The last laugh: is the television sitcom really dead?

From Friends to The Thick Of It, the TV sitcom has evolved – but it’s no longer in rude health. Enter offbeat shows like Stath Lets Flats, bringing joy and potential redemptionThe sitcom has a long history of being dead. According to the former NBC president of entertainment, Warren Littlefield, in the early 1980s many people believed the sitcom was over. In 1999, Entertainment Weekly noted the genre’s demise. In 2005, so did Victoria Wood. The following year, the former ITV director of programmes, David Liddiment, made a programme called Who Killed the Sitcom? In the decade and a half since, similar questions have been posed repeatedly by publications on both sides of the Atlantic. Declaring the sitcom dead now seems more like an annual ritual than a convincing take on the state of comedy. But what if this time it’s actually true?There are a few reasons why the sitcom seems, if not comprehensively deceased, then at least less responsive than it has ever been. In terms of the comedy zeitgeist, the sadcom – a frequently bleak drama hybrid – continues to rule (see: I May Destroy You, Feel Good, This Way Up, Insecure). Streaming giants increasingly shape our viewing habits, and they don’t tend to make sitcoms (their discrete episodic plots mean they are not very bingeworthy, for a start). The newly established National Comedy Awards, meanwhile, doesn’t include a sitcom category, while Bafta dropped its sitcom award in 2015 and replaced it with one for scripted comedy: this... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-10-26 14:35:04 UTC ]
News tagged with: #early 1980s #victoria wood #feel good #viewing habits #anthology

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Amor Towles Sees Dead People

The novelist discusses his career and his recent essay about cadavers in crime fiction, and the actor Richard E. Grant talks about his memoir and his love of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-08-18 17:55:09 UTC ]
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Carol Higgins Clark, Mystery Writer, Is Dead at 66

She had a modest career as an actress but was best known for following in the footsteps of her mother, the best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-06-16 21:20:41 UTC ]
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Cormac McCarthy, bleak and brutal titan of American literature, dead at 89

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, who wrote nihilistic and violent tales of the American frontier and post-apocalyptic worlds that enthralled and appalled readers, died on Tuesday at the age of 89, his representative confirmed to CBC... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2023-06-13 20:01:40 UTC ]
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Richard Snyder, ‘warrior-king’ of publishing who presided over rise of Simon & Schuster, dead at 90

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Publisher and Author Elizabeth Sherrill Dead at 95

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Dead Ink wins Republic of Consciousness prize with Missouri Williams’s ‘astonishing’ debut

The award, championing small presses with fewer than five staff, was won by The Doloriad – an audaciously original novel set in a post-apocalyptic dystopiaDead Ink Books has won the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses for Missouri Williams’s “astonishing” debut novel The Doloriad.... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-26 08:35:38 UTC ]
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Michael Denneny, Editor of 'And the Band Played On,' Dead at 80

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Rick Wolff, Highly Regarded Business Book Editor, Dead at 71

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Mostly Dead, Slightly Alive: Exploring the Princess Bride Cookbook

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Mel Shapiro of Book Sales Dead at 90

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Laughing Along With 10 of the Best Comedy Manga And Manhwa

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Pat Schroeder, Former AAP CEO, Dead at 82

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‘The monarchy’s a laughing stock’: readers react to Prince Harry’s Spare

Views range from sympathy for the Sussexes in light of treatment by royals and tabloids, to regarding them as being ‘as entitled as the others’Prince Harry’s tell-all autobiography has become the UK’s fastest-selling nonfiction book ever. The memoir has been controversial, with Harry making... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-13 12:09:22 UTC ]
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Bob McGrath, original cast member on Sesame Street, dead at 90

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[ CBC | 2022-12-05 03:00:34 UTC ]
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Will Self: ‘I’m seen as a still-walking dead white man’

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[ The Guardian | 2022-11-26 18:00:32 UTC ]
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The Merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster Is Dead in the Water

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Two-thirds of UK’s biggest advertisers to cut television spend

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[ The Guardian | 2022-11-21 00:01:39 UTC ]
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The King is Dead. Long Live the Kingdom.

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[ Slate | 2022-11-11 10:00:00 UTC ]
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How ‘Dead Souls’ Taught Mel Brooks What Comedy Writing Could Be

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