It seems like no one watches sitcoms anymore. Everyone I know watches one-hour dramas with the occasional reality show. Do you still watch sitcoms? Are they just not as good as they used to be? What the hell is still on, anyway? And I think I heard something with somebody marrying somebody on Friends ... is that show still on?

I know Will and Grace used to be funny ... is it still? Is Frasier still kicking along? Is this genre dead? If so, should we blame Suddenly Susan? I know that's when I lost faith.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

Answers

Will and Grace is the only sitcom I still watch. I think it's hilarious and just as good as ever. I used to watch Friends religiously but my interest in it fizzled out.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I dunno if you could consider The Simpsons an animated sitcom... or King of the Hill and Futurama for that matter (what ever happened to Family Guy, that show ruled!). If so, I still dig on those.

Once I got really busy with theater stuff in high school back in about 89 or so, I wound up stopping watching television except for Dave Letterman for several years. I never really picked back up much except my cartoons and Survivor (thanks to you). However, since moving to Seattle I've gotten sucked into Friends. It comes on right after The Simpsons in syndication, and I'd only ever seen like one or two episodes before. I'm surprised at how genuinely funny the show is, although I think if I'd watched it for the past six years I'd be bored of it by now.

Some folks say I remind them of Chandler. I dunno if that is a compliment or not.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

Oh, I totally forgot Malcolm in the Middle. I've kind of lost interest in the other Sunday night Fox sitcoms, but I love Malcolm.

Dave, it's a compliment, unless they mean you're about to marry a control freak. But Chandler hates dogs, so I'm not seeing it.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I have no regular shows, although I watch Law & Order or NYPD BLue from time to time (I'm sort of following the NYPDB soap opera). Rather than watch a random sitcom episode, I am more prone to turn on The History/Learning/Discovery Channels, or Home & Garden. My wife, however, is developing a jones for "Joan."

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

Malcolm in the Middle, which might survive if it's moved from its prime intraSimpsonsandXFiles spot, and That '70s Show, which also survived; no other current sitcom. I can watch MASH for hours though.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

Wow. I just realized that I don't watch any TV. At all. Not a single show. I mean, I never made a conscious choice to stop watching, I don't think TV is bad or evil, I'm not deliberately staying away. I just ... don't turn it on, I guess.

The biggest problem I think is that I'm always forgetting when and where things are. I've fucked up the tv schedule enough times to get frustrated, and not bother. I don't even manage to catch things by accident, because when Anthony has the television on, he only watches movies.

I wish I did. I love sitcoms. I don't think the genre is necessarily dead - I think that it needs refreshing. A broader look at what the parameters are, of a sitcom, what makes something a sitcom. A stretching of boundaries, and a williness to stop showing episodes with wacky mix ups and laugh tracks.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I don't watch enough TV to watch any sitcoms. My kids do, so I overhear some of them, but I have no idea what they are - all the characters kinda seem to meld together in my mind.

I'm a total failure at pop culture, I know...

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I don't actually hate sitcoms, but I hate a particular type of sitcom. I hate Frasier. Every gag is based around a "comical" misunderstanding, or a fish-out-of-water situation, or the not-very-funny dog. That show just irritates the fuck out of me. It feels very dated and predictable and forced, and it always has. Every gag follows the safe route; you know exactly how it's going to end from the moment it's set up.

For me, Frasier typifies a particular subgenre of sitcoms. I'm not sure if I would like the humor better if it were a little fresher and more creative. Seinfeld used a lot of the same kind of humor, but it was funnier because they went for the unexpected a little more often.

But I didn't like Seinfeld, either. I know one thing that would make me like both shows better than I did: if I had felt that the writers liked even one of their characters. I know some people don't care about that, but I can't spend half an hour trying to laugh at characters I hate. I just can't do it.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I detest sitcoms. I think it's because my family brand of humor is a little on the off side. But sitcoms are not funny to me so I don't watch them. In fact I don't watch much TV because the ultra-stupid commercials get to me so badly. (Ever see the guy with the question marks on his coat? I could cheerfully kill him and never regret it) I do like movies, especially old movies on AMC or TCM. Commercial free yet!

