Sitcoms Part I

gonna talk a little bit about other forms of the genre. Yeah, the Brits come up here, there maybe a Keywi appearance and uh, and what we're gonna try to do, everybody, is do this Sitcom Style and record to thirty minute episodes. I don't know if they're gonna be twenty two minutes including the ads, but that would be that would be a stroke of genius. But we're gonna do our best, which means we're probably not gonna do a listener mail.

Then let's get right to it, right. Yeah, let's we're talking sitcoms and just right out of the gate we should explain what a Sitcom is. Everybody knows what a Sitcom is, but if you stop and think about the word. It's actually a Portmanteau of situation and comedy. A Sitcom, that's right, uh, and it's a very you know ed helped us put this together. It. It is definitely Portmanteau that some studio executive no doubt came up with, because it's kind of dumb, sounding like it's a comedy about

a situation. You know what I'm saying? I do know what you're saying, but at the same time I think it actually does aptly described sitcoms, because every Sitcom, the basis of it is you have your main characters in some sort of dilemma situation and then by the end of the episode that dilemma situation is resolved. The situation is resolved. A Sitcom generally yeah, uh, and it looks

like that people in the industry. We're using this term, maybe even back in the radio days of the nineteen fifties, because it comes up in print kind of for the public's eyeballs in early nineteen sixty four. Uh, for the best we can tell, in life magazine and the Chicago Tribune, where they talk about what a Sitcom is and kind of have to explain it to the two people, but they do indicate that it's it's sort of been used

as industry uh slang for a little while. Right, exactly. So, Um, there are certain things that do like make a Sitcom a Sitcom, and you know, they started out as very basic and then kind of built along the way and then, as you know, writers UH started to come of age having grown up on Sitcoms, they learned to kind of play with the format more and more and create all sorts of different takes on sitcoms. But there are some

basic structures to basically every sitcom that's ever existed. Yeah, and this is kind of fun because, like Ed nailed a lot of this and some stuff. As a Sitcom Guy, I was like, not quite right, I'm so nervous. Now I know he did a great job, though. Well, first of all, he points out that it's a comedy. Of course it's Um sort of the obvious one. They are a half hour long, which is why these episodes will be a half hour long. Yeah, I chuck. I looked for one hour Sitcom and it just does not exist.

The closest I saw was love boat, and I don't know if you could really call love boat to Sitcom. I think love boat defied genre. It's something it definitely did. For sure, from what I saw, was the only one hour show that had a laugh track. Okay, well, yeah, the laugh track. I think you can look forward to the shorty on Wednesday, right. Yeah, definitely all about the laugh track. Uh. So, the situation, and again these are generalizations. The form has been tweaked and subverted over the years,

but it is almost always about a smallish group of people. Um, not always a family, but many, many times it's a family. Sometimes it's a group of friends. Obviously that the UH workplace comedy is going to be colleagues, but many, many sitcoms, especially in the Hadaia Sitcoms, were about families. Yeah, and Um, the basic structure, from what I saw, the minimum essentially is four you you want to have four characters and there's actually a set of types for those four characters.

There's the hero, the Anti Hero, the love interest in the buddy, and this pops up everywhere, from married with children to Seinfeld. But then obviously, of course people have toyed with that because there were six friends. I think there were six characters. On how I met your mother. There's a bunch of them on Big Bang theory. The Simpsons are far and away one of the best sitcoms ever and they have myriad characters who can have their own episodes based on them. So, for in the family, though,

that's true. So so that seems to be kind of the nucleus that everything else grows from. As far as the number of CA yeah, I was looking back at the fourth thing and it is interesting because you look at Seinfeld and all in the family. I Love Lucy had the two couples. The honeymooners had the two couples. I think Dick Van Dyke had two couples as well. Well, he had himself and Laura Petrie's wife, Mary Tyler Moore, and then he had Rosemarie, I can't remember what her

