ABSTRACT
In my consideration of commercials above, I had occasion to allude to Bertolt Brecht in that unlikely context. I must invoke him once again-perhaps unadvisedly-in my explication of style in yet another lowly television context: the genre of the situation comedy. fie sitcom is one of television’s founding genres-having existed on radio before making the transition to television, much like the soap opera. And, like the soap opera as well, it is a genre said to be in decline.1 Within the past ten years, however, it has radically reinvented itself and that reinvention has largely occurred within the realm of style. fierefore, I feel it is not wholly inappropriate to compare the contemporary situation comedy with Brecht’s revolutionary work in the 1920s and 1930s. And, if I may paraphrase his notes to the opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930), I contend that the modern sitcom is the televisual sitcom.2 Many say the sitcom is already dead-killed oTh by reality television and the YouTubian attention span of network television’s few remaining viewers.3 fie genre’s ratings have been disastrously low for several years, and the writers strike during the 2007-8 season pushed them lower still. In the two seasons before the strike, the Nielsen ratings’ top-20 programs included just one lonely sitcom-the critically reviled Two and a Half Men (2003-). Looking back over the genre’s various peaks in the ratings, we can see that in 1978-9 all of the top ten programs were sitcoms and, exactly one decade later (1988-9), 16 out of the top 25 were sitcoms-the highest sitcom saturation in the history of U.S. television.4 fie current low ratings only tell part of the story. Within the television industry, there is a pessimism about the genre. Larry Gelbart, who developed the long-running sitcom, M*A*S*H (1972-83), expressed it succinctly, “It is just over.”5 Perhaps the most reliable indication that a genre is becoming moribund is the frequency with which it is ridiculed, whether gently or not. Some of the more notable parodies since the 1990s include Weezer’s cannibalization of Happy Days for the Spike Jonze-directed music video, Buddy Holly (1994, available on TVStyleBook.com) and a 2009 titles sequence of The Simpsons in which the family appears as if they were in several iconic sitcoms, presenting a virtual history of the genre in just a few seconds.6 A shot based on The Honeymooners (1955-6)7 is rendered in black-and-white and casts Homer as Ralph Kramden, Marge as Alice Kramden and Bart as Ed Norton (Figure 5.1). fie sitcom, Scrubs
(2001-), engaged in genre parody in a manner that is especially signiftcant for the study of television style. In the episode, “My Life in Four Cameras” (February 15, 2005), young doctor, J.D. (Zach BraTh), suThers through a diffcult day in Sacred Heart Hospital. When, in voiceover, he muses, “fiere are moments when we all wish life was more like a sitcom,” he is instantly transported into one (Figures 5.2-5.3). fie camera
zooms back to reveal video cameras on pedestals, shooting J.D. on a hospital set, with a visible lighting grid (Figure 5.4). fie voiceover continues, “J.D.’s sitcom fantasy will be back aer these messages.” And a fade to black takes us into a commercial break. Once the episode resumes, Scrubs’ diegetic world becomes the sitcom fantasy world-with a laugh track, “bad” sitcom jokes and the announcement, “J.D.’s sitcom fantasy is ftlmed in front of a live studio audience.”8 fiis episode of Scrubs is a particularly telling parody because it goes beyond the more obvious targets: the sitcom’s self-congratulatory laugh track, its conventions of plot and dialogue, and its presumed complicity in sexist, racist, and classist ideology (e.g., in Leave It to Beaver [1957-63] and Father Knows Best [1954-60]). As indicated by the episode’s title, “My Life in Four Cameras,” Scrubs here addresses and deconstructs the sitcom’s standard mode of production: the multiple-camera set-up.9 And it’s only able to do so because Scrubs’ standard mode of production is not multiple-camera. Rather, it relies on single-camera production.10 fie multiple-camera mode that was obtained in 1978 and 1988 when the sitcom was a dominant television force is currently being challenged by a new crop of narrative comedies that aggressively implement the single-camera shooting style. Scrubs is one such comedy. During the 2006-7 season, NBC strategically grouped four of these on fiursday nights when My Name Is Earl (2005-), The Oce (2005-), Scrubs, and 30 Rock (2006-) huddled together-striving to regain the prestige, if not the unattainable ratings, of NBC’s blockbuster, “mustsee” television night of years past. Scrubs’ parody of the sitcom’s mode of production crystallizes the genre’s hyperconsciousness of the cra practices of four-camera production and a perceived need to transcend that mode of production to evolve the genre. As Scrubs producer Bill Lawrence explains,
What we’re trying to do in the middle of it [the multiple-camera parody], even though we’re doing sitcommy stories and sitcommy things, is ultimately have a great experience for the fans. Which means we’re still writing funny jokes. So I hope people will like it on two levels-hopefully they’ll watch it and laugh because we took time to write really funny stuTh, and on some level be enjoying the fact that we’re tweaking the format a little bit.11
