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Posts tagged as sitcoms

Looking at Amazon's 10 New Comedy Pilots Currently in Development

Last month, Amazon launched eight comedy pilots as part of their efforts to create a number of new original TV series. While many of these came from established TV comedy writers some such as Those Who Can’t came through Amazon’s open door submission policy. Launched almost exactly a year ago the policy allows for any aspiring writer to submit their half hour pilot script for review of up to 45 days. After that time is up Amazon can choose to either let your script go, buy it outright for $55,000, or extend their evaluation period twice for 18 months for $10,000 an extension. In the past year Amazon [...]

Don't Worry, Dane Cook and Justin Bieber Are Both Working on New Network Sitcoms

Universally beloved media personalities Dane Cook and Justin Bieber are both developing new sitcoms for big TV networks, Deadline and TV Guide report. Cook doesn't have a show yet but he just signed a new development deal with NBC to make a series that will serve starring vehicle for himself. He recently starred in the comedy Next Caller, which was picked up for six episodes by NBC but unexpectedly canceled before it aired because the network was unhappy with the creative direction of the show. "Dane Cook is one of the most talented comedians working today," says NBC President Jennifer Salke. Justin Bieber's show is set [...]

Fox Is Launching the 'Short-Com Comedy Hour' in a Year

Next summer, Fox is going to air 6-9 episodes of the Short-Com Comedy Hour. What's a short-com? Great question! It's a term Fox made up that means short-form sitcom. The idea is Fox will take four of these short-coms and squeeze them into an hour. But they aren't sketches. Each will be a multi-camera one-act sitcom scene. The network is looking for comedians, primarily stand-ups, who will create, produce, and star in their own mini shows. It's meant to harken back to the early 90s when stand-ups were given multi-cam series built around their acts. The ultimate goal of this show is to find the next Ray Romano or [...]

Searching for a Worthy Successor to 'The Larry Sanders Show'

When television geeks use the phrase “single-camera sitcom,” they’re talking about a certain kind of show. People don’t generally refer to The Brady Bunch or Gilligan’s Island that way, though it’s technically correct — neither show is filmed on a soundstage, there’s no studio audience, and both have a visual style that is closer to a film than to Cheers. The modern use of “single-camera,” though, both the term and the technique, has only really been around since the mid-90s. Or, to be more accurate, since The Larry Sanders Show.

If you’re not already familiar with The Larry Sanders Show, watch a few episodes on Netflix Instant or get [...]

Kicking Off the Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament: I Love Lucy vs. The Honeymooners and The Simpsons vs. Seinfeld

Today, we're kicking off a pretty big and relatively ridiculous project: the Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament. We here have gathered up 32 nominations for the single best sitcom episode to ever air (thanks in part to all of your suggestions) and made a bracket. We'll now be pitting all of these classic and future-classic episodes against each other in a single-elimination battle for supremacy, with your votes determining which episode advances and which stays behind.

And I know, comedy is subjective and there's no real "best" episode out there. Some people will find their all-time-favorite didn't even make the bracket. But don't sweat it: this is the internet. [...]

'The Simpsons' Deemed the Best Sitcom Ever by Vulture, 'Cheers' #2

Over the past few weeks, Vulture has been holding its "Sitcom Smackdown" tournament, pitting a bunch of amazing shows against each other in a bracket to determine the best sitcom of the past 30 years. The Simpsons won yesterday, narrowly beating Cheers. Seinfeld, Community, Roseanne, Arrested Development, and Sex and the City also made it pretty far in bracket. Vulture's Matt Zoller Seitz wrote the argument for why Simpsons is the better of the two excellent, very different shows:

A decade-plus past its prime, The Simpsons has a stronger presence in American life than Cheers,  SeinfeldCommunity, or any other sitcom you can think of. Since Matt Groening’s show debuted in [...]

