Comedies with Continuity and Canon

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Pauline !!!

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Many comedic shows tend to ignore continuity and canon because it gets in the way with writing and making joke... or so I heard. And they get slides because the shows are not supposed to be taking serious in the first place. Comedy for the sake of comedy with no explination whatsoever.

But... are there comedy shows that do have continuity and canon? Where what happens in the end of a previous episode stays that way and if referenced in later episodes? I kinda expect this stuff in live-action comedy because the actors playing the characters age, so creators may not have a choice. Could this also work for animation, as well?

One thing I like about Family Guy is that Peter Griffin changes jobs and sticks with them. He went from working in a toy company to a fisherman to a worker for the company that makes his favorite beer. This contrast Homer Simpson, where despite taking many jobs and careers in toher places, he is still seen working(or slacking off) at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, nad has got completely fired, despite his many blunder(of course, he's lucky that mr. Burns can't remember his name).

I could also mention Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, and George Jetson.
 
Hmm, well I'm trying to think off of the top of my head. Would a comedic anime count? Like Shin Chan for example, their house exploded in one episode and in the next few episodes, the small episode portions were set on finding and adjusting to a new house, which stayed as their permanent residence for awhile (or the whole show? I haven't seen all of the series).

For a cartoon, I'm not sure how well Foster's Home would fit in this catergory. On one hand, you do see lots of past references and characters from previous episodes in later ones, on the other, many imaginary characters are used as one-shot pun jokes and are never seen again, even in the background.

There was also Freakazoid, which was planned to have some continuity in it (With Freakazoid's telepathic powers), The Venture Brothers and Xiaolin Showdown, but I don't know if it's because these shows are also part-action, and action shows usually have tons of continuity to it.
 
I miss the toy factory days, but I agree. MacFarlane mentions this on a commentary (forget which one) as something he wanted to do because real people often change jobs over the years, and it opens up the character to more possibilities than if you just kept him in the same job for the entire show.
 
Futurama falls into the category of having decent continuity. Infact several stories would be foreshadowed long enough before they came to light:

1. Even way back in the Pilot, you could see Nibbler's shadow just before Fry falls into the cryogenic tube, with later flashbacks containing future Fry's shadow. Adding to this, Tales of Anthology 1 has a segment showing what would happen if Fry didn't fall into the tube, and you can see that Nibbler's shadow isn't seen.

2. Relating to the aforementioned ToA 1 segment, it's shown that if Fry didn't fall into the tube, the universe would cease to exist. The reasoning for that is revealed in "Roswell That Ends Well".
 
Invader Zim was a comedy cartoon with many overlapping story arcs (well, starting in season 2 anyway). It's certainly possible for continuity in comedy.

South Park is in the middle. Things that actually affect the characters will end up in continuity (Kenny dying in season 5, Garrison's sex change, etc.) However, if a giant Barbara Streisand robot destroys the entire town, you can bet everything will be peachy keen in the next episode. A lot of South Park episodes will also feature nods to previous episodes. ("Cartman is grounded for trying to exterminate the Jews last week...") Of course, bear in mind this is also a show where the kids never age and Stan has had multiple Christmases while in 4th grade.
 
Ah, someone beat me to the Venture Brothers. X) Uh, the Tick, last I recall, had some continuity; Freakazoid had a little (as someone said further up there somewhere) er... Dexter's Laboratory had some, as did the Powerpuff Girls. Gintama has mad continuity.

Hmm, yeah it seems the action/comedies usually have some continuity to them.
 
I've mentioned this before, but The Simpsons seems to engage in what I like to call selective continuity. That is, referencing things only when it is convenient to them for the sake of a joke or such. Like when an episode starts off with Burns' Casino being demolished, and Lisa asks why they even bothered to move it when they moved the rest of the town if it was going to be torn down anyways (the town being moved, of course, is a reference to the episode where Homer becomes sanitation commissioner).
 
Frisky Dingo has a lot of continuity, to the point that missing even one episode would render the show nearly incomprehensible. I think that FD's one of the very few comedies to not just have heavy continuity but also an ongoing storyline that directly carries into each episode.
 
Continuity isn't that hard to find in a comedy show, most are bound to have recurring characters and so forth. It's finding one with an actual story and plot development that's extremely difficult.
 
Wow, that's kind of a broad generalization, isn't it? Just because a show is packed with humor and doesn't have one ongoing plot that extends across several episodes and seasons doesn't mean that there's no story or development.
 
Mission Hill, as short as the show was, did have some things that affected following episodes (like the waterbed store closing down, leaving Andy unemployed).
 
The Life & Times of Tim had continuity with callbacks to things that happened in previous episodes, plus things that happened in previous episodes would pay off later on, like the events of 'Monday Night Confession' would have disasterous consequences in a later episode where Tim teaches a Sunday bible class.
 
I've watched a lot and the only examples I can think of are either live-action or anime. I guess technically Family Guy has development in that Peter changes jobs every so often, but I wouldn't say that's a story or anything.
 
Watch Futurama or King of the Hill once in a while. There's plenty of continuity and development in those.

Anyway, I don't get why ongoing continuity is so important to some people. Is a show somehow less entertaining if the characters' experiences don't span across several episodes or it hits the rest button at the start of each new episode? Why is ongoing continuity such a big deal? It's OK if a show has it but IMO it's not needed to make a good show.



We're discussing comedies. Generator Rex is an action show.
 
The thing is, comedies and dramas are 2 completely different beasts and therefore should not be judged by the exact same standards. Episodic dramatic series are more reliant on continuity than comedies are. If each episode is a self contained story, like Family Guy or South Park, then continuity isn't a major factor when it comes to storytelling; they can just hit the reset button and everything is back to normal by the following episode, as opposed to a continuing saga such Avatar, the Last Airbender, in which each new episode picks up where the previous one left off.

When dealing with self contained comedies, a certain amount of continuity with in the series is an OK treat, but it's certainly not required to tell a good story. I agree with Silverstar that some fans place too much emphasis on continuity when it comes to certain shows.
 
The Venture Bros. and Frisky Dingo say hi. A number of comedy cartoons have some amount of continuity and others have development over time.





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