British sitcom tragedy?

The only thing I dont like about comedys nowdays is - alot of them wont have a laughing audience anymore.

a sitcom is cold and boring without a laughing audience.

the viewer at home thinks - well, do I laugh at this bit? ... there's no audience/canned laughter.

no laughing audience makes comedies as dull as ditch water.

the only comedy that can get away with no laughter track (and people still love it) is only fools...
 
I think the BBC prefer a different type of Genre, for instance Dr who for the family. Back in the day we didn't have iplayer, internet or sky plus so the whole family sitting together isn't as common as the 1980's (which says a lot about things nowadays).
 
In the 70s and 80s we had Comedy Playhouse - a series of different sitcoms where the best would be developed into a series. I know Channel recently tried this idea out but BBC and ITV need to invest in new comedy ideas for the future.
 
To be fair the BBC *are* trying. They have been showcasing pilots of sitcoms and dramedies online and BBC3, which could become a series (i.e. Being Human).

We are missing the quality of the "golden era" such as OFAH, OFITG, Allo Allo, LOTSW(early days), Porridge, etc, etc. but you got to remember there was a lot of crap in between those gems too!

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing! :)
 
TV execs have fallen in love with all things american.

From the idea that the only good drama is a single-camera drama, to daily "stripping" of programmes to the top-down executive decision making, to "formats" where every episode is the same as every other episode... and so forth.

The style of presentation, the "IPP", the hype!!! and all the rest. It's straight out of the american TV business which is falling over just as the UKs is.

As for sitcom, for that to work requires a personal point of view to be allowed. I can think of "Grandmas House" from Simon Amstell as being a POV, but it's tucked away on BBC2 and filmed like a drama when it really is a studio-audience thing. i.e a sitcom
 
I honestly do not know who watches absolute tosh like Two and a Half Men or The Big Bang Theory. America do animated comedy a lot better than most places but the majority of their sitcoms are dire, yet they're spewed out to UK audiences and people watch them!

We're done with sitcoms. We can't make them any more. The ones we have are pathetic. We were good with things like Absolutely Fabulous, One Foot In The Grave, Father Ted, Red Dwarf etc etc etc. We were even good with more recent developments such as Spaced, The Peep Show and Green Wing, but we're losing it now... if not lost it.

We often come out with some comedy gems, though, like Nighty Night and Monkey Dust. We need more of this dark humour and less slap stick "Charlie Chaplin" type stuff which just is not funny any more.
 
This is the dumbest thing I have read here in a long time. You really need to be told when to laugh? Are you a trained seal, slapping your fins together in applause for the promise of a fish?:rolleyes:
 
I really enjoy Benidorm, it's the closest thing to the 'working class' style sitcoms of the '70s. 'Middle class' BBC sitcoms like Outnumbered and My Family are OK, but My family is well due for retirement.
As for modern versions, the IT crowd is great.
 
Theres plenty of sitcoms still out there but the old style family sitcom is dying out. Sitcoms usually have a very harsh audience and if one doesnt do well in its first series then its finished. Years ago a sitcom with potential was given two or three series to grow and fina an audience, a lot like OFAH that was close to the axe after series two.

The old style family, pre-watershed, canned laughter sitcoms are no longer popular and dont have mass appeal. My Family is probably the last old-style sitcome and that is close to finishing.

The genre changed with The Royle Family with more observational humour rather than old fashioned gags. The Office's success enforced this change.

And, as has already been said, why would a TV executive bother making a sitcom that lasts for 30 mins when they can have a reality/talent show get the same or better ratings for a fraction of the cost.
 
Cant understand the logic sometime.
BBC shows Not Going Out at something daft like 11pm. Thats getting close to the dead end of TV.
Though shows the flogging the dead horse My Family at 9pm
Crazy.
 
The Inbetweeners, Rev, The IT Crowd, Him & Her and Grandma's House are all decent sitcoms, not to everyone's taste but are still being made. :p

I think it's time the BBC let Andrew Jackson loose on a comedy show as his radio show on R4 was hilarious :)



In last night's episode Sophie's comment about loving her old dungaree's when looking through an old photo album was hilarious :D
 
Because that's just talking about ITV, Five and cheap digital channels. The BBC, and to some extent Channel 4, were not designed to be about producing the lowest form of programming in order to attract ratings but it's obviously how it is going.

I think the problem is that no one dare try any more. This is the same situation in music and film. The only concern is money.
 
And herein lies the problem. I don't believe there has ever been a 'golden age' of British sitcoms. At any given time there has been and will be sitcoms. Some people will love them, others will hate them, and whether you love or hate past sitcoms will inform your opinion the state of today's. I suspect that if you were to see a list of every show that could be described as a sitcom going back to, say, 1970, the number of 'good' and 'bad' ones would probably average out to roughly the same number over any given period.
 
Of course they are sit-coms!

There's a few good ones at the moment, have you seen Him & Her or The Inbetweeners, episode 1 of Whites was quite good, but a little like Rev in style
 
That's not the point of audience laughter though, it's to create an atmosphere. Some programmes do seem wrong without laughter, the Harry & Paul show for example. However most sitcoms feel fine without it, but then it depends how absurb the programme is - IT Crowd needs it, Inbetweeners doesn't

The other advantage with studio based audience sitcoms is that the actors leave a gap for a laugh
 
I suppose it can mostly applied to the commercial channels but im sure the same reason has been discussed at the BBC. The BBC is coming more and more under pressure to cut costs and what they do spend is roundly criticised. Sitcoms are going to be hit the worst as its usually only 3 hours of airtime, 6x30mins, for such high costs.
 
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