Title: 4b- Sitcoms

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, with often humorous dialogue.

Such programs originated in radio, but today, sitcoms are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms

Why are we studying sitcoms?

For part B of the exam, you will be asked 2 questions.

The first one will ask how and why your chosen comedy(s) is scheduled on different channels?

The second will ask how your chosen comedy(s) offers the audience pleasure?

As sitcoms are one of television’s most dominant narrative forms which attract a huge amount of viewers, it should be easy to spot how they offer audience pleasures.

In order to be able to answer this question, you need to be able to identify what exactly is a sitcom and what makes a REALLY successful one.

Also you will need to give specific examples from the comedy.

Modern American Sitcoms

Modern British Sitcoms

So, what ingredients do we need to make a successful

sitcom?

What are the main locations for these sitcoms?

Use the same locations

Use of stereotypes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vzhlcAEmV8

Recurring characters

Minor characters will often appear regularly throughout the series

In-jokes/ running gags

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEn9YvJ3Gfg

Resolution of storylines

Beginning Middle End

Gradual story arcsCharacters and their situations

generally stay the same, however there can be some developments over time.

Copy this tableKey features of a sitcom

Example Audience pleasure

Stereotypes

Recurring characters

Narrative resolution

Running jokes