The History of Sitcoms

The History of Sitcoms

The word 'Sitcom' derives from the words Situational Comedy. Sitcoms

are a series of programs shown on television that usually involve a

family or a close group of characters.

Sitcoms seem to have been around ever since television was introduced

to the family home, and are continuing to change along with television

itself. Traditionally, sitcoms were generally centred around men,

usually having only one or two female characters. Examples of this

are, 'Yes Prime Minister', 'Blackadder', and the still popular 'Only

Fools and Horses'.

They complied with the social and ethnic majorities of old day society

- middle aged, middleclass, and white characters dominating sitcoms of

that day. Very young or old people were not represented, along with

the disabled and ethnic minorities. This may have been so as not to

offend the more narrow-minded views of society.

Men and women had very stereotypical traits that were incorporated

into the main characters of a sitcom. Male characters were shown as

independent, irrational and delusional, whereas the leading woman was

usually the opposite. She was domesticated, caring and motherly

towards her blundering husband. As sitcoms developed further, camp

characters were introduced along with the convention of role reversal

between men and women. An example of this is 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave

Em', where role reversal is used to make the sitcom funnier and more

unique.

In modern times, some conventions of traditional sitcoms have been

maintained, and as sitcoms developed some devices have been subverted.

'My Family' is still centred around a typical middle class family, the...

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...structing her children and husband on what and what not to do. The

fact that she works also takes any maternal nature out of her

character, and her sarcastic, tempestuous and sometimes-immature

nature is used to get laughter from the audience rather than to make a

bond with them.

In fact, there is no palpable affection shown between any of the rest

of the Archer family either. Every character contains an element of

sarcasm, and the main entertainment from My Family comes from The

Families ridicule and general intolerance of one another.

One thing that most sitcoms have in common is the inclusion of one

"normal voice" - a character that possesses no prominent qualities.

This is effective in keeping some reality to a sitcom especially if in

all other aspect its is unlikely that any of its situations would

happen.