character's name was, and then I can't remember what. So he worked with a woman and a man and they formed the other two characters. Right, right, right. They weren't a couple, though, right, no, they weren't. They were just buddies. All right, it's been a while since I've seen that, but they all had sex with each other. Right. Well, yeah, in every episode they would end. It got really graphic,

especially for the fifth you think got very weird. Uh. As far as the format goes, there is UH, like if you're a screenwriter or you're reading a script of a of a Sitcom. I mean scripts are formulaic no matter what, but Sitcom scripts are really, really formulaic, uh, in that they are twenty two minutes long. The there's an a storyline, which is, you know, sort of the

main plot of that episode. Uh, and then you have at least a B storyline, Um, and sometimes that's it, but sometimes you'll have c storylines, maybe even a D storyline. But kind of traditionally you've got an a and a B and Ed points out that, and he's kind of right in some ways, that generally the storylines are resolved

in each episode. But over the years that really sort of fluctuated as far as you had running plot lines that would last kind of a season, whether it's are this character and that character going to get together or one might get pregnant and so that season sort of has a recurring storyline about them having a baby. But generally what you wanted in a Sitcom was to be able to watch them in any order and still enjoy

the show. Yeah, like if you if you watch any episode of Gilligan's island or Mr ed or even the Adams family. Like there's you can watch them in any order and there every episode is going to make sense because they were generally designed to stand alone, featuring the same characters and the way that they do that. I

saw there's two TV tropes associated with this chuck. One is the reset button, which is where that dilemma or situation that characters are put in becomes fully resolved by the end of the episode and things go back to normal. That's the reset button. Then there's a snap back where things aren't necessarily resolved, but in the next, next episode

everything's back to normal regardless, as if nothing happened previously. Yeah, I mean occasionally he might hear a reference, but sitcoms are famous, like you never heard Arnold and Willis in subsequent seasons saying Hey, remember that time we were almost molested? That was crazy. Yeah, they don't reference that stuff. No, and then we'll get a little more into like those kind of serious episodes of Sitcoms, because those were landmark

episodes for a reason. But the reset is is a pretty funny trope, I think, totally Um and then there's really a big distinction in how they're shot. There's really two ways that they're shot and they're they're kind of wrapped up, or there named, I should say, by the original ways that these sitcoms were shot, and they're called, Um, one camera or three camera, and you would think that three camera would seem like the more innovative, expansive kind

of sitcomment. Is Actually the opposite. The three camera one is what the traditional Sitcom is, is filmed, is right. Yeah, and they kind of say multi camera these days. But if you're talking about the old school live in front of a studio audience, uh, what you have is this, and I have to bring up the fact that I was on one. I was on dear John, I was on one too. Were you really well? So if you should know, yeah, alr, I guess I was on two then. UH, yeah, well,

ours was. We'll talk about ours in a minute. But Um, if you're talking the live in front of a studio audience thing, what you have is very long, wide stage with bleachers where people sit, and then in front of that you have usually two or three permanent sets, uh, and what's called a swing set, which they would bring

in each week. So what's the swing set. Well, on like let's say cheers, would have always, of course, the bar and then like Sam's office, were probably permanent sets and a swing set might be like if that episode they dined out at a restaurant or something like that. So it's something that you could like. It's kind of generic.

You could strip down and repurpose it in many different ways. Yeah, and they bring in these set walls and redress them, but like let's say Seinfeld, obviously would be Jerry's apartment and the diner would be the permanent sets and if, like the season where George worked for the Yankees, his his office set would be a swing set. That would be just sort of stored and wheeled off and preserved, because you want to you don't want to have to

Redo all that stuff every time. But sometimes it was just like one week only it would be like an antique shop or something. Or in my case on dear John, it was a restaurant, uh that I played a bus boy in, and I was texting with my brother, actually, Scott has a you know, he worked on dear John and had a lot of experience on some of these shows, and he said there were always at least two permanent sets. He said some shows had as many as four. I think he thought UH was one with Charlie Sheen that

