Quote: Piggler @ 23rd December 2020, 2:02 PMit seems like stuff on TV used to be a lot more upbeat!
I'd agree. Fleabags, Flowers and Mum being case in point. Comedy drama, rather than comedy slap stick like Allo Allo and The Young ones etc..
What do you think of the British sitcom landscape? Page 3
Glad the title of this thread has been changed to make it make sense.
You mean people actually watch Mrs Browns Boys? Ew!
Quote: Chop In A Toaster @ 17th April 2021, 10:40 AMYou mean people actually watch Mrs Browns Boys? Ew!
Well, the Xmas special got it's worst viewing figures ever - so perhaps people are going off it.
Sadly the Beeb have saddled themselves with it for another 5 years.
I don't think 'classic' comedy is without pathos - 'The Good Life', 'Butterflies' and 'Dinnerladies' being prime examples. Also, 'black comedy' was a huge genre in the 80s and 90s (Blackadder Goes Forth, Withnail and I, A Fish Called Wanda...). As for comedy-drama, I have a theory that writers sit down to write a drama and it ends up being funny, rather than it being the other way round. Therefore, it can't be marketed as a drama because it's not miserable enough. The play of Fleabag is a lot more serious than the series, but still has funny elements - I think they geared it more towards comedy to fit the BBC3 style. It was different to other Fringe one-person shows, such as the likes of Caroline Aherne and Steve Coogan, for example, which were pure comedy when they performed live as characters. Just a theory, anyway.
It's like Charlie Brooker said he sat down and started writing horror, and it made him laugh, and the more horrible the funnier it was to him.
It's become very flat, it used to have huge mountains, but there's hardly a bump where it is now.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 18th April 2021, 8:39 AMIt's become very flat, it used to have huge mountains, but there's hardly a bump where it is now.
This is a good metaphor. I feel there's very little variety around - tonally so similar.
Yeah. Aron Is right
Quote: ShepardMr @ 20th April 2021, 7:57 PMYeah. Aron Is right
Of course he is. You're learning fast.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 18th April 2021, 8:39 AMIt's become very flat, it used to have huge mountains, but there's hardly a bump where it is now.
But enough of your erections.
Ha ha yes. Posting on the AP thread reminded me how many sitcom revivals there have been after long gaps and whole sitcom reboots in the thin guise of spin offs there have been with new actors. How many of these have actually worked let alone been as good as the last series?
When every one of these starts I think of all unknown writers out there, many with paid options who are continually rejected by commissioners because they've not been tried. It annoys me almost as much as the handing out of sitcom commissions like sweets to stand ups who don't know the first thing about sitcom. 
Morning.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 3rd May 2021, 8:26 AM
When every one of these starts I think of all unknown writers out there, many with paid options who are continually rejected by commissioners because they've not been tried. It annoys me almost as much as the handing out of sitcom commissions like sweets to stand ups who don't know the first thing about sitcom.
Reliance on tried and tested stars is as much the audiences fault as anybody's. We gravitate towards what we know, don't watch new stuff, and crucify what little new stuff we do watch because its not perfect from the get go (just look at the threads in this forum for ridiculous over the top invective aimed at new comedies). In other words, we get exactly the comedy we deserve.
Quote: chipolata @ 3rd May 2021, 9:18 AMReliance on tried and tested stars is as much the audiences fault as anybody's. We gravitate towards what we know, don't watch new stuff, and crucify what little new stuff we do watch because its not perfect from the get go (just look at the threads in this forum for ridiculous over the top invective aimed at new comedies). In other words, we get exactly the comedy we deserve.
I don't think this is true.
For a start, what we think on this forum has no bearing on the success of a new comedy.
We're fussy and not easily pleased. We should probably get over ourselves.
The public, if they like something are tremendously loyal.
It's the commissioners I'm afraid.
More accurately the layers of commissioners that are needed to be on board.
So if you can send round a video clip of the bloke who writes and stars in the show, in a You Tube video of him actually performing a version of it, people (who would struggle to read a script) find it easier to say yes.
And that's a pretty well verbatim quote from the Head of C4 comedy.
One of our 'old boys' from here is being commissioned on the strength of his YouTube comedy videos.