Comedy nights are being dismantled. NBC’s former “must-see Thursday” is now being anchored by a reality show. And no network is bringing any more than two new sitcom titles to the fall schedules this year.
The networks’ lavish presentations to advertisers of fall lineups last month confirmed what had been building for a while: It’s the worst time for TV sitcoms in 20 years.
With long-running comedies like “Friends” and “Frasier” now gone from the air in first run, and just three sitcoms represented on a recent list of Top 25-rated shows, even the scant number of comedies unveiled by networks are as often as not departures from the standard sitcom format.
“There’s no question comedy has been a tougher game for everybody in the last few years,” NBC chief Jeff Zucker said recently.
After “Friends” and “Frasier” ended last month in a pair of sweeps events, only one of NBC’s fall offerings is a standard sitcom: the “Friends” spin-off “Joey.” The other is the computer-animated “Father of the Pride.”
Three other comedies are being readied for later in the 2004-05 season, including “Crazy for You,” “The Men’s Room” and the Americanization of the BBC hit “The Office.”
But, Zucker said, “There’s no need to introduce new comedies where there’s no chance to succeed.”
“Today comedy is in a challenged state,” said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, who said there’s no need to offer viable comedies in bad time slots that will guarantee failure.
“Ironically, the best way to put comedy on is to keep it off in the short term,” Reilly said. With just “Scrubs” and “Will &Grace” returning in the fall, NBC will be offering its fewest comedies since 1980.
Some networks unveiled plans for animated comedies, particularly Fox, which in January will introduce “American Dad,” a new series from Seth MacFarlane, whose “Family Guy” was canceled by Fox in 2002 after three seasons. In its absence, “Family Guy” has become enough of a cult hit in its DVD release that it will return to Fox with new episodes in summer 2005.
Network executives say that besides animation and sketch shows, there may be a way to define many of the growing number of reality shows as comedies, too.
It was partly a comedic touch that helped make the reality series “The Apprentice” the reigning Thursday-night show on NBC, Zucker says.
“Out of reality, we’ve gotten comedy,” he said. “Parts of ‘Average Joe’ play as comedy.”
Some of the stars of past sitcoms are among those anchoring new comedies in standard and nonstandard approaches.
Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” returns in the CBS comedy “Listen Up,” based on the life of sportswriter Tony Kornheiser. John Goodman of “Roseanne” stars in the CBS family comedy “Center of the Universe” with Jean Smart, Ed Asner and Olympia Dukakis.
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