Question: Now that Joey is DOA on its return, again we have the debate about the death of what we know as the traditional sitcom. My question is, was Joey that bad? No, it wasn't as topical as Sex and the City or as well written as Frasier, but Joey never set out to be either of those shows. It was a sitcom with some basic, familiar characters and uncomplicated story lines. Twenty years ago shows like Growing Pains and Who's the Boss? were top-10 hits, and I think Joey compares in format to these shows. Do you think that Joey was a substandard version of the traditional sitcom, or have we so evolved due to clever writing that it has all but destroyed the basic sitcom? A show like Frasier or Seinfeld at its peak only comes along once in a decade, so if that has become our benchmark for comedy, of course anything else is going to pale in comparison. On a related note, can you envison a day when the comedy categories in the Emmys will become obsolete now that, by default, noncomedy shows ...
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