Contentious Comedy

1 Contentious Comedy: Negotiating Issues of Form, Content, and Representation in American Sitcoms of the Post-Network Era Thesis by Lisa E. Williamson Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Glasgow Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies 2008 (Submitted May 2008) © Lisa E. Williamson 2008 2 Abstract Contentious Comedy: Negotiating Issues of Form, Content, and Representation in American Sitcoms of the Post-Network Era This thesis explores the way in which the institutional changes that have occurred within the post-network era of American television have impacted on the situation comedy in terms of form, content, and representation. This thesis argues that as one of television’s most durable genres, the sitcom must be understood as a dynamic form that develops over time in response to changing social, cultural, and institutional circumstances. By providing detailed case studies of the sitcom output of competing broadcast, pay-cable, and niche networks, this research provides an examination of the form that takes into account both the historical context in which it is situated as well as the processes and practices that are unique to television. In addition to drawing on existing academic theory, the primary sources utilised within this thesis include journalistic articles, interviews, and critical reviews, as well as supplementary materials such as DVD commentaries and programme websites. This is presented in conjunction with a comprehensive analysis of the textual features of a number of individual programmes. By providing an examination of the various production and scheduling strategies that have been implemented within the post-network era, this research considers how differentiation has become key within the multichannel marketplace. With a number of channel providers competing for specific niche segments of the audience, it further demonstrates how sitcoms have become more distinctive, original, and contentious in the process. 3 Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by financial assistance from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The AHRC also subsidised my research trip to the United States, for which I am most grateful. I would like to acknowledge The UCLA Film and Television Archive in Los Angeles and The Scholar’s Room at The Museum of Television and Radio (now The Paley Center for Media) in New York City for allowing me access to their extensive collection of television programmes. This enabled me to watch hours of early American sitcoms within two very agreeable environments. My thanks are also extended to my colleagues and friends within the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow for their encouragement and observations over the course of my study. I would like to recognise specifically the contribution of my supervisors, Dr. Ian Garwood and Professor Christine Geraghty, who have provided knowledge, guidance, and motivation when necessary. Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all my family for their continued support and encouragement. To my mum, for her faith in my academic endeavours, to Kim, for listening to and understanding my frustrations, and Dylan, for providing some much needed distraction. Most important, however, is the contribution made by my partner, Tiernan Kelly, without whose unwavering love, support, and patience this project would never have been completed. Thank you for watching television with me, believing in me, and, most of all, for making me laugh. This thesis is dedicated to William Gemmell (1924-2004) 4 Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Contents iii 1. Chapter 1: Introduction 1-15 2. Chapter 2: Literature Review 16-68 3. Chapter 3: An Historical Overview of the Institutional Context of American Television and its Relationship to the Development of Situation Comedy 69-95 4. Chapter 4: NBC Case Study - ‘Must-See TV’ 96-148 5. Chapter 5: HBO Case Study - ‘It’s Not TV. It’s HBO’ 149-195 6. Chapter 6: UPN Case Study - ‘Black-Block Programming’ 196-247 7. Chapter 7: Conclusion 248-253 Appendix 1 254-256 Bibliography 257-274 5 Chapter 1 Introduction So have you heard? Sitcoms are dead. The headstone should read, ‘Situation Comedy. Born 1947. Died 2007. Thanks for the laughs.’ Ray Richmond, The Hollywood Reporter Situation comedy has been a staple of U.S. television since its inception but over the years there have been various proclamations in the media regarding the impending demise of the genre. Writing in The Hollywood Reporter in 2007, Ray Richmond identifies this as the year in which the sitcom appears to have been laid to rest. This assessment is largely attributed to the success of hybrid forms, such as the hour-long comedy drama, and the absence of any new half-hour sitcoms on NBC’s 2007 primetime fall schedule (Richmond 2007; Gough and Wallenstein 2007). According to TV critic Jon Lafayette (2007), this latter development can be understood as an unprecedented move from the network that brought The Cosby Show (1984-1992), Cheers (1982-1993), and Seinfeld (1990-1998) to the American public. Yet, it can also be viewed as the culmination of a debate that has been in circulation since the 2003-2004 television season. After experiencing a decade of success, two of NBC’s self-styled ‘must-see’ sitcoms came to an end, in the form of Friends (1994-2004) and Frasier (1993-2004), along with HBO’s critically acclaimed Sex and the City (1998- 2004).1 With reality programming dominating the ratings and almost fifty-percent less sitcoms being broadcast on network television than in 1993, Newsweek’s Marc Peyser 1 In October 2003, Newsweek ran a cover story about the problems faced by NBC on losing its top- rated sitcom and the lynchpin of its Thursday-night line-up. See M. Peyser (2003). The end of Friends was also commented on the other side of the Atlantic a year later when it’s final season was broadcast in Britain. See L. Donegan (2004). These are just two examples of the type of media discourse surrounding the end of not just Friends, but also Frasier and Sex and the City. Many others have been published in newspapers, magazines, and online blogs and fansites. This debate was not limited to American programming as the British broadcaster Channel 4 also broadcast an hour-long programme in 2006 entitled, Who Killed the Sitcom? 6 was quick to announce that ‘the future doesn’t look great for the sitcom anywhere’ (2003: 46).2 The reasons as to why this apparent decline in sitcom programming should be of interest to viewers of television, those who work in the industry, and critics and academics involved in the study of the medium, are complex. For example, Brett Mills (2005) puts forward a number of social, cultural, and institutional reasons as to why the sitcom is a significant form. Beginning with the financial rewards involved in the successful production of situation comedy, he goes on to outline how the form is used by competing television networks to target specific segments of the audience at particular points in the schedule. He also notes how sitcom is often examined for the way it reflects changes in society and for what it says about issues of representation: ‘In these ways, sitcom becomes not only representative of a culture’s identity and ideology, it also becomes one of the ways in which that culture defines and understands itself’ (9). As both Mills and David Marc (1994) note, the heightened interest in the status of the sitcom, particularly in relation to other television programming, can also be attributed to the longevity of the form: The situation comedy has proven to be the most durable of all commercial television genres. Other types of programming that have appeared to be staples of prime-time fare at various junctures in TV history have seen their heyday and faded (the western, the comedy-variety show, and the big-money quiz show among them). The sitcom, however, has remained a consistent and ubiquitous feature of prime-time network schedules since the premiere of Mary Kay and Johnny on DuMont in 1947 (Marc 1994: 11). At the time of writing it is impossible to speculate on whether the popularity of hour- long comedy dramas or reality programming will be similarly fleeting. However, it is fair to say that the sitcom has survived previous death knells. In addition to the claims that the sitcom had met its end following the departure of Friends et al., Janet Staiger notes that The Cosby Show was widely described in the mid-1980s as having ‘resurrected what appeared to be a dying genre’ (2000: 21-26). What these recurring 2 In contrast to 1993, when the four major networks broadcast forty-six sitcoms between them, the 2003-2004 season consisted of just twenty-four. This was despite the fact that niche-networks UPN and The WB had since entered the marketplace. 7 declarations fail to take into account is both the changing nature of the American broadcasting landscape and the fact that the sitcom ‘has had a widely varying history for over fifty years’ (Mittell 2004: 5). Rather than disappear from television screens, the form has undergone a series of transformations over the years in response to changing social and cultural circumstances, developments in technology and, perhaps most importantly, transformations within the U.S. television industry itself. As Richmond goes on to acknowledge, ‘[the genre] hasn’t actually expired so much as altered its DNA’ (2007: online). Since the aforementioned success of The Cosby Show, television in America has progressed from a three-network system set up to serve the mass national audience to a post-network era in which over a hundred broadcast, cable, and satellite channels compete for particular segments of the viewing public.

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