Department of English and American Studies the Coexistence Of

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Anna Pirogova The Coexistence of Postmodernism and New Sincerity in the Modern-Day Sitcom as Exemplified by the TV Series Community Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D 2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature 1 Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Community .............................................................................................................................................. 6 A Brief History of the American Sitcom ................................................................................................. 9 The 1950s – 1960s ............................................................................................................................... 9 The 1970s .......................................................................................................................................... 12 The 1980s – 1990s ............................................................................................................................. 13 The 2000s-Now ................................................................................................................................. 16 Single Camera vs. Multi-Camera Sitcoms ........................................................................................ 19 Postmodernism ...................................................................................................................................... 22 Intertextuality .................................................................................................................................... 26 Parody, Pastiche and Homage ....................................................................................................... 29 Intertextuality and Community ...................................................................................................... 32 Metafiction ........................................................................................................................................ 46 Metafiction and Community .......................................................................................................... 49 Irony ...................................................................................................................................................... 56 New Sincerity ........................................................................................................................................ 60 Community and New Sincerity .......................................................................................................... 65 The Importance of the Audience ....................................................................................................... 69 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 75 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................... 77 Primary Materials .............................................................................................................................. 77 Secondary Materials .......................................................................................................................... 77 Table of Figures..................................................................................................................................... 86 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. 87 Anotace .................................................................................................................................................. 87 2 Introduction Television has had encountered difficulties with being accepted as an art form. Even in the entertainment industry television has mostly been viewed as a ‘lower’ form of performance art. For an actor, director or a writer TV used to be the last place one would want to end up at. It was considered, by many, a place for those who did not make it in film. According to some, TV, by default, could never come close to movies in terms of creative expression. As Andre Bazin said in 1953, “the television picture will always retain its mediocre legibility” (Butler, 2). It was not, and still is not by many, considered an art form. However, the way of thinking has started to change. The rapid growth of cable channels and streaming services opened the doors for new, innovative creators and show runners. As the competition became stronger, the need for original content forced the executives to take more chances on projects that, more likely than not, would have never been greenlit twenty years ago. This led to what is now commonly referred to as “The Second Golden Age of Television” (Lawson). As far as the academic interest in television as an art form, a huge progress has been made over the last couple of decades. The number of books, articles and research papers written on TV has been rapidly growing. Many prestige universities, not only film schools, are offering courses in TV studies, at times even dedicating a whole course to one TV series, proving that it is worthy of serious examination. There is, however, one genre of TV that is still not considered to be up to par, the sitcom. It is arguably one of the most criticized genres on television. In one episode of Seinfeld, arguably one of the best and undoubtably one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, the character of George tries to attract a woman’s attention by not so subtly mentioning that he 3 is developing a comedy pilot for NBC. After asking him in a shocked and disgusted manner: “a sitcom? How can you write that crap?” the woman and her girlfriend leave the bar laughing, leaving poor humiliated George alone in the bar in the position quite a few sitcom writers, directors and creators have occupied before (S4/EP9, 21:50). What might be the reason for that? TV has often been criticized for repetitiveness in terms of style as well as storylines. Sitcom as a genre has taken, perhaps, the biggest hit for that, and, at times, not undeservingly so. If you thinks about your favorite sitcoms, how many of them are about a group of young friends or a family? How many have a laugh track? In how many of them do characters frequently go the same bar or a coffee shop? It is very likely that multiple shows one could think of fit these categories. It is important to mention that it does not automatically make any sitcom that follows these trajectories a copy/paste of each other. Some of the most acclaimed sitcoms ever created have a laugh track or focus on friendships. However, it makes the genre of sitcom repetitive on paper. From the sociopolitical point of view, sitcoms are often criticized for their clichéd, one dimensional characters. A stupid pretty girl, a jock, a nerd, a wise older character, a rebellious teen, a lovable fool, a jokester, a control freak, etc. The majority of sitcoms have at least one of these characters. Unfortunately, what they are criticized for is exactly what makes them valuable to the industry, namely their predictability. “They become codes that audiences can be expected to know and that writers can use to advance dramatic goals without having to explain. This is especially useful in a short form of drama like twenty- two-minute sitcom” (Butsch, 112). The situation is problematic since these kinds of characters are rarely allowed to evolve, since it would cease to make them familiar to the audiences. 4 The thesis argues that there is one sitcom that manages to stay inside the frame of the sitcom genre and, at the same time, reinvent it. Community (2009-2015) was not the most popular, well-known or critically beloved sitcom of its time, however, it could be argued that it managed to do what few have attemted to do and that is to constanly reinvent itself, not only in terms of character development, but also stylistically. The stylistic variety, as well as the show’s intertextual and metafictive nature contribute greatly to the thesis’s classification of Community as a postmodern show. However, the thesis also categorizes Community as an example of the New Sincerity trend, which is often described as post- postmodernism. The examination of the aforementioned movements, as well as, the analysis of how the two movements manifest and coexist in Community is the main goal of the study. The first chapter of the thesis describes the show itself, its broadcast history, as well as its plot and main characters. Moreover, the chapter touches upon the show’s postmodern nature. In order to correctly situate Community in history and comprehend why and in what manner the show, in this thesis, is considered to be unique. The second chapter presents to the readers a brief history of the American sitcom. In addition to that the examination of the differences and similarities between single camera and multicamera sitcoms is provided in order to prove that Community’s single camera format aids the show in the implementation of such postmodern

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