I never watched. UH, two and a half men? Yeah, I think he said two and a half men had what he thought was four permanent sets, and it all kind of depended on how big these the stages were, where they shot it, Um, and also how how well funded the the show was too. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Uh. And then like something like Seinfeld, they all the street

scenes and stuff like that. They shot those on the adjacent backlots and in when they shot the real shows, uh, in front of an audience, they would they would show those bits on the TV screen while they're like changing over, just so the audience would sort of be able to all along. Oh, Gotcha. Okay, so we'll talk a little more about the different camera setups. Right. That just that distinguished the two basically the two types of sitcoms. A little more in a minute. But do you want to

talk about the origins of Sitcoms? Yeah, should we take a break, like Sitcom style? Okay, let's do it. We'll be right back after this word from Ben Gay. I want to learn about a terrestortic college for it Actyl, how to take the perfect but with all about fractals, think it's gone. That's a hun the Lizzie border murders, and again I've all runs on the plane. Everything we

should know. Word up, Jerry George. Okay, we're back and we're talking sitcoms and everybody thinks TV when you think of Sitcoms, but it turns out that sitcoms have their origin further back in that uh on, in radio, and actually it goes even further back than that to Vaudeville. But the first even contours of a Sitcom is found in a radio show called Sam and Henry, which became much more famous after it changed its name to Amos and Andy, and a lot of people say that was

probably the first Sitcom because it had recurring characters. There were situations that the characters were put in catch phrases. That's another big, you know, kind of trademark of of sitcoms. If you can get America saying like one of your characters saying to one another like you've got a hit show on your hands. You know, get a load of him. It was always something dumb like that, I guess. Oh Yeah, definitely,

uh like Sanford and son had to be Elizabeth. I'm coming to join you, are you big dummy, you big dummy. Oh Man, I love that Joe so much. Yeah, it's a good show, I believe some I mean there's you talked to different people about sort of what the first

sitcoms were and you're gonna get some different answers. Uh. One is certainly going to be one called fiber, McGee and molly, and it had again, all the ingredients that you might think of as like typically Sitcom, although that was a radio show that only had a brief appearance on television. Uh, and he had shows like the honeymooners, of course, one called Mary Kay and Johnny H that a lot of people say was the first Sitcom. That's

where I put my money. Yeah, but when you ask a lot of people what really broke it open as far as the genre goes, I think most people will say I love Lucy for sure, which I think debutede and it changed everything. Is We'll talk about in a second. But we have to shout out pin rights progress, which was a BBC Sitcom that air did nineteen six so it beat Mary Kay and Johnny by a year. But no one knows what it's about because no one, no

one preserved any of the episodes. Yeah, it's funny. It seems like the UK and the United States are far and away the leaders in the genre, because I did look at other countries. It's never been that big in Australia. I mean there are examples, of course, but the UK and the US just ate it up for some reason. Yeah, it's like dueling banjos. Yeah, who's the guitar player and WHO's the Banjo player? I think it changes from time to time depending on the quality of the shows put out.

But I said something check that I think is really important pin rights progress. I it's probably a falsity to say that no one knows what it is about, but I don't believe there's anyone alive, probably never heard of it,

who's seen it. I hadn't heard of it either. The reason why no one's seen it is because in the early days of television, we're talking like the late forties, um even mid forties, they would just broadcast the thing live and you sat down in front of your TV and you watched that thing and it never existed again. It's kind of thing that. Yeah, our friend Alex from ephemeral has probably done an episode on this kind the thing. Yeah, great show, by the way. Everyone should check that out.

But that's how they that's how they made shows originally right. And then finally they're like, okay, we've got two coasts here. Most TV shows were broadcast in New York, filmed in New York live, but you know, they were at like say eight pm on a Friday, and most Angelino's in San Franciscan's didn't want to rush home from work to catch,

you know, the latest Um Mary Kay and Johnny. So they figured out that they needed to somehow preserve that show so that they could send it off to the West Coast and they came up with something called kinescope,

the lowest hanging fruit they could have reached. Some some executive said, why don't we just show it on a TV and then film that television screen with a camera, with a thirty five millimeter film camera, and the frame rates are gonna be weird and it's gonna look terrible, but at least we can broadcast it on the west coast. And they did that for a while and that was sort of the first Um, the first time that the that they were both coasts were able to watch the

same show. Yeah, and Chuck, it sounds clugy. It gets even clugier at like at first there was no way to actually broadcast from the east coast of the West Coast vice versa, for the first few years of television. So they would film that, that show off of TV onto film and then they would take that real and mail it out west for them to show. And then finally in n a t and t came up with a coaxial cable that allowed for the first transcontinental broadcast.

