Sitcom Story Arc

Hi I'm a new member to the site. Been reading the threads for a while and I'm really happy I've found people who similarly want to write comedy.

My first thread is about story arcs.

I've been writing my sitcom now since the New Year and its really coming on well. I started with a ‘bottom up' approach which involved writing a strong plot with lots of conflict built in and the jokes have pretty much written themselves.

What I want to ask is whether any sitcoms have been written in the past that involve a long running story arc throughout a series that is resolved in the final episode, rather than being a collection of small stories?

I am aware that most sitcoms have an overall theme running throughout a series, but each episode is usually pretty much a self-contained short story on the periphery of the main plot.

The main plot of my sitcom is based on an event that spans roughly a month of the main characters life with the episodes following on from one another. This forces me to end with ‘TO BE CONTINUED' and if produced would probably need a recap at the start.

Has this format ever been used before? I can't think of something similar to compare it to?

Each season of Curb Your Enthusiasm is marked by a very defined arc.

Curb and Arrested Development did as well.

Gavin and Stacey

Over the Rainbow?

Curb is definitely an influence. I'm just a bit paranoid about tying each episode at the end with some sort of an ending rather than just following on in the next episode.

Curb keeps a series story arc going but also has clearly defined and separated episodes.

Worst week of my life.
Reginald Perrin
Nighty Night

I personally like sitcom series that combine weekly self-contained stories with stories that develop over the entire series, for instance Fools and Horses which would have a specific self-contained weekly story, but also a theme that would develop over the entire series, such as Del Boy's blossoming relationship with Raquel. Best of both worlds then, innit?

Would it strictly be a sitcom if it didn't have some sort of contained story each week? If its one story over the whole series, with cliffhangers/to be continued style endings that lead directly into the next episode like a drama, wouldn't that be more like a comedy serial, or something like that? I'm sure thats a point that many have raised about Gavin And Stacey, when they've denied it's strictly a sitcom. I'm working on a 'comedy serial' myself, with cliffhangers and one on going story, and I've already pondered on what to refer to it as when i send it out to producers; sitcom just doesn't seem correct.

Yeah, you need the individual problem/resolution stories going on in the immediate foreground, with the story arc taking a back seat(ie 2nd plotline) in my opinion.

Without the 'weekly' story, people may lose interest. If they wanted something to keep them coming back for more story, they'll watch a drama, not a sitcom. Over and above anything else, they expect to laugh.

Dan

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 16 2008, 9:57 PM BST

Would it strictly be a sitcom if it didn't have some sort of contained story each week? If its one story over the whole series, with cliffhangers/to be continued style endings that lead directly into the next episode like a drama, wouldn't that be more like a comedy serial, or something like that? I'm sure thats a point that many have raised about Gavin And Stacey, when they've denied it's strictly a sitcom. I'm working on a 'comedy serial' myself, with cliffhangers and one on going story, and I've already pondered on what to refer to it as when i send it out to producers; sitcom just doesn't seem correct.

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Some drama's are standalone and some are serial but they are still drama. I don't think the definition of a sitcom is 'must be standalone'. If its still a narrative comedy in 30 mins it should be a sitcom. The Office, Extras, Peep Show all have story arcs and are surely sitcoms?

But then there is no finite definition.

Quote: ContainsNuts @ July 17 2008, 9:03 AM BST

Some drama's are standalone and some are serial but they are still drama. I don't think the definition of a sitcom is 'must be standalone'. If its still a narrative comedy in 30 mins it should be a sitcom. The Office, Extras, Peep Show all have story arcs and are surely sitcoms?

But then there is no finite definition.

View original

Don't agree, I'm pretty sure Ive read and heard that in a sitcom, in the true sense of sitcom, it's is really meant to be stand alone stories and everything is almost reset at the end, ready for next weeks story. The shows you mentioned have story arcs, thats not what I actually talked about, but they all feature individual, stand-alone stories, with these story arc elements bubbling away and building throughout a series. You could watch episode five and it wouldn't really matter too much if you'd missed episode two,; you wouldn't be lost, trying to work out what was going on. From what I understood of the original post, that would be a problem with their show, because they wanted every episode to be leading on from the last, like you might do in a drama serial, it would literally all be one on-going story, so for it all to make sense you would have to watch the whole series.

May to December for example is a serial sitcom, as is As Time Goes By.

Quote: Marc P @ July 17 2008, 10:52 AM BST

May to December for example is a serial sitcom, as is As Time Goes By.

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But, like I mentioned, they all had stories unique to the episode in the foreground, didn't they? With the ongoing elements bubbling along. I think what the original poster means is a more definite ongoing story; there is no individual episode story, it's all one big story. In general, sitcoms, story arc or not, have very definite individual stories. For instance, in the Seinfeld series (7?) when the arc is George getting married; thats the background noise, the extra juice for the loyal viewers; but evey episode-every single episode-had it's own, in the foreground, stand alone stories/plots.

Yeah good point, the story of the day is the main thing, it's just the characters arc in those shows, so that by the end of a series the characters aren't back at their Status Quo. Peep Show looked like it was going to do the same thing but clicked the reset button at the wedding I guess.