The Basic Mystery Factor

     In most shows, there is some sort of ongoing mystery that will never really be elucidated. In my opinion, there is something to understand other than just comic-effect. Let's take a quick look at different mysteries and see how they impact a sitcom. 

        The Simpsons never say in which US State they are. This could be unimportant, but they insure that you keep wondering with different allusions and try to maintain the mystery alive.

       In The Big Bang Theory, there used to be a mystery about how the elevator stopped working but it was resolved recently. There is however the fact that Howard's mother is always heard but never seen.

Creating An Illusion

     I was watching It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (IASIP), the latest episode (S07 E10 "How Mac Got Fat"), and it gave me the idea for this post. The set-up is Mac telling the story of how he got fat to a priest. Watch it, as always, IASIP is hands down hilarious.

     When you make a show, tell a story, shoot a movie, whatever,... The goal is to create an Illusion so that your audience gets sucked in the story. Illusions are built in various ways, some very easy like just saying "Once upon a time", some much more complicated like a movie set during the French Revolution where you would need to have realistic clothing, tools, buildings, and so on. 

About Last Night...

     I wanted to review the four animated shows that aired last night : Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show and the Simpsons.

     Often, what we fear when Sitcoms get towards episode 4 or 5 of any given season, the show loses a bit of its momentum, and so, I wanted to check up on the state of these four animated Sitcoms.

The Sitcom Blog Trailer on Youtube !!!

Watch the video on YouTube made by T.R.Josset :

Review - Modern Family S03 E08 - "After The Fire"

     Modern Family (MF) is one of my favorite shows lately because it brings something new to the old table of Sitcoms. There is a sort of clean fresh new feeling that fills my want for better Sitcoms.

The latest episode, "After the Fire" S03 E08, as all the others before, has generously met my expectations and I thought I'd share a few things with you.

     Now the first thing I noticed during my initial viewing is that this particular episode is somewhat inverted compared to the usual MF structure. 

This is what we usually get : 

Review - Family Guy S10 E05 - "Back to the Pilot"

     In a comment on my post about Optimum Cruise Speed, Gabe J (Check out his awesome blog here!) and I discussed changes over time in sitcoms (such as the appearance of Butters in South Park) and I wrote : 

"I just watched the latest family guy episode, and rethinking of the first episodes, the whole show has drastically changed course and the characters have evolved much later than POCS or TOCS.". 

The episode of Family Guy (FG) I was referring to was S10 E03 - "Screams of Silence : the Story of Brenda Q" that apparently got pretty controversial as you can see here. 

     Now I just watched the latest FG episode, "Back to the Pilot", it seems the creators wanted to show how much the series has changed. Brian and Stewie go back in time to the very first aired episode of FG and, to their surprise, everything is much different. 

Sitcom Opening Titles

     What is the point of having the same sequence at the beginning of each episode ? For us, who have seen so many, we don't need a brief introduction to the cast, we don't learn anything more,... So what's the point ?

- The main goal for an opening sequence would be to introduce the cast to first viewers. Ok. But once I've seen a couple episodes, I want to get to it, get to the story. 

- In my opinion, the main titles are a sort of rallying point for all the people who are familiar with the show. It sets the mood : "the next twenty minutes or so are for you, for fun, for laughs". 

The Unexpected Outcome - Typical Joke n° 1

     One defining feature of sitcoms is that the same joke templates are used over and over again. These jokes don't really come up in different types of entertainment, like movies or books... However, in "boulevard" theater you will find the same jokes. I explain this like this :

"Boulevard" Theater and Sitcoms have basic plot-lines that are usually the same. Therefore, Sitcoms and "Boulevard" Theater share the same jokes.

The Two Voices - The Janus (Typical Characters n° 1)

     Some shows can be very deep, others very simplistic. But in most shows, there is one (sometimes more) character that I call the JANUS.

     The Janus is usually an extreme character who has two different voice tones. For example : One for the funny, one for the drama. Both voices are very opposite so that the audience knows exactly what is the mood of each scene.