Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’ve got another Q&A entry, where I answer questions submitted by readers. Thanks to everyone who sent in something — if you don’t see your “Q” here, I just may “A” it next time. (And keep them coming — any related topic on which you want my opinion and/or a little research? Just let me know!)
Paul asks… What other sitcoms and their seasons come to mind where you can say that you like every single episode?
There are actually quite a few because if a sitcom is well-designed, then its situation should act as a supportive foundation to every episodic idea, ensuring situation comedy, and therefore a basic value that sustains every single week. Yes, on practical terms, every show and season, even the best, has samples that are better than others. There’s no 24-episode collection where every single entry is equally great. However, for seasons of shows where every installment has something about it that’s recommendable as situation comedy – just look to the best seasons of the greats: I Love Lucy; The Dick Van Dyke Show; The Mary Tyler Moore Show; Cheers; Seinfeld; etc. I don’t love every segment in there equally, but in peak years, “bad” is rare because the shows themselves guarantee that their lower-quality offerings have an already acceptable baseline.
Mr. Melody is curious… Has their ever been a sitcom closest to replicating the soap opera-esque, and comedic, antics of Soap? (Hail to the Chief, Good and Evil, Muscle, etc)
Well, yes — you listed examples of other soap satires in sitcom form. However, if you’re asking about quality, I’d have to say “no.” That is, even beyond this narrow category, I think Susan Harris’ Soap is an exceptional example of a “genre parody” sitcom – a subgenre that, as a rule, I don’t love, for its examples tend to be too exclusively idea-driven, prioritizing laughs and stories that directly spoof other works and other types of works instead of developing their characters as the focus of an actually self-sustaining situation. Conceptually, it’s a tough setup, for every “genre parody” sitcom (not just soap spoofs – but also cop shows, spy games, detective yarns, sci-fi fantasies, etc.) must indulge elements of parody to truly and fully satisfy its situation. But such premised concerns can too often keep episodes feeling like extended sketches – winking riffs on comic ideas that are neither unique nor internally cultivated by the show itself. And without meaningful support from well-defined regulars and their established dynamics, this kind of storytelling loses its comic luster pretty fast (as we’ve seen more and more in the streaming era). So, on principle, I’ve never championed genre parodies in sitcom form, of any type. Soap is one of the notable exceptions because it’s genuinely good as a sitcom. Its characters are well-defined and they inform the storytelling, guiding how the structural satire is comedically applied. I don’t believe I could say the same for many of its descendants, so covering them here would probably be of little value to you or me. I’d just be repeating myself.
Jason Bonowitz wants to know… What sitcoms did you at one time hate that you now do like?
There are many shows for which I’ve come to cultivate a greater appreciation as a result of a more formal, intentional study. Some of those include Barney Miller, whose focus on “realism” (often for a dramatic purpose) seemed like such a restriction on character-based comedy and storytelling that I had to work harder to enjoy it more simply for what it was (instead of being annoyed by what it wasn’t), and Roseanne, which once implied a personal smugness to me about its own overestimated value within the genre, stemming from, again, an over-proud sense of “realism,” that I had to learn to separate that attitude from the material itself (and its actual quality). Simply, that’s often what happens — I have to find a way to navigate to something I like around something I dislike, until I ultimately find enough value on the other side that the initial deterrent no longer matters that much. I’m currently trying to get there with M*A*S*H.
Nat has a query… Inspired by your answer about great sitcoms that really fell off a cliff in later seasons, what sitcoms do you think had the opposite experience? Meaning, the starkest improvement. I know most of them take a little while to warm up but what shows do you think went from extremely bad (terrible) to extremely good (great)?
That’s a thought-provoking question. I can’t think of any show off the top of my head that I believe went from truly terrible to truly great. At most, I’ve seen terrible to okay, or okay to great. That is, for shows with a mostly positive trajectory, there’s usually one extreme end, not two. However, I can think of quite a few shows whose initial mediocrity (which sometimes is less enjoyable than pure badness) makes their forthcoming greatness especially unexpected. Of course, popular titles like Seinfeld, The Office, or Parks And Recreation would come to mind for a lot of people, as each had brief and fairly nondescript first seasons that didn’t predict the excellence that would soon follow. However, I’ll go out on a limb and say something more controversial. I think the first season (and lots of the second season) of Everybody Loves Raymond is an adult-focused but nevertheless average-quality example of a family sitcom — the kind of series to which I wouldn’t have given much thought had it been cancelled after only one or two years, before scripts realized that they needed to lean more into the funny familial conflict enabled by the premised construct of having Ray’s parents (and brother) living right across the street. In other words, once the show knew to best play into its situation — the drama of having Ray caught between his birth family and his created family, with Marie and Debra the two loudest and most influential ambassadors of those rival worlds, then it could finally deliver terrific character-based situation comedy that distinguished it favorably among its peers. And that’s the kind of greatness of which I only saw rare and brief flashes in Season One.
And lastly, Track is complimentary… Very good book…are you planning on doing more decades?
The 1960s has more (and, generally, better) sitcoms than the 1950s, so I’d love to write a more formal tribute to it and its finest samples. Would you all buy and read a 1960s book?
Have a question for me? Submit it at the “Ask Jackson (Q&A)” link.
Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned Monday for a musical rarity! Oh, and if you haven’t taken my latest survey on 2010s sitcoms, please do so here!