How could mainstream British sitcom improve?

Just what it says on the tin.

How could shows like My Family, After You've Gone etc improve?

For example, do traditonal farce i.e. Fawtly Towers?

Make it more dramatic and deal with serious issues for audience empathy/symathy.

Do fifty minutes instead of 30 and have more time to develop characters?

Draft in old-school sitcom stalwarts like Geoffrey Palmer, Richard Wilson etc or simply cast fresh faces?

Spin-off a popular character from a hit sitcom (but NOT like The Green Green Grass). Or simply make a sequel.

Bring old classics back. A Christmas special of One Foot in the Grave, for example.

Sack writers and bring in new talent or bin the writing-by-comittee approach and go back to one writer creating/writing a show throughout it's run - like John Sullivan did with Only Fools and Horses.

Make sitcom less middle-class. After all, Rising Damp wasn't.

Just some suggestions. What does everyone think? How should mainstream sitcom get back on it's feet?

Difficult questions there Dave.
Its hard because we all like different things.
I am not a fan of 'My Family'. Yet I adore 'Everybody Loves Raymond'.
So to me to make that comedy better would be to change it completly.
As for the number of minutes. I am not bothered. 30, 40 or an hour. Make me laugh & I will watch it all night.

It makes no odds to me either what class a family or person is. Shameless is fantastic as are all the, Worst Week Of My Life etc.

At the end of the day with comedy, you either Love it, dont mind it or hate it.

I'm going to end up repeating myself but what the hey. Here's what I'd do.

BBC: Needs s sitcom with a cast containing only adults (this whole family nonsense doesn't help, just because you 15 doesn't mean you can't enjoy a show with adults in. I was watching Red Dwarf at 9, and it influenced me incredibly)

More episodes, okay maybe not 24 but at least 12.

On a creative level we need proper characters, not just actors saying lines. Ben Harper isn't a character. He's just Robert Lyndsay saying some lines. George Costanza on the other hand, is the greatest character ever conceived. We need characters, not famous faces saying lines. I'm not saying you can't have a big star, but it's got to be a correct balance.

Not 'we need a vehicle for so-and-so'. I think the problem is that people in the industry - the Fred Barrons of this world might get told things like 'Oh, Nick Lyndhurst is looking for a new show to be in' etc. New writers with no commissions might have actors in mind when they write (I mostly never do), but on the whole their characters are new in their head. Individual, real characters. My Hero was an example. Someone believed that superhero + Ardal O'Hanlon (hot property a few years after Ted) was good enough to constitutes a show. No, it doesn't. Ensemble piece needed, not one star and a load of people dishing out feed-lines.

Have a team of say, 6-7 writers - some new, some old. Maybe get someone like Simon Nye to head it (but again, make sure he creates characters, not like Hardware where it's just famous people saying lots of identi-kit one-liners) Scripts first, casting later. No fitting in the must-have actors of the day, as with Hardware. It's like Steve McClaren fitting in the 'best' 11 players rather than coming up with a tactic, then putting the right people in after.

Allow new writers. Allow spec scripts to be written from new people. Okay, they'd have to wade through 4000 scripts that'd mostly be guff. Maybe tighten it slightly and say you need recommendation first from someone in the industry just to close the net and sort out the shite first.

No journeymen writers allowed. No one who's worked on a show with multiple writers before (if it was shite). Make it appealing for people like Bain & Armstrong to get on board (they've written for other shows before)

Nothing quirky or with a fad or hook. Just keep it simple. Simple can be funny. I think a stand up being in it would be a help, I don't know why, but it'd offer something a bit different. I think Lee Mack has got mainstream star written all over him.

Open the show up in terms of characters - look at the best four US shows I mentioned in the other thread (Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, Simpsons) all have wide open characters lists - but always falls back to the main core. Have occasional appearances of parents etc, maybe played by bigger actors but AGAIN they must be characters not an excuse for Richard Wilson to turn up.

Pay the writers more and make sure the show-runner is someone with a clear vision and drive. Having mentioned Bain & Armstrong, they'd be ideal candidates to have go.