But even still they were using kinescope and they used sometimes what was called hot kinescope because the film had just been developed within the three hours before they needed to broadcast it to the West Coast. That's how fast they were turning it around. Man, I bet there was a lot of tension, yes, to turn that stuff around, you know, and they didn't even have cocaine in the industry yet. They were just taking it as a medicine

at the time. That's true. Yeah, uh. So when what really broke things open and what, as a landmark show, both, you know, as a comedy and technically, was I love Lucy and I looked a little bit more into this. Uh, while they developed this three camera set up. Um, it was because of Philip Morris. They were the sponsor of the show and they didn't want Um. They thought that there were more smokers. Well, I think they had dated that said that more people smoked east of Chicago. Apparently

out West it. I mean, obviously people smoked back then, but not like they did in the northeast and on the East Coast. So they didn't want the show to be shot and produced live in Hollywood. That's why they really wanted it in New York City. Um, at the same time, Desi Arnez and Lucy, I think lucy was pregnant. They also wanted uh to stay in L A. So there was a bit of a budding head situation of sponsor versus is like a TV star, and they worked

it out with this three camera format. Yeah, so essentially what they did. So movies were already around at the time and there was a process for making a movie where you would shoot a scene, taking a few takes of it, then you would move your camera, relight the scene, Um and then do the same scene from a different angle and so on. And so forth, until you had the scene and all those things could be edited together.

But Lucy and Dezi really wanted to have a live audience, to have that energy and that kind of feedback, in that laughter that you can only get from a live audience. So they combined that movie making, Um kind of format with a live performance, and they did it by making three static cameras, one wide, one medium and one for close ups, that they had pointed at the set that they would perform this episode on as if it were

like a live stage play. Yeah, and they got in touch with a guy, an Oscar winning cinematographer and kind of a genius, named Carl Freud, and he at first was like this isn't possible, because he was an artist, and he was like you, it's gonna look at least one of the cameras is gonna look bad at all times because you're not lighting for that camera. And they said, you gotta work with this buddy, like you can't be so precious, like it's a movie. UH, we're not shooting

the Maltese Falcon here. Um, we need to figure out a way to do this. So they came up with this grid lighting system when you're shooting a movie or when you're shooting single camera TV shows, even though these days these multi cameras on basically everything, ever since digital came out, but they still call it single camera. You would, and we've been on these shows where you have lights

on stands kind of right around what you're shooting. They came up with this grid style system where everything was lit from this lighting grid above the stage and it didn't look as good. It was sort of flat, but it it was all lit well enough to where it looked okay, and Carl Freud kind of gave in and said, you know, this is what we're gonna do with TV. Then it makes sense. We can cover everything all at once,

and basically the sort of basis of the genre was born. Yeah, so like everything from Seinfeld to friends to frazier to cheers, they were all filmed as three camera and now, like you said, they call it multi camera sitcoms Um. That is like the traditional Sitcom, and you can ultimately thank Lucy and desi for that, whereas the one cameras Sitcom is the one that you think of as more it's

made more like a film. There's more real world, there's more Um you know, uh, like on location shooting, it just seems a little more movie like, like arrested development is a good example of a single camera Sitcom. But, Chuck, I want to give a little shout out here because everybody thanks Lucy and Desi for everything, for basically creating the format. But, Mary Kay and Johnny, we're doing this

before Lucy and desire camera. They had two cameras. They were doing it live and they had some poor Schmo who was switching between cameras depending on what was happening in the scene live. Can you imagine the stress? That's pretty cool that the you know, just having been on dear John, that they have it down so well in Hollywood, even though that kind of show is sort of out

