When you need to rant...

[Drtooth]

How the heck do the KoMut people keep getting work?

I overheard 3 minutes of Partners and my head almost a'splode!

 

[D'Snowth]

Is that that new gay show created by the gay guy who created Glee?

 

[charlietheowl]

No, that's The New Normal on NBC, which appears to be just as awful as Partners. Seriously, why can't people make a decent sitcom anymore? It shouldn't be that hard. I'm not a How I Met Your Mother fan but they manage to bother writing scenarios that lead to jokes, instead of the stand in place screeching that both Normal and Partners appear to be wallowing in.

Partners is going to be a hit because of its timeslot though.

 

[D'Snowth]

Seriously, why can't people make a decent sitcom anymore?

Because it's no longer about quality, it's about money: if a show makes money, they're going to keep cranking it out, otherwise, it'll be canceled after they only air like two episodes.

I'm not usually one to boast about myself, but seriously, I can write better than most writers in TV day, and I'm not even a professional.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

I always said I was born in the wrong era.

 

[charlietheowl]

Because it's no longer about quality, it's about money: if a show makes money, they're going to keep cranking it out, otherwise, it'll be canceled after they only air like two episodes.

On one hand, television has always been about money, and there has always been the pressure to earn high ratings right out of the gate. I remember reading that Cheers was going to be cancelled after its first season due to low ratings but was saved by critical praise. However, with the advent of cable, there is a lot more pressure to score big quickly.

But that doesn't totally explain all the problems with sitcoms. There are the same pressures with dramas, but network TV has made Lost, Person of Interest, Once Upon A Time, and House recently, all of which have gotten decent reviews, and cable channels have Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Homeland, and so on. If a network can develop a hit drama, why can't they develop a sitcom?

 

[Drtooth]

No, that's The New Normal on NBC, which appears to be just as awful as Partners. Seriously, why can't people make a decent sitcom anymore? It shouldn't be that hard. I'm not a How I Met Your Mother fan but they manage to bother writing scenarios that lead to jokes, instead of the stand in place screeching that both Normal and Partners appear to be wallowing in.

Partners is basically one of the worst sitcoms I've seen since... well... Whitney. Other than that, there's a lot of really good stuff out there. But it's not a case of "no one writers anything good anymore" with Partners... they ALWAYS sucked at writing sitcoms. Will and Grace was an overrated gay minstrel show, and everything else they made is just loud, flamboyant, screechy, and pop culturey. And everything the did besides Will and Grace failed miserably.

Their stuff is so loud, hi pitched, and fast paced, it makes Fairly Oddparents (and I'm a huge fan of that) look like a sitcom about Mr. Rogers and Tom Poston working at a molasses factory with the volume turned down. Their comedy is as subtle as a nuclear explosion at a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man factory.

Especially the gay jokes. Egad, and I ever glad that Happy Endings subverts that trope with a slobby gay guy. But Partners made so many jokes about Broadway, spas, and wedding planning. It's like the guy from Chick Fil A wrote it. Those lame stereotypes are DEAD now.

On that same note... New Normal. It's not so much screechy as it is preachy. And it's basically preaching to those who's eyes are already open. And MUST they think they're Osamu Tetzuka/Time Bokan? Did they have to shove a Sue expy in there played by a Poor Man's substitute for Jane Lynch?

But hey... anything's better than My Wife and Kids, According to Jim, and Hope and Faith. GAH! Let those turkeys rest in peace.

 

[Drtooth]

But that doesn't totally explain all the problems with sitcoms. There are the same pressures with dramas, but network TV has made Lost, Person of Interest, Once Upon A Time, and House recently, all of which have gotten decent reviews, and cable channels have Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Homeland, and so on. If a network can develop a hit drama, why can't they develop a sitcom?

DON'T get me started on Once Upon a Time. That show is made of Narm (it's true that TV Tropes expands your vocabulary... or ruins it). it's bad enough they're going for darker and edgier with the Disney versions of the characters... but now they're adding in Captain Hook (a turn of the 19th century play character) and Mulan (a Chinese legend... she might or might not have been real) to a series that takes place in Fairy Tale times.

Shrek got away with Captain Hook. It's anachronism Stew! (TV tropes again... ^%$). But everything was played for laughs. I found Pinocchio bad enough, being a 1880's character, and the CGI Jimminy Cricket to be more goofy than the Disney owned character of the same name.

If they're going to add Disney characters to the show... 2 words.. Darkwing Duck. Darker and edgier Darkwing Duck (makes about as much sense as anything else on the show). Darkwing Duck and Stitch... and Emperor Kuzco.

 

[charlietheowl]

Partners is basically one of the worst sitcoms I've seen since... well... Whitney. Other than that, there's a lot of really good stuff out there.

I wrote my post too quickly; I wanted to say there are no good traditional format sitcoms out there today. The mockumentary/flashback style shows are the only ones doing great (unless you want to count It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia); I love Parks and Recreation. But the traditional format sitcom is floundering, and it stuns me that production companies and networks could have so much trouble getting something together that they have done since 1946.

 

[D'Snowth]

I remember reading that Cheers was going to be cancelled after its first season due to low ratings but was saved by critical praise.

Similar case with M*A*S*H: no one watched the first season during it's initial airing because they were all watching other shows, then when they showed it again during the summer repeats, people took notice, and it jumped from like #55 in the Nielsen ratings to #2 (that and apparently the wife of the network executive insisted he keep the show).