Since I'm more of a drama queen, Sara Ditta pinch hits with an overview of the state of comedy.
- K
Having fallen from popularity in the last couple years, comedies are on the decline. With only a few half-hour comedies on tap for next season, the networks are showing little effort in reviving them. Expect to see more brainless sitcoms this fall with some new gimmicks in an attempt to shake things up. Though in some cases it seems as if the networks aren't even trying anymore.
Case in point are two of ABC's new comedies The Big Day and Notes from the Underbelly. The former is based on different perspectives of a couples' wedding day, while the latter deals with the trials and tribulations of being pregnant. Neither concepts seem to have much longevity and what happens when the wedding day is over or the nine months is up is anybody's guess. Another gimmicky new ABC series is Let's Rob... about a group of people who band together in an effort to get some fast cash by attempting to rob Mick Jagger. If done right this concept sounds like it could be fun, though I must admit that I'm wary. As a network that has some of the most popular dramas on primetime, ABC might want to stick with what it does well.
On a more positive note, NBC has a much more promising line-up to add to its comedy roster which includes Scrubs and The Office. New comedy 30 Rock by Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey takes a behind-the-scenes look at a live television show not unlike SNL and featuring many of the same cast members. Its lead-in will be 20 Good Years starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as two aging men who realize they only have two good decades left in their lives. The talents of the two leads alone should keep this show entertaining, though that could be some latent Arrested Development love talking.
Speaking of Fox comedies, the network has chosen to air two conventional sit-coms after cancelling the critically acclaimed Arrested Development which was the very anti-thesis of traditional. Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett leads as part of an older married couple who just had an idealistic newlywed couple move next to them with a very different perspective on marriage in 'Til Death. Also on deck is Happy Hour about a guy who moves out of his small town and is forced to start over in Chicago when he meets and moves in with a suave neo-Rat Packer who gives him a new outlook on life.
CBS and the CW show even less faith in the genre by planning one new comedy a piece. The CBS show The Class is about a group of friends in the third grade who reunite years later. Sounds like a twist on Friends produced by one of the creators of the show. And the CW plays it the safest with a spin-off of the UPN show Girlfriends about the women who date professional football players.
So here we have a bunch of comedies for everyone with weddings, heists, babies and a Rat Packer - targeting both the guys and the girls, the young and the old. But with only one half-hour comedy, the CBS show Two and a Half Men, reaching the top twenty in ratings last television season, the question becomes whether anyone is still interested in the comedy any more. But television is a fickle business that tends to run in cycles. Just as the comedy has made comebacks in the past, it can rise just as quickly as it fell. But there needs to be more effort by the networks to make some changes before that can happen.
