means several cameras are filming each take of the scene at the same time from different angles. In a movie or a television drama, there would only be one camera, and the scene would be shot many times from multiple angles.

One of the reasons the sitcom uses multiple cameras is because they have been traditionally filmed in front of a “live studio audience.” Because of this, sitcoms are also often contained to a few familiar sets, none of which are fully closed. The fourth wall of each set has the cameras and the audience. This is why you’ll always see the set from the same direction each time—the last wall doesn’t exist. Traditional sitcoms also have a laugh track. (These traits describe the average sitcom; obviously, there are some exceptions.)

The Office, an American remake of a British show, broke the mold of the traditional sitcom and became very popular. Had it only done one of those two things, it wouldn't have been a problem. The Office is an example of a single-camera sitcom. It follows the filming structure of a movie or television drama rather than a traditional sitcom. It films without a studio audience and airs without a laugh track. It defied the rules of Hollywood, but it worked.

So naturally, the industry decided it needed to change the rules. Traditional multi-camera sitcoms became less common, and single-camera sitcoms were more likely to be produced. People started saying the End of the Sitcom was near, and new traditional sitcoms that were expected to do well were hailed as potential saviors from this terrible fate. (In 2007, this came from the uniting of Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton in Back to You, but it did not bring the revival the industry hoped it would.)

Still, much as these rumors keep batting about, things in the sitcom world seem to have settled down. Five traditional sitcoms have debuted so far in the 2010-11 season so far on network television. Two single-camera sitcoms will be premiering over the next few months. It looks like, despite the rumors, the single-camera sitcom will not be killing the traditional sitcom anytime soon. Instead, they’ll just have to learn to peacefully coexist, despite all of their differences.

Which, given that that’s the distilled plot of many sitcoms, is rather fitting.