What's gone wrong (or right) with sitcoms? Page 2

Quote: chipolata @ 12th March 2023, 8:55 AM

I don't think there's an audience for big traditional sitcoms anymore. They flourished at a time when there was limited channels and limited choice. They're the dodo of genres, they had their moment but now they're barreling towards extinction.

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I am so glad this statement is not borne out one jot by the evidence - When trad sitcoms of the 70s and 80s are repeated on the Beeb they get higher ratings than practically every current running sitcom. Even the sub par Still Open All Hours was pulling in an above average audience. And the success of nostalgia channels is all down to repeating the sitcoms the Beeb is too nervous and too politically distanced from (being a bunch of lefty numnuts) to show now.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 12th March 2023, 9:17 AM

I am so glad this statement is not borne out one jot by the evidence - When trad sitcoms of the 70s and 80s are repeated on the Beeb they get higher ratings that practically every current running sitcom. Even the sub par Still Open All Hours was pulling in an above average audience. And the success of nostalgia channels is all down to repeating the sitcoms the Beeb is too scared to show now.

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The demographic that watch them are pretty old. Younger audiences, the ones TV channels and advertisers obsess over, aren't watching those shows.

Oh you mean the ones the Beeb's own figures tell you mostly avoid having a TV licence?

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 12th March 2023, 9:17 AM

I am so glad this statement is not borne out one jot by the evidence - When trad sitcoms of the 70s and 80s are repeated on the Beeb they get higher ratings than practically every current running sitcom. Even the sub par Still Open All Hours was pulling in an above average audience. And the success of nostalgia channels is all down to repeating the sitcoms the Beeb is too nervous and too politically distanced from (being a bunch of lefty numnuts) to show now.

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So, the need for this kind of material is fulfilled more than adequately.
Why go to the bother of struggling to make new sitcoms when everybody loves the old sitcoms?
And the very reason they love them is because they (the programmes) are old.

No I'd say it's because they are much better sitcoms than those being made today. And do what sitcoms are meant to do.

Well, I beg to differ - but good luck in your dealings with the BBC.

There's no way the young people I talk to would ever sit down and watch a big traditional sitcom. They might last five minutes, if that, and then they'd be on YouTube or TikTok or streaming something about serial killers on Netflix.

Have they tried making a serial killer sitcom yet?

Quote: zooo @ 12th March 2023, 9:58 AM

Have they tried making a serial killer sitcom yet?

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There must surely have been a serial killer on League of Gentlemen?

Quote: chipolata @ 12th March 2023, 10:06 AM

There must surely have been a serial killer on League of Gentlemen?

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On Psychoville there was - David Sowerbutts

Is Psychoville a sitcom, though?

Tubbs and Edward probably were too.

There's bound to be one in that grim The Cleaner thing.

Quote: chipolata @ 12th March 2023, 9:54 AM

There's no way the young people I talk to would ever sit down and watch a big traditional sitcom. They might last five minutes, if that, and then they'd be on YouTube or TikTok or streaming something about serial killers on Netflix.

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You're telling me they haven't watched Blackadder or The Office? How young are they, 3?

Blackadder launched 40 years ago, The Office 22 years.
Time flies by.
Anyone under 30-ish wouldn't have seen them first time round.

Quote: chipolata @ 12th March 2023, 9:22 AM

The demographic that watch them are pretty old. Younger audiences, the ones TV channels and advertisers obsess over, aren't watching those shows.

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Are you sure. The 15 - 30 young might not be keen but but 30 - 40 young do watch them, and those are the ones with the money to spend.