I talked about this some last week, mainly regarding the TV show Psych, but have to say that in an even broader sense, I've never been one to care much for sitcom romances. I know that probably makes me a "communist" in some people's eyes, but for some strange reason, I watch sitcoms for one reason and one reason only - laughter. If I wanted to watch romance, I'd tune into a drama, a soap opera, or a local bar by the name of Gettin' Lucky Tonight.
The tricky part about integrating a heavy-duty romance into a sitcom is that romances take a great deal of time to develop on screen and sitcoms only run for between 20 and 25 minutes (excluding commercials) per episode. If a romance is to be integrated, the writers and actors want to provide a somewhat believable time-table for things to progress between the two actors and like I said, this takes time. Unfortunately, this process typically dominates the show until the couple appears to be believably content and in love. This, at least temporarily, tends to transform the sitcom from a comedy to a romantic dramedy, where the laughs are fewer and further between and the drama becomes more frequent. So it's a very tricky balancing act to both integrate a big-time romance into a sitcom and keep the laughs coming at their usual rate.
The show Seinfeld was pretty masterful at this process. While, sure, the show included several relationships, they were usually short-lived, and used more for laughs than anything else. I can't recall a single relationship which dominated the show's time and took away from the laughs. Friends, meanwhile, went down the soap opera road with Ross and Rachel, lost me as a viewer along the way, and I never returned. Laughs were still to be had during this time, but they were so scattered and the lesser of the writers' focus, the show wound up feeling uneven. With the show being a sitcom, the writers obviously knew they had to put forth some jokes in these episodes, yet they often times felt forced due to the main focus being on Ross and Rachel's relationship.
This is the problem with sitcoms which contain mostly single characters. In a show like Modern Family, the relationships and families have already been established, so while there will be some bumps in the road as there are in every relationship, there won't be the soap opera feel and process of breaking up and getting back together again every other episode. I mean, I get it - singles go out and date, get seriously involved, often times in hopes that they'll get married. However, is there really that need to dominate a comedy's tone and plot with elements we'd often find in a soap opera? In my opinion, this is what ruins many sitcoms. Perhaps it's just a last resort for many writers. Once they've reached their wit's end, they try to elongate the show's success just a little bit more with a soap opera before finally calling quits. In any case, I kind of wish sitcoms would stick to what they do best, which is make people laugh, and if and when the writers run out of ideas, they end the show on a high note rather than attempt to transform Friends into The Young and the Restless.
The tricky part about integrating a heavy-duty romance into a sitcom is that romances take a great deal of time to develop on screen and sitcoms only run for between 20 and 25 minutes (excluding commercials) per episode. If a romance is to be integrated, the writers and actors want to provide a somewhat believable time-table for things to progress between the two actors and like I said, this takes time. Unfortunately, this process typically dominates the show until the couple appears to be believably content and in love. This, at least temporarily, tends to transform the sitcom from a comedy to a romantic dramedy, where the laughs are fewer and further between and the drama becomes more frequent. So it's a very tricky balancing act to both integrate a big-time romance into a sitcom and keep the laughs coming at their usual rate.
The show Seinfeld was pretty masterful at this process. While, sure, the show included several relationships, they were usually short-lived, and used more for laughs than anything else. I can't recall a single relationship which dominated the show's time and took away from the laughs. Friends, meanwhile, went down the soap opera road with Ross and Rachel, lost me as a viewer along the way, and I never returned. Laughs were still to be had during this time, but they were so scattered and the lesser of the writers' focus, the show wound up feeling uneven. With the show being a sitcom, the writers obviously knew they had to put forth some jokes in these episodes, yet they often times felt forced due to the main focus being on Ross and Rachel's relationship.
This is the problem with sitcoms which contain mostly single characters. In a show like Modern Family, the relationships and families have already been established, so while there will be some bumps in the road as there are in every relationship, there won't be the soap opera feel and process of breaking up and getting back together again every other episode. I mean, I get it - singles go out and date, get seriously involved, often times in hopes that they'll get married. However, is there really that need to dominate a comedy's tone and plot with elements we'd often find in a soap opera? In my opinion, this is what ruins many sitcoms. Perhaps it's just a last resort for many writers. Once they've reached their wit's end, they try to elongate the show's success just a little bit more with a soap opera before finally calling quits. In any case, I kind of wish sitcoms would stick to what they do best, which is make people laugh, and if and when the writers run out of ideas, they end the show on a high note rather than attempt to transform Friends into The Young and the Restless.
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