What is your take on why ...
Question: What is your take on why sitcoms have disappeared from the television landscape? I get that they don't win awards and don't get a lot of watercooler talk for the most part, but a show like
The King of Queens was at times last year the top-rated comedy on any network, and
House of Payne opened to huge numbers on TBS. As much as I love
The Office,
30 Rock,
How I Met Your Mother and others, why have the networks abandoned a genre that doesn't appear lost in terms of viewer numbers?
Answer: That's a much bigger question than I can easily address in this column, but it boils down to the cyclical and cynical nature of the industry. It hasn't been that long since
Friends was a phenom, not to mention
Raymond keeping CBS afloat in its quieter way. But it has been a while since a new sitcom was both a critical and popular smash, feeding a perception that the old-fashioned sitcom (live audience, laugh track) was no longer in vogue and the quirkier, single-camera comedy was the way to go, although with no guarantee of mass appeal. Add to that the fact that ABC has never found the next
Roseanne or
Tim Allen, that the networks seem willing to commit only one night a week at most to the comedy format, that reality shows have boomed and we're in a golden age of TV drama, and it's just a bad time to be a TV comedy writer, especially if you're from the school of classic tradition. But as you noted, the numbers clearly indicate that there's a sizable audience that still looks to TV comedy as comfort food, even when it's undercooked like the amateurish
House of Payne. Comedy isn't dead, but it sure is hurting.