So that's it. A few ideas. Quite exciting actually, I'd love to be involved in a good BBC team written show with a real drive. Shame the BBC don't seem to be doing it right.

I couldn't agree more, Seefacts. If someone in Television Centre said what you just said, then the BBC would have a hit on their hands. And I also agree with having someone like Simon Nye as a showrunner (someone with some experience with hit sitcoms) and one who has a genuine, clear vision of the show. The spec scripts idea is a good one too. And throw in a stand-up as well. Maybe in a supporting role. And new writers too, and put a sign on the door saying "James Hendrie and Ian Brown are Barred!"

By the way, that Richard Wilson line was funny!

"AGAIN they must be characters not an excuse for Richard Wilson to turn up."

Quote: Dave @ July 10, 2007, 10:12 PM

I couldn't agree more, Seefacts. If someone in Television Centre said what you just said, then the BBC would have a hit on their hands. And I also agree with having someone like Simon Nye as a showrunner (someone with some experience with hit sitcoms) and one who has a genuine, clear vision of the show. The spec scripts idea is a good one too. And throw in a stand-up as well. Maybe in a supporting role. And new writers too, and put a sign on the door saying "James Hendrie and Ian Brown are Barred!"

By the way, that Richard Wilson line was funny!

"AGAIN they must be characters not an excuse for Richard Wilson to turn up."

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I called him Ian Hendrie in the other thread, what a tit I am. Yes, you can see, I'm an expert.

With Jon Plowman leaving his post of Head of Comedy maybe we'll see something a bit new.

Just commission me and Charley!

They could start by actually developing slots in the schedules for mainstream populist comedies. At the moment, the only slot is half past eight on a Friday night. And that's it. Twenty or thirty years ago the early evening schedules were crammed with sitcoms, nowadays soaps completely dominate, leaving room for little else.

That's a good idea chip. You get used to certain evening schedules and then they totally change it.

I still think the British Sitcom is great. It always has been. You are always going to get the odd bad sitcom, but most of them are great. Old sitcoms need repeating more though. Also I think more sitcoms need to be made, especially by ITV, as they have had some fine sitcoms out in the last 10 years such as Barbara.

I loved Barbara! It was really funny; Mark Benton and Sam Kelly in particular were great!

Quote: chipolata @ July 11, 2007, 10:24 AM

They could start by actually developing slots in the schedules for mainstream populist comedies. At the moment, the only slot is half past eight on a Friday night. And that's it. Twenty or thirty years ago the early evening schedules were crammed with sitcoms, nowadays soaps completely dominate, leaving room for little else.

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But aren't the viewers getting what they want, with all these soaps? Have you asked yourself why there are so many?

It would be logical for broadcasters to only produce/show those programmes or formats/genres that are popular. In order for them to know what's popular they'd have to 'consult' with a statistical audience. And if that is, indeed, what they've done... we're getting, democratically, the programmes we've asked for. Admittedly, it's a bit of a Catch-22 situation but if they had it terribly wrong, something would have been done about it by now.

It's only TV though, at the end of the day, isn't it?

When was the last sitcom to have 2 or 3 regular writers and get one guest writer for each episode in the series? I don't think it has been done for a while and could get some media interest.

Other than that, it's hard to say. Networks don't want to take the risk on something that they are not sure will work, even if it may end up that the show gets mainstream attention and acclaim. Maybe bring in some focus groups and try to predict as closely as possible the commercial success the sitcom might have BEFORE they put a lot into marketing.

Is there such a thing as mainstream anymore even the soaps only get half the viewers they got 10 years ago, family no longer sit around the TV together. Why even try to make a sitcom that appeals to all. I would much prefer someone made a show a few other and I loved than make one that most thought was just OK.

Take Peep Show as an example barely get a million or so viewer but loved by each and every one of them, now how would you changed it to appeal to the masses.

Quote: Dave @ July 10, 2007, 9:22 PM

For example, do traditonal farce i.e. Fawtly Towers?

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Typos aside, YES! I love a good farce. (Alan Ayckbourn is a brilliant playwright.) Can't ever have too much.