The History of TV Sitcoms

The first TV sitcoms were based on comedy programs from the golden days of radio. With the jump from radio to television came a host of technical challenges, leading to story rules that are still used today.

Radio with Pictures
Radio sitcoms were limited only by the sound department and the listener's imagination. Characters could travel from the city to the beach in seconds, with just a bit of narration and some appropriate sound effects to set the mood.

When a show like Amos n'Andy became a TV sitcom, the limitations of the medium forced some creative solutions. Early television cameras were large, bulky pieces of equipment with lenses that were rotated into place. They couldn't easily be moved outdoors, so producers decided to shoot on a single stage with two or three cameras. That way, any changes in lenses could be accommodated while the other cameras were on the action.

Jackie Gleason wrote many of the rules for TV sitcoms with his series, The Honeymooners. Nearly every episode was set in the Kramden's kitchen, although there were occasional trips to other sets. By using the kitchen table as the focus of the show, everyone had a place to gather and a reason to be there. For I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz opted for the living room, rather than the kitchen, and the sitcom tradition of the sofa was born. 

TV Sitcom Elements
The overriding themes of a sitcom are comedic. While some storylines might be heavy or carry a moral, the laughter is always there. These shows use broadly drawn characters who seldom have major personality changes, although they may marry, divorce or have kids, change jobs or switch romantic partners.

The idea of the sitcom is for viewers to form a long-term relationship with the characters and return to view them repeatedly. To keep shows from becoming too inside, writers use characters and situations that are immediately recognizable to a majority of viewers. Running gags throughout the series give dedicated viewers a sense of familiarity and a reason to come back.

From the early days of television, sitcoms were once-a-week programs. The earliest sitcoms were performed live, so the full week was needed to work out technical details and make sure the actors had memorized their scripts. No matter what problems drove a particular episode, they were always solved by the end. This ensured that anyone who missed an episode wouldn't be lost in a continuing story. End-of-season cliffhangers became popular in sitcoms during the 1980s and 1990s, but even these multi-part stories rarely extended for more than two episodes.

Sitcoms Through the Years
In the beginning, most sitcoms were TV versions of established radio programs. The Jack Benny Program that aired on TV from 1950 to 1965 was actually a version of the radio program that ran from 1932 to 1955. Burns and Allen also jumped from radio to television.

Desi Arnaz is credited with pioneering the use of film for TV sitcoms. I Love Lucy was the first show to record all the episodes on film. It also introduced the idea of a live studio audience and made extensive use of different sets. Few sitcoms had the budget to support the number of sets that Lucy used in the 1950s. Even popular shows like Three's Company, Happy Days and Cosby had to rely on a handful of sets to tell their stories.

By the end of the 1950s, there was a plethora of TV sitcoms. These programs were driven by either interaction among coworkers, like Our Miss Brooks and The Phil Silvers Show, or interaction among family members, like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet or The Honeymooners. Family-centered shows dominated the sitcom genre until the early 1970s, when shows increasingly focused on the workplace or on roommates.

With advances in special effects and editing, the programs of the 60s featured more fantastical elements. Storylines with witches and genies, along with the assorted oddities to be found in The Addams Family and The Munsters, were extremely popular. By the 1960s, most sitcoms were not filmed before live audiences. These shows used laugh tracks added after filming to highlight the jokes.

Real world events began to creep into the sitcoms in the 1970s. The overall makeup of the programs began to change from white, middle-class suburbanites to racially mixed urban dwellers. Programs such as The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son and Good Times not only provided laughs but also tackled racial issues. Studio audiences became the norm again on shows that weren't filmed in several locations. The '70s also shows that featured liberated women like Rhoda and Mary Tyler Moore get their fair share of airtime.

Stand up comedians dominated the 80s, with Bill Cosby, Roseanne Barr and Garry Shandling getting their own sitcoms that blended their stand up personas with a half-hour, character-driven concept. More comedians got their own vehicles in the early 1990s, including Jerry Seinfeld and Ray Romano.

During the 1990s, cartoon sitcoms rose in popularity, led by TV's longest-running sitcom, The Simpsons. These shows range from the outrageous, such as South Park and Family Guy, to shows that simply substitute cartoons for live actors, like King of the Hill.

Both laugh tracks and studio audiences became scarcer in the 2000s, as filmed programs took off in popularity, including Scrubs, The Office and Malcom in the Middle. Many of these shows use extensive on-location filming, relying on camera work and editing, rather than scripted laughter, to enhance the writing.