While browsing on YouTube, I was recently reminded of an American sitcom which I have fond memories of from my younger years, Newsradio, which ran for 5 seasons from 1995 to 1998. As a result of this, I decided to revisit this series. Basically, the series is about the antics of the staff of an American radio station which consist of a bunch of very eccentric characters except for the news director/station manager Dave Nelson (played by Canadian actor/comedian Dave Foley). While watching this series again, I was reminded how very hilarious and entertaining the series was. The writing of Paul Simms, the creator of this show, and his team still impressed me even after all these years. The series also had a very talented and diverse ensemble cast which I don't see much of these days on TV. After watching this series, I got very nostalgic about the sitcoms that I grew up with or spent my time watching during my young adulthood mainly those from the 1980s and 1990s. In those days, they were usually filmed before a live studio audience, featured an ensemble cast, had a great theme song with each episode lasting around 30 minutes. Sitcoms (which is short for situation comedy) were shown mostly back to back on different channels in the 1980s and 1990s which meant that you could spent half an hour every weeknight , after a long and stressful day at work, laughing at your favorite characters on TV. Which is not a bad way to de-stress considering the episodes were short and do not require long couch time for those with a busy schedule. Besides, the huge variety of sitcoms aired during those days meant that one was spoilt for choice. Another reason why sitcoms flooded the landscape of American TV in the 1980s and 1990s were the absence of any streaming services and Netflix.
Before Newsradio, I had also revisited a few of my perennial favorites, namely The Nanny (1993-1999) (starring the irrepressible Fran Drescher), Who's The Boss? (1984-1992), Will & Grace (1998-2006/ 2017-2020), the more recent ones Melissa & Joey (2010-2015) and Young & Hungry (2014-2018) and finally the older series I Dream of Jeannie (1967-1970) which was my late mother's favorite and which I did not know was produced by the very famous author, Sidney Sheldon, until after recently watching it with her :). Another show which is worth mentioning here is the British sitcom, The Coupling, which ran on the BBC from 2000 to 2004. Written by Steven Moffat. a famous TV producer and writer, whose credits include the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock, the show is quite similar to its famous American counterpart, Friends, but which I feel is often underrated.
So what is causing this resurgence in sitcoms? If you, like me, love trolling YouTube occasionally, you would have noticed snippets or even whole episodes of these old sitcoms popping up. You even have sites and chat groups promoting retro TV extolling these sitcoms on the internet. What this translates to is that these shows might have a second lease of life with younger viewers who might have not known the existence of them before. In my opinion, nothing makes good TV without excellent writing and a formidable cast (there was frequent improvisations on these shows as they were mostly filmed impromptu before a live studio audience). With the current TV landscape flooded mostly with reality and game shows (they are cheaper and easier to produce for the networks), I'm hoping the newer generation will take notice of these quality shows and the effort put into crafting them. Lately, I noticed that Netflix has been trying to revive this format by producing a small number of sitcoms. Amongst them, which I stumbled upon accidentally , is the series Pretty Smart which to my surprise starred Emily Osment who also plays the lead character in Freeform's Young & Hungry (mentioned earlier in this post). Unfortunately the series which was aired in 2021 lasted only one season before it was cancelled.
Last thoughts, I think that it is highly unlikely that sitcoms will be making a huge comeback in the present day especially because they are shot in front of a live studio audience but I'm contented if they are being replaced with more modern but well written comedy TV series like The Mindy Project (US) and Fleabag (UK) which also have a running time of around 30 minutes. Although, I can't help but feel nostalgic about them sometimes and this post is my personal homage to them.
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