of fashion now. During the heyday, you know, they those cameras were on these huge circular dollies and the cameras were very big and they would just so fluidly sort of move around to where they you know, they block it all lot ahead of time so they knew exactly where each camera was supposed to be, and the result is you shoot a twenty two minute episode in about an hour. Or less. Uh, you shoot it in order so the audience can follow along like a play. Yeah,

just like a play. Yeah, and you would, Um, you would go back generally at the end of each scene. They would do like all right, uh, they would. There would be a few minutes of conferring, like and then they come out and say, all right, we're gonna do a retake of the second part of that scene because we didn't like the way Jennifer Aniston said this one line, and they would all laugh and she would say sorry, everybody,

and it's a very personal, like engaging thing. Like if you never, if you've never been to a live taping of a TV show like that, even though they're more few and far between, it's a lot of fun to go to because they're right there, they're interacting with you. If they goof up, they'll like say something to the audience and it's just it's a really cool experience. But the long and short is they'll they'll be done pretty quickly, even with the retakes right. So the more the multi camera,

three camera setup is like a stage play. There's a fixed set or a couple of fixed sets, there's a live studio audience and they present it basically as if they were putting on a play. There's just a bunch of cameras filming them while they do that's right. Uh, the clock tells me we need to take our second break. Okay, let's do it quick, quick, quick. The good folks have

been gay. Aren't gonna wait. I want to learn about al. Had to take a perfect but with all about fractal Kiscon that the hunt the lizzie border murders and they kind of all run on the plane everything. This time we should know. Word up, Jerry stry George. All right, I guess we should wrap up this episode with a little bit about what is the gold standard for actors and crew members in the film business and always has been. I know they love to work on their super cool

streaming shows that are like movies. Prestige TV is great, but you ask any actor what they would rather be doing and they would say, I want to be on a multi camera live studio audience show. Because I work

about forty hours a week. I show up to work at about eight o'clock every morning, I leave at five o'clock every day and we work Monday through Friday, and it's uh, we shoot twenty two, at least twenty two episodes and if we get to a hundred it has a good chance of going in syndication and then I'm set for life. Yeah, that seems to be like the

sweet spot for syndication. Eighty five to a hundred previous episodes produced and aired, and I guess, my guess is that that that means that the syndicating buyer feels like they have enough reruns to really make some hay out of or make their money back from. Is that what this why is the sweet spot? I think so. It's like four to five seasons. Dear John Scott said that that hit eighty episodes and did have a brief syndication run. That he said at the time one hundred was really

what they kind of shot for. It's still in syndication. I don't remember what channel happened, but I watched an episode or two of it not too long ago. was looking for you but didn't see you. You didn't see a handsome young buss boy. But no, not yet. But it it is like a surprisingly good unsung show. Like it was. It had really good writing, the characters were really tight. It was a good, good show, for sure. Agreed. Uh. So should we go over kind of the weekly schedule. Absolutely.

So Ed uh ignores Monday and Tuesday for some reason. But uh, as someone who who worked on a show and I had talked to Scott about it too. Um, Monday's is generally when you get a table read Um, and you know what that is, because we were luckily enough to go to a Simpson's table read man. Thank you again to our friend Jesse, who got us in there. One of the nicest things anyone's ever done and and

coolest experiences in my life. Like easily. Uh. So this is when the actors and the director and the writers all sit down at a big long table and they just read through the script. They make little notes and make little changes and that's just sort of the first read through of the week. Um, while this is going on on Monday and Tuesday, they're doing, uh, costume fittings

and stuff during the day. UH, they're off to the side the art department in the props, building the swing sets and sort of get all that ready and then we hit Wednesday. So, yeah, Wednesday is where everything kind of picks up as far as ED is concerned. Um, and that's when they really start, Um, you know, trying

