Splitsider

Unpopular Opinions is a bi-weekly column in which a writer takes a stand against popular opinion, whether it's asserting the true merit of a supposedly guilty pleasure or dissenting against the universally lauded.

“Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience.” Those are welcoming words to people of a certain age. They make you think about a home cooked meal after soccer practice. Or a sack of McDonald’s you happily shoved down your throat while waiting for your mom and dad to come home from their weekly night out. Or the can of still beer you guzzled by yourself after stealing it from the front yard of a frat [...]

In my regular perch at Maclean's magazine, I'm known as "that guy who loves multi-camera sitcoms." Or would be, if I were known. But this certainly is not a great time to be a supporter of the sitcom shot with four cameras in front of an audience. All the Emmy nominees for best comedy are single-camera these days; among shows shot with an audience, the only one with some acclaim is The Big Bang Theory, which does some things extremely well and other things very frustratingly. There's a very real chance that the multi-camera format will be given up as old-fashioned, even though single-camera sitcoms are actually older [...]

So many sitcoms feature the same tired duo of a hot, cranky wife and a bumbling dolt of a dad. Isn't it time we shifted the paradigm to a hot, cranky wife and a dad who is just so fucking high? Would that every life lesson be taught at a Taco Bell! If any program is going to pioneer this culture shift, it's going to be Snoop Dog's new show, developed at Warner Bros TV and on the verge of being shopped around to networks. Snoop Dogg will star as the father on the multi-camera sitcom in a role that echoes his reality show Snoop Dogg's Father Hood, [...]

Over the last few years, single-camera comedies like 30 Rock and Community have soaked up critical praise, while multi-camera sitcoms patiently bided their time over at CBS (and, you know, were watched and beloved by millions of people). However, with the announcement of several multi-camera comedies at the network upfronts, it seems like the format is making a comeback across the board. While CBS has been keeping the hope alive, NBC, Fox and ABC had only one multi-camera shows between them this past season (ABC's Better With You, which has since been canceled). However, with the addition of Fox's I Hate My Teenage Daughter, NBC's Whitney and [...]