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

Some. I watch [b]Will and Grace, Frasier and Just Shoot Me[/b]. I'm looking forward to new [b]Sex and The City[/b]. I'll watch Friends sometimes but I usually don't sit to watch TV until 9ish. I don't tape anything except The Soprano's and that's because my husband wants to keep it. I'll miss any TV show though. I don't care enough about any of them to tape them.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

And here I thought I was the only American who didn't like Seinfeld. I always found it fairly dull and more sad than funny.

As a rule, I really, really dislike sitcoms. I'll occasionally watch them if they're on and I'm doing something else (Friends reruns are good for folding laundry, for example), but overall I really dislike the genre. Sports Night was wonderful, but it was the rare exception (and failed in part, I'm sure, because it didn't come across as "sitcom-y").

Most sitcoms pander to the lowest common denominator and rely more on physical adolescent humor and mix-up gags than intelligence, insight and wit. Watch an episode of I Love Lucy or even Laverne & Shirley and compare it to the standard fare of today; the difference is really amazing.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I don't watch sitcoms anymore. I stopped watching Friends when Monica and Chandler were engaged, and because I don't watch Friends, I never watch the shows that follow the NBC lineup for the rest of the night. The only two shows I watch with regularity are Survivor and The Sopranos.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

See, here's a confession -- I watch I Love Lucy all the time, and I've tried to like it for years, but I think I watch it for sentimental reasons and because I like the funky clothes, because I've never found it funny. I loved Lucille Ball but the show just never did it for me, for almost exactly the same reasons that you say you don't like modern sitcoms, Liss.

I'll go drown myself now.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who didn't love Lucy. She always seemed to be exactly the kind of comedian who was trying to make people laugh to cover up the pain inside - desperate, you know. And the '50s sex roles got on my nerves.

I consider West Wing, Buffy, and Sopranos to be sitcoms, even though they don't have laugh tracks or take place entirely in someone's living room, so yes, I watch sitcoms. I guess calling ER a sitcom would be stretching it.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I hated Seinfield. I think it's painful and sad.

I watch the Sunday night Fox programs because the culminate in Malcolm. I'll watch That 70's Show if I remember, because the whole cast seems to have a blast doing it.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I've never liked sitcoms - they're always framed around some misunderstanding or something and I just can't see the point. I don't even like dramas very much - NYPD Blue and Twin Peaks are about the only ones I watched regularly.

Nowadays all I watch is sports.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001

I just realized something about sitcoms, or actually movies and tv shows in general.

I'm sure we've all lived in or near cities where movies take place, and have you ever noticed how completely inaccurate most of those movies are? Like every city I have ever lived in has distinct neighborhoods with their own character, and it's impossible to go through a day without hearing someone refer to the geography of the city. "Last night I was hanging out in Capitol Hill." "It's this place down in Belltown." "She lives way out in Ballard." Yet unless a movie is set in NYC or L.A. - two cities that everyone in America is supposed to know all about - cities in tv shows are almost always a generic backdrop. Cheers could have been set anywhere, and even Providence doesn't feel like Providence.

Wierd.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

Yeah. The only show I know of that was set in Sacramento was Eight is Enough, and the house they supposedly lived in is easy to spot if you go to the Land Park neighborhood. But there was never any sense that they actually lived in Land Park, or even Sacramento. My favorite thing was the way people were always taking the bus. Dude, no one takes the bus in Sacramento, especially not people who can afford to live in Land Park.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

I live for Buffy and can't wait for the next Survivor. I enjoy the re-runs of Law & Order and NYPD Blue because i never saw them before. I also like to watch Boston Public and Third Watch if i happen to be home and remember to flip to the right station.

It never occurred to me that i don't really watch any sitcoms any more. I'll watch Friends if i think of it, but whereas i watched it religiously in the past, i've seen it 3 times this season - and one of those was a rerun of one i had already seen. I do admit to liking That 70s Show, Dharma and Greg, and Will and Grace, but i never watch them regularly. And frankly, i think they could actually write Will and Grace right off the show because although they're occasionally cute, the two actual funny ones are Jack and Karen.