out the script. There's no lighting, there's no cameras, but the directors taking mad notes all over it, Um, and just basically putting this initial lump of script into, you know, actual order and then getting ready for Thursday when they do bring in like the lights and the cameras and start setting up and trying technical rehearsals. Yeah, and just to be clear, on Wednesday they're not at the table, they're they're moving through the sets at this point, which

is the real differentiator. That is a big differentiator. And

then one other thing I want to point out. When they bring in the cameras and the lighting and all that, if you think back to I love Lucy um or Mary Kay and Johnny, if you want to go even further back, for my money, Um, you're talking about static cameras that are in one place, and so it's the actors that have to move into exactly the right positions exactly the right time and look in exactly the right direction to get that close up or that medium shot

or the wide shot exactly how it's supposed to be. That is mind bogglingly difficult. And they did this every week. Yeah, I mean we had to do that. It's called blocking. Uh, and you can't stand six inches away from where you're supposed to stand or it'll look goofy. So they have the camera department. UH, they put tape on the floor and every actor generally has their own color tape so

you know where to go. And the trick as an actor is to be able to go and hit your mark without looking like you're trying to hit your mark.

And some people are great at it. George Clooney has this great story about I think it was Spencer Tracy who would be obvious about it, and he said if you go back and look at Spencer Tracy movies, he would walk in and right before he got to his mark, he would just look straight down at the floor and kind of go huh and take a deep breath and look up where he's supposed to but he played it off like that was just a something the character would do. Well,

plus he's just that likable too. I think, Oh yeah, but it's pretty fun. Hitting your marks is not easy and, uh, we screwed it up all the time because we didn't know what we were doing. Oh yeah, I considered it a form of ad living until you finally were like, Dude, you have to be. It's really important that you be in the spot they tell you to be. Yeah, it's pretty funny. Um. So are we at Friday yet? Um, I think Thursday. Did you mention Thursdays when they actually

light it and they're blocking with the camera and everything. Yeah, and then I think that night there was a dress rehearsal. Yeah, they would do a full dress without the cameras. And then Friday is basically like game time because you're gonna shoot it that night. UH, they shoot it in prime time in the evening, but they go through like the full dress, full lighting, full camera and all that stuff during the day. Right, okay. So then, Um, Friday afternoon

there's tons of rehearsals. Um, and then Friday night, apparently at eight PM. And Chuck, was this just I love Lucy, or is this a standard for the industry? I seem to remember it being more like seven ish, but Um, it may have differed for each show because, you know, you got to fill up the audience. There's a warm up comedian that comes out and gets everyone in the laughing mood. So it may have been eight. And then also, don't some sitcoms now film multiple episodes in a single

day if they can. Well not. Not shows like this, not live in front of studio audience. Just want it done. So Friday night at seven or eight they would actually film the episode and then they would take the film from the three different cameras, I love Lucy Wood, and they'd edit it together and there you go. You'd have an episode that was filmed live in front of a studio audience, but was filmed to tape so that it

could be rerun in perpetuity forever and ever. That's right, and the cast comes out at the end and takes a big bow and it really is like seeing a play. It's a lot of fun. Highly encourage anyone. You know it's a, I guess, sort of a touristy thing to do, but if you ever go to l a UH, see if you can get in and see a Sitcom being shot. It's really, really fun, very nice. So I guess here in episode one of our very special two part episode

on Sitcom. So don't you think? I think so. Okay, well, everybody, we'll see you on Thursday and in the meantime, don't forget to listen out for the short stuff on laugh tracks coming out tomorrow. Alright, intrusive comform. We're not too happy with the beginning of that last section. Uh, everyone in the audience, so I think we should just go ahead and retake that. Yeah, sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, was

my fault. So Ed helped us put this together again and of course he goes through the weekly schedule of how to do a Sitcom, but for some reason he kind of left out Monday and Tuesday. Ed Don't like Mondays or Tuesday's. Thanks everyone, on behalf of Chuck, Jerry and I. You've been a wonderful studio audience. We'll see you next week. Stuff you should know is a production of I heart radio. For more podcasts my heart radio, visit the I heart radio APP, apple podcasts or wherever

you listen to your favorite shows. M HM