Kev F
Thursday 24th November 2011 8:04pm
Bristol
689 posts
Quote: Marc P @ November 24 2011, 1:52 PM GMT
A hook is different to a cliffhanger.
Except in The Sitcom Trials where the cliffhanger is the hook. You see what I did there?
It's interesting to debate these things, and worth keeping in mind that the script you enter for a competition like the Mission is a different thing from a script that a TV commissioner will be looking at (though Dec & Si are doing the best job of keeping their eye on that prize and encouraging writing that has commissionability in mind).
I'm always worried, though, when we become sticklers for The Rules. The history of sitcom is full of people succeeding by breaking the rules, and often the worst thing anyone can do is trying to make shows like they've always made in the past.
A sitcom ending on a cliffhanger is indeed rare, and doesn't conform to what have become accepted norms and formulae, but to outlaw them entirely would mean no Red Dwarf 2, no Blackadder 4, and no two-parters (I'm particularly fond of the two-parter at the end of Cheers series 1, and who can forget the incredible shark-jumping two-parter in Happy Days?)
It's similar to the debate about whether a sitcom has to have a studio audience (I'm in the No camp) or be half an hour long (again, a No from me). Rules are made to be broken.
Now where do we stand on The Goodies and The Young Ones? Sitcoms or sketch shows?
Kev F