Sitcom Similarities

Try writing a sitcom and I bet you'll find it impossible not to think of some part of a favourite sitcom when forming it. I don't think there are enough sitcom writers' interviews on this or other sites, but then writers are notoriously shy about stating influences and alas are often just tossers.

So without their telling us, I'd be vaguely interested to know what other sitcom fans here think are sitcoms with some glimmer of connection in whatever way. There are some obvious blatant rip off ones like Chalk - Fawlty Towers and Miranda - Everything Else, but I'd like to know of less obvious examples, and I'll allow American sitcoms as I don't watch them much and have a feeling some of our new ones may be influenced by the Type of US sitcom I don't watch.

I've found OFAH to be Steptoe & Son like in the Rodney-Derek relationship, and The Big Bang Theory to be Red Dwarfish in the Sheldon/Rimmer v the others axis. Coincidence or influence? I go for the latter personally.

Note to Ed. This may belong in the writing section, if you want to move it, forgot it was there again.

Haven't all sitcoms got a connection though?

They'll all have uncomfortable/awkward/ frustrating relationships between the characters. There are bound to be similarities between them... It depends on which parts of human relationships the writer finds interesting that is the influence rather than a similar sitcom.

That's different to stealing actual lines which you see but no one writer can claim ownership of any particular human relationship.

No you're right there, you can't avoid them but that is my point in asking, do others feel that some normal human aspect of a sitcom is just that, or do they on looking closer feel that the writer has been influenced in that particular aspect by one in another sitcom. I'm actually asking what viewers think in some similar cases. Should have stated that more boldly and posted in the writing section.

I just think writers are crafty enough to use the universality thing to get away with pretty close versions of former sitcoms' aspects. Some of them you don't notice in casual viewing, (but I'm not a casual type, even when watching sitcom) hence why I'm asking if others notice similarities and do they think it's just unavoidable coincidece or a little more than that. And that's not to say that sitcom influences are wrong either or a no go area, I'm just wondering how different people see these things in sitcoms. You're a coincidence sort, I'm more of a design type, so far.

It depends on what you mean by 'influence' I suppose. If it's finding a particular relationship interesting and wanting to explore that in their own way and with their own characters I'm sure it happens a lot... But that's no more than a trigger for their own idea.

If you take 'influence' as far as meaning stealing the stories by basically copying something else I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I'd say it was rare. For one I'd imagine it'd be more difficult to write something funny with characters that are someone else's. As someone who's relatively new to writing, I find the most difficult and time consuming thing, is getting to know my own characters - you've got to know your characters 100% to be able to show 1% of their personality properly (and sitcom is, often, a focus on just a tiny part of character) so you can't know a character properly if you're copying one so the results will never be good.

I'm sure, though, that most writers are aiming for good (that could be naivety on my part of course) but generally most people are - whatever job it is they do. It seems, to me anyway, that if your aim is to cash from someone else's idea and want to get by without effort - writing seems to be an odd thing to choose.

Well, in an interview with Marc Maron, the guys from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia say the initial idea/pilot of their show was heavily influenced by the UK version of The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I realised the other day that there's quite a lot of similarity in the set ups of "Frasier" and "Father Ted".

The title character is a put upon man who thinks he's superior to the other characters, both feature a slightly fey younger foil and both have an older man who spends most of his time in an armchair AND they both have a housekeeper!

The show Unhappily Ever After combined the concepts of Married With Children and Alf. But ok, that wasn't "being influenced", it was blatant "stealing".

Loads of sitcoms copy Only Fools And Horses. We see loads.

If the humour in situation comedies springs from the situation the characters find themselves in, then it would be very hard to come up with something new. I have no idea what the first broadcast situation comedy was -- probably radio -- but every situation humans face must have been written by now. Look at the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother -- if you see it in the U.K. Not very different than Friends. Different values for different times, but, otherwise, very much alike in my view. And someone I know thinks that Coupling is also just a version of Friends. All stories have been told -- what makes new versions worth watching is the quality of the writing and the acting and, now and then, a fresh insight.

And jokes. Funny jokes.

Absolutely!

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ February 10 2013, 10:47 AM GMT

The Big Bang Theory to be Red Dwarfish in the Sheldon/Rimmer v the others axis.

View original

Funny you mention this, there's an episode of TBBT where Sheldon shows Leonard he has a Red Dwarf boxset with all 61 episodes.