What's happening to the sitcom? (The impacts of streaming)
- Brooke D
- Apr 21, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 24, 2023
Hello all! As some know, I've been binging Modern Family on Hulu and considering that's how I've watched most of the sitcoms I love, I thought I would discuss the impact of the sitcom and why I think it's changing for the worse.
First, I'd like to preface this post with one, I'm going to stick with discussion of a limited number of sitcoms. As I've only seen a handful from this century and only a few reruns of past shows, I don't have much experience with the full evolution of the sitcom, although I will link sites that I use to reference past sitcoms. And two, my main focus will be on discussing how I think our viewing of old sitcoms as well as the way tv shows are developed now is going to continue to evolve.
According to Merriam Webster dictionary, a sitcom is a television series with comedic elements and a continuing cast of characters. The earliest sitcoms I can remember, which I binged later on in life, were Growing Pains and Full House. Also included but will probably not be touched on, are the Disney Channel shows that were also very sitcom esque like Good Luck Charlie or Wizards of Waverly Place. Reba, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Middle, and now Modern Family are all the sitcoms I grew up with but in a very different circumstance than what was intended, especially for sitcoms of the 80s and 90s.
Sitcoms were typically ordered in episode batches around 20+ 20 minute episodes to be released over the course of the fall and spring, taking a short break in the winter and a break during the summer. Episodes aired weekly and were told in an outlined format with an A plot, B plot, and possibly C plot depending on the show. One big difference in the way these stories were told (as compared to streaming shows now) is through characterization.
Because sitcoms were written with a typical 22 episodes in mind, the shows had more time to spread out the growth of their characters as well as reduce the stakes of what was happening on screen. This made shows like Full House or Growing Pains that focused on family more relatable because it dealt with mundane problems and typically sought to teach a lesson by the end of the episode. Modern Family has a very similar structure in which character growth occurs over a season of episodes and every few episodes, a very emotional and poignant topic is touched on and summed up through it's mockumentary style storytelling.
Why are sitcoms important?
I think the reason sitcoms are so important, is because they reflect the point in time in which they're created as well as possibilities for what we wish to see. Some of the best examples of sitcoms reflecting the changing attitudes of the times include the Brady Bunch which featured a blended family at a time when divorce rates were going up in the 70s (Garrison). The Mary Tyler Moore Show became one of the first to invest in the idea of the "work" family, something that would eventually lead to the workplace sitcoms we know today (The Office, Parks and Rec, Brooklynn 99). The promotional photographs of shows from the 80s (like Growing Pains pictured above) were taken family portrait style, emphasizing families.
What also makes sitcoms such a success is the amount of time it spends with its audience. With a focus on family, the genre invites the audience members into the homes and lives of these characters. We witness the characters grow up, fall in love, go through struggles and more over the course of several years. By the end of many sitcoms, the kids from the pilot end in graduating high school, and if you're like me, you were growing up along side them. Unlike other television shows, sitcoms aren't ladened with constant drama. Some examples of shows that don't fit into the sitcom genre are the Arrowverse shows like The Flash or Supergirl that center around a different premise. It's not as real as sitcoms which are attempting to showcase a somewhat true to life family or family-esque dynamic.
The most recent version of the sitcom I've watched is Modern Family which weaves together three distinct and related families to create the plot, each touching on social themes that make there way into the episodes such as a gay couple, a couple with a larger age gap and involving a step child, adoption, and the typical nuclear family. In many ways, this show, airing in the early 2010s was a big step towards representation and diversity. It was also one of the few shows still airing right before the pandemic hit and witnessed the rise of streaming platforms and binging.
The Impact of Streaming Platforms
I think there have been two major impacts of streaming platforms. One, is the ability to binge watch through several years of a past show. A great example of this is the rewatches of The Office. The show was the one that was rewatched the most during the pandemic. It was also the time for people to binge shows. My experience with most sitcoms as I mentioned before, was through a binge format. Due to that format, many of the sitcoms I watched this way have not stuck with me like they should have. I don't remember much of what happens in Everybody Loves Raymond or Reba because while they aired over several years, I watched all of the episodes very quickly without a need for rewatching. Meanwhile, my ability to quote The Office or Parks and Recreation stem from multiple viewings and binging of the series, but even though my memory of the show is limited.
While we may say we want all the episodes of a tv show at once, the reason television is able to do what many films can't, is because it has the physical time to spend with it's audience. A film exists in a typically uninterrupted span of time and once the film is finished, there may be a discussion here or there, possibly even a sequel, but eventually the films fall out of conversation, especially without anything truly tethering them in an audience's consciousness like the connection formed over a series of several months/years.
Because of streaming, television can no longer spend the time on slower, mundane stories because it's audience will get bored in the binge format. Using a binge formula, television series need to have continual suspense throughout the episodes to keep viewers engaged, and more noticeably it seems, must build up to a bigger conclusion with each episode being used as a stepping stone towards that. Shows like Wandavision or Stranger Things no longer have time for filler episodes. And one might argue that these shows are simply not sitcoms, but I would ask for modern examples aside from the now ended Modern Family that replicate a sitcom format in this age of streaming.
It's not like streaming doesn't allow for episode to episode drops, one example of a service that sticks to the traditional format is Disney+, which releases it's series' in the weekly format, however the only series closest to the traditional sitcom is the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which typically has a longer run (12 episodes as opposed to 6-8), but still builds to an eventual finale and again, has zero room for filler. While it lasts longer in the consciousness, 12 episodes is about three months worth of content every year to year and a half. It's not reliable or something that can be counted on in the same way the traditional television cycle (Fall to Spring) could be relied on.
I'm sure there are many other reasons why television programming has changed, including the overwhelming access we have to media that has essentially made us continuously crave the next new thing, stopping just long enough to participate in the trend before it moves on. While I didn't touch on it in detail, another really interesting thing is the way some shows have lasted through the binge era of content (like The Office or Friends) and why those shows work while others may still be revered as classics but are rarely quoted in the same way.
Thanks for reading and please comment, like and share! Let me know your favorite sitcoms and where you think they're headed for in the future!
Additional Resources about Sitcoms:
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