The Very First Sitcom

On this day in 1694 the very first episode of the very first Sitcom in Britain was performed live at the Globe Theatre.

Written by Wm Shakespeare it was called "Nay Boors"

The theme was about a family of Australian Aborigines who lived on a beach in Western Australia, and the day to day problems in their lives. Ackbo the youngest displayed resentment against his father Konra the leader of the tribe when he rejected the bride that Ackbo had captured from a neighbouring tribe.

Set mostly around a cooking fire on the beach, the characters drink prodigious quantities of fermented coconut milk, from coconut shells.

It was performed 3 times that day and subsequent episodes were performed on a weekly cycle there after.

Kinda like being hit over the head with a fillet steak.

It's a fabulous ingredient, used badly. It's a very funny idea, but write at least some of the episode.

Interesting Bill, thanks. Hadn't really thought of stage shows like that being anything other than comedy plays previously, certainly not sitcoms. Hm.

Heh, Heh...

Check today's date !!!

He's got you there Aaron. Ha ha.

Haha, I did wonder for a moment. Then decided that it was a bit of an obscure thing to 'fool' about! (And having only been awake for 15 minutes, was faaaaar too lazy to Google.) Woops!

Anyway, it still raised an interesting point; could any such plays count as 'sitcom'? Is sitcom limited to TV and radio? Or are they just comic tales?

Someone has told me that BBC news did a piece on flying penguins this morning, but I didn't see it.

~~~~~~~~~

Bye the way..

The Bard died in 1616
Australia wasn't 'discovered' until 1770

(Of course I could claim that I was being post-ironic or sarcastic or something - but meh, like I can be bothered!)

(And if anyone's interested, the first 'sitcom' sitcom as we'd think of it today was Pinwright's Progress, which ran over the winter of 1946-7. So now you know.)

Quote: Griff @ April 1 2008, 5:05 PM BST

Well, The Sitcom Trials do sitcom on stage. And some theatres stage "sitcoms" over several evenings (they have done this at the Canal Cafe.)

But the big problem is that sitcoms imply a series of recurring episodes about the same characters. Otherwise they would just be a TV play. And it's difficult to get audiences to come back to the theatre on successive nights/weeks to see serialised shows, so it's rarely done. (It's hard enough to get audiences out to the theatre anyway.)

View original

All very true. I think this needs a thread...

To make it simple you could go by the first time the term Sitcom was used. That was in by TV Guide in 1953 when referring to "I Love Lucy". Everything else prior (while still important situational comedies) would be considered a serial.
For example when you are referring to Punk music (or any other genre of music) you go from the date the term was coined and the bands during that time period. Everything else is Pre-Punk.

Do you? If it's in the same style as a sitcom, I'd call it a sitcom whether before or after the first use of the term. And where'd you see about the history of the word anyways?

I had heard it before on a history of comedy that played on television but i also found it refered to here
Plus I Love Lucy pioneered the use of multicamera and the use of a live studio audience.
I've also heard people say The Goldbergs was the first actual sitcom. I've been reading a few scholarly articles about the history of sitcoms and the only ones I could find claim The Goldbergs to be the first.
EDITED: Found a scholarly source that you guys could have access to:
The Sitcom Reader: Chapter: The Origins of the Genre: (sorry I had to link it this way, it wouldn't take using [link]) http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=s8ARc_7-NtUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA15&dq=The+Goldbergs,+sitcom&ots=AZeL6nDpz4&sig=D5T9v5iudSJ-LhIBEEFHmnxm-Hw Which states Sitcom wasn't used before the 1950s, and not until TVGuide used it and appears to be at least one of the first.