Situation comedy, also called sitcom, radio or television comedy series that involves a continuing cast of characters in a succession of episodes. Often the characters are markedly different types thrown together by circumstance and occupying a shared environment such as an apartment building or workplace. Sitcoms are typically half an hour in length; they are either taped in front of a studio audience or employ canned applause, and they are marked by verbal sparring and rapidly resolved conflicts.
Situation comedy
broadcasting genre
Alternative Title:
sitcom
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Television in the United States: SitcomsSoon to emerge, however, was what would become the staple genre of American television: the situation comedy, or “sitcom.” The sitcom was a 30-minute format featuring a continuing cast of characters that appeared in the same setting week after week. Audience laughter (either live… -
radio: Situation comedyThe situation comedy format, which became a mainstay of radio (and of television to the present day), developed during the 1930s. As opposed to the “revue” format of early radio comedy, the situation comedy is a narrative form. It has a consistent locale… -
Television in the United States: Demographic divergenceThe family sitcom provides a telling example. Traditional family comedies such as
The Cosby Show ,Family Ties , andGrowing Pains (ABC, 1985–92) remained on the air into the 1990s, while at the same time more “realistic” shows featuring lower-middle-class families such asRoseanne … -
Television in the United States: Prime time in the new centuryThe situation comedy was in bad decline in the early 2000s. The big hits of the 1990s were departing one after another, and there were few new sitcoms to take their places.
Roseanne left the air in 1997, followed bySeinfeld in 1998. BothFriends (NBC,… -
broadcasting: Entertainment…further development was the “situation comedy,” in which a number of characters, such as the members of a family, remain in the same situation week after week but experience comic adventures. Though these laughter programs lost popularity on radio as television gained popular acceptance, they have become the mainstays…