NBC Is Buying All the Comedies

After buying four new comedy projects this week and picking up more episodes of two of its existing shows, NBC up and bought two more comedy projects this morning, one from actress Kate Walsh and another from stand-up Tommy Johnagin (pictured). The first project is a multi-cam sitcom loosely based on the real-life experiences of Kate Walsh and writer Chris Case (creator of TVLand's Retired at 35), who are dating. It centers on a divorced father of two boys who falls for a free-spirited police officer, all the while dealing with his ex who is seeing his best friend. The show from Tommy Johnagin, a  Letterman regular and [...]

A Look Back At Charlie Kaufman's Sitcom Work

Charlie Kaufman isn’t exactly an impersonal writer. His attempts to adapt The Orchid Thief turned into Adaptation., a movie about a painfully self-aware screenwriter named “Charlie Kaufman” falling apart while attempting to adapt The Orchid Thief. It’s a struggle to imagine Kaufman, either fictionalized or IRL, thriving in the anonymous and often abrasive environment of a sitcom writer’s room. So it’s surprising that, before breaking into screenwriting, Kaufman worked in television for almost a decade, staffing on sketch shows like The Dana Carvey Show and The Edge and sitcoms like Get A Life and Ned & Stacey.

There’s evidence to support the idea that Kaufman might not have thrived [...]

Dazzlin' Tony Danza Set to Make His Return to Television

Danza! In the immortal words of Ladies Love Cool James, "Don't call it a comeback, Danza's been here for years, but now he's going to be more here because he's set to star in a new, Vince Vaughn produced television show that is soon to be picked up by ABC " (More like Ladies Love Cool Albeit Overly Verbose James, amirite? Noiamnot). The multi-camera sitcom, currently operating under the working title The Guys, is about three old friends (old as in their age and length of time they've been friends) who decide to move in together into a bachelor pad near their respective families. In addition, it was [...]

Could You Get Paid to Laugh Infectiously?

Laughter ringers are people with infectious laughs that live-audience sitcoms plant in the audience to get the rest of the crowd going, and this article by Joel Warner investigates what it takes to join their ranks. It's definitely a good idea to try laughing as loudly as you can right now, immediately, wherever you are. Otherwise you'll never know.

NBC Orders an 'About a Boy' Pilot and a Jessica Simpson Sitcom Pilot

NBC has announced it's ordering three new comedy pilots in the past week, and here they are:

  • About a Boy – a half-hour comedy based on Nick Hornby's novel and the Hugh Grant film of the same name, developed by Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood).
  • Joe, Joe and Jane – a multi-cam comedy from Joe Port and Joe Wiseman (Perfect Couples, Just Shoot Me), about a childrens' book author caught in a neverending tug-of-war between his wife and his co-author/best friend. Based off the character names in the title, this seems like it's based off of Port and Wiseman's own lives but with "childrens' book [...]

How Michael J. Fox Ended Up Coming Back to TV

If you're interested in the full backstory of how Michael J. Fox's upcoming sitcom at NBC came to be, TV Guide has a great, in-depth look at just how it all went down. And it should make you excited for it, even though it's over a year away from being on the air — Fox is a national treasure. I can't wait to see him back on TV on a regular basis again.

Making a Successful Pilot is Very, Very Hard

Here's Tom Hertz, creator and showrunner of Rules of Engagement, former showrunner of Spin City and King of Queens, and former writer for The Larry Sanders Show and Dennis Miller Live on just how difficult it is to create a successful sitcom. It's hard! Very hard: Modern Family and Work It were both trying to be good when they were being conceived. And you can have a good show about two guys dressing up as women, there was that show Tit Pals. Actually wait – I think they ended up going with Bosom Buddies. The thing is there are just so many random factors you have no control over in the pilot process. Like what hit shows [...]

The Evolution of Comedy

In the aftermath of the improbable, yet somehow completely predictable, Oscar victory of a black-and-white silent film, The AV Club's Erik Adams wrote a piece asking whether television is “a medium without a past.” It's difficult for the average TV viewer — or even the obsessive one — to watch many classic shows like I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners and All In the Family, even in the era of the DVD boxed set. Syndication space is occupied by Seinfeld and The Simpsons; Nick at Nite, where I soaked up TV history and learned all the lyrics to the Gilligan's Island theme song, is now running Friends and That [...]

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