I think the one thing that i prefer about dramas to sitcoms is that there is no "gasp track" in dramas. They allow us to just watch the show and enjoy it. Laugh tracks make me angry.

Sports Night was the one sitcom that was totally brilliant and so of course they took it off the air - but it didn't have a laugh track as far as i remember. They couldn't use one because the lines were so quick that there was no time.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

Sports Night was the one sitcom that was totally brilliant and so of course they took it off the air - but it didn't have a laugh track as far as i remember. They couldn't use one because the lines were so quick that there was no time.

Sports Night was indeed brilliant. It's been debated that a major reason it went off the air was because Aaron Sorkin, its creator, started to spend most of his energies on The West Wing. It did have a laugh track the first season, but thankfully it was removed for the second season. The show currently airs in reruns on Comedy Central -- check the website for days and times. (Right now it only airs on Thursday nights, but soon it will start airing daily.)

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

So could someone please tell me who the father of Rachel's baby is? I saw the last few minutes of the show last night, but I haven't watched it all season.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

1. Comedy Central isn't available in Canada - they have their own comedy channel, which doesn't seem to be carrying Sports Night.

2. Rachel's Baby: She had a brief fling with her much younger secretary this season (male)....but, she also married Ross briefly, and my money is that it is his baby, and that they actually had sex while they were completely inebriated in Vegas, and somehow the writers are going to manipulate the time line so that somehow this whole season only took place in 6 weeks, realtime.

Rachel on Friends is my favourite tv character - I watch Friends pretty religiously, and Will and Grace. All prime time american tv is stupid - why not go with the stupid laughs over the stupid ER crap?

Is Buffy a sitcom? I think it kind of is. I watch Buffy. And Angel. And I watch VH1's behind the music, which is funny enough to be a sitcom.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

I used to watch Sports Night and Malcolm in the Middle regularly. But now I almost never watch TV at all. I suspect that to be a result of my husband's great love for his PS2 (they're still in the first flush of infatuation, you see) - but whether because he is *using* the TV at times when I would otherwise be watching it, or because the TV is resident in the living room and not in the bedroom where I can comfortably cross-stitch while watching, I wouldn't want to guess.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

The only TV show I even bother trying to stay current with is X-Files. I like a lot of sitcoms when I catch them, (which is more likely to be in late-night re-runs than in prime-time), but there are none that I actually try to make a habit of.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001

I hated Seinfeld, too. (I blame Veronica's Closet for the demise of the sitcom.)

The only current sitcom I watch with any regularity is That 70's Show.

I've never been much into sitcoms because I just don't laugh at what other people laugh at. But I think that there is a mean-spiritedness to comedy that wasn't there in the old days. And maybe too much of a focus on stupidity. Stupid and/or clueless people just aren't funny to me; they are annoying.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2001

Malcolm in the Middle..!! That show cracks me up, I love it.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2001

David Grenier sez:

I'm sure we've all lived in or near cities where movies take place, and have you ever noticed how completely inaccurate most of those movies are?

The one that really gets to me is Frasier. The only thing vaugely Seattle about that show is the fake cityscape in his apartment. It really shits me when they're walking in the 'street' which looks about as much like a Seattle neigbourhood as Delhi.

I can always pick the tv shows and movies filmed in Vancouver, they've all got that kinda samey bland look about them, not that Vancouver is bland, it just comes out that way on film when they're trying to make it look like Portland, or any other city they try to pass it off as.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

I don't much care whether I watch sitcoms or not. I think they're great around 7-8pm, when you're relaxing at the end of the day, or making dinner. Sitcoms make nice "friends talking in the background" noise---talk shows are all yelling, and dramas take too much attention. So you can put on Friends and pretend your friends are having fun while you sort through the mail.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001

The Beverly Hillbillies gets my vote for the only worthy sitcom. Only genii could have written those insane scripts. Unless, oh shit, the writers WERE insane. I think the writers, sane or insane, loved their characters. Beth, I relate to your 5/17 entry about how you could not spend a half-hour trying to laugh at characters you hate. It sounds like punishment....like forcing a kid to watch Barney. And people do it for hours!

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001