Quote: Nogget @ 2nd May 2015, 7:36 AM BST
There are three markers of value: popularity, which of course can actually make a show less valuable to the Cool Brigade (I try to only be a part-time member myself); critical acclaim, which changes all the time, and why should we listen to these critics anyway?; and influence.
Influence and popularity are the factors which can best be measured objectively.
See where you're coming from here.
But influence is a tricky measure.
That which exerts influence is new in some way.
In turn that may lead one to expect that every comedy somehow reinvents the wheel. The end result of this might be for everyone to seek to create the latest 'Mighty Boosh'. I'm not sure I would welcome that.
But then, must every sitcom create 'the new'?
Did 'Only fools and horses'? Did 'Porridge'?
Or is it enough to have learned from other sitcoms? To be of the current standard, so to speak?
I agree with you that those sitcoms which leave a legacy of sorts are some of the greatest in the pantheon. But I'm not sure how useful the measure is.
But then there is also the issue of learning from influence.
As for relevant influence here I would point to 'Fasier'.
It appeared to be the juggernaut which rolled into town.
Ever since US sitcoms have tried to recapture its vibe.
But to my mind, TBBT is the first sitcom to at last equal that behemoth.
In some aspects I would say it has even surpassed it.
I think TBBT's successful tactic of increasing its cast, especially its female ensemble, in order to increase the options in storytelling, will be clinically dissected for some time to come.
So there may indeed some influence apparent, eventually.
But any such influence can only ever be brought to bear in shows which are capable of deriving any benefit from it.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 2nd May 2015, 8:42 AM BST
Has someone caught George Roper disease? Not sure why TBBT needed a new thread myself. The other one dealt with new series very well.
I don't like the act of running a sitcom into the earth's core the way that lot do. Having said that I think it got to 100 eps without tiring too much. Probably because of the intensive filming method over a very short period and the fact the episodes are only 21 mins long.
But to keep banging out the same prog year after year is like being told the same joke again and again, or being run over by the same bus. The speed at which they are made and the intensity of the broadcast schedule is a huge problem for me. It means quite soon after discovering a good new sitcom you are choked to death with it and can't bear it anymore.
I will never agree with the American method. Fawlty Towers' 12 gems will forever outshine any and all US sitcoms. Fact.
Yes, the Yanks like milking a success. No doubt.
But as their 'milked' stuff still outperforms our first and second 6-part series output, then they might just have a point.
The current eighth series of TBBT is still superior to 'Peter Kay's Car Share'.
As for 'Fawlty Towers', once again I must point out that it lies closer in time to the second world war than to us. Yes, it was brilliant. But what else do we want to wax lyrical about forever more? Dame Vera Lynn?
I know this sounds harsh. But the truth is we are these days not capable of producing a 'Fawlty Towers' anymore.
And if we're honest, we have to concede that we also cannot produce a TBBT. Not because we choose not to. But simply because we are not able.
Else would we really forego that sort of money voluntarily and leave it to the Yanks? Of course not. We'd leap at it.
Our channels don't have the money, we are unlikely even to have sufficient numbers of established writers to call on to form such rolling teams.
Now would I like brilliant large teams like that involved in TBBT to be writing a great variety of shorter sitcoms? Yes.
But that is not an option.
We either have large teams creating big US projects and then draining the last drop from it, or we simply stick to the British model which has ceased working.
I maintain that the US ever since 'Frasier' owns sitcom. We have not come up with anything worthwhile for a long time now and our output is getting thinner and thinner.
Thus I applaud TBBT.
Those folks have created something lasting. Whether we like the methodology, the industry, or the length of its run is irrelevant. Because at least they are creating something worthwhile.
A classic mainstream comedy with memorable characters and some lovely scenes one is unlikely to forget in a hurry.
Of course as it draws to an end it gets thinner and the chance of their creating truly classic episodes grow more slight. But at times they still do.
Whereas on this side of the pond we have a fat man in a car with a woman singing badly.... hilarious.