Little Privacy in Present-Day Sitcoms?

This fall’s sitcom line-up may have officially entered a new level of gross-out humor. Many have begun resorting to this type of humor as their only means of attracting an audience and not surprisingly, they are also becoming the first television genre to get the axe by networks. This fall, already, FOX was the first to cancel its brand-new sitcom Do Not Disturb, of which only three episodes aired. I watched Do Not Disturb and was not surprised it was cancelled. My attention to the series was first focused on the set, and then found the characters to be quite linear and not very funny. The set was supposed to be a hotel, but I became very confused as the set was constructed of metal and there were no distinct rooms that made it obvious they were in a hotel. The humor mostly consisted of gross-out humor, a trend in new sitcoms this fall.
CBS may be the most successful so far with this form of comedy. Its new sitcom, Worst Week, is based on getting laughs from gross-out humor. The sitcom, which is now one of my favorites, is basically like the Ben Stiller movie Meet the Parents except in a half-hour format every week. Like Meet the Parents, Worst Week’s comedy is rooted in physical and situational comedy in which the main character is victim to progressively worse and worse misunderstandings that keep him from his one goal. Worst Week manages to feature situations of vomit, urine, nudity and diaper-wearing all in the very first episode. This type of gross-out humor is only beginning to become more popular within live-action sitcoms as a way to grasp more ratings for the slowly-slipping genre. Sitcoms are increasingly leaving no social taboo unturned. Nothing is left private, everything under the sun is game for comedy. This can be looked at as either bad or good, and I have arguments for both, but as the article “Sitcoms’ Burden: To Few Taboos” states, “Comedians try to stretch the limits of humor by turning to even lewder and more offensive about gender, race, infirmity and sexuality. But when sensitivities harden and taboos are so easily tumbled, it tougher and tougher and find fresh forms of adult-only material. Comedy reverts to childlike mix of silliness and bathroom crudity - the humor of bodily dysfunctions.”
This gross-out humor form cannot really have sustaining power in television and is instead just a device to keep an audience watching network television. People have many more options than ever before for how and where they get their entertainment. The internet is beginning to offer seemingly well-produced TV shows and is starting to build a fan base. The article “Sitcoms’ Burden: To Few Taboos” comments on this: “Every new season brings more reality shows and drama, while the traditional half-hour comedies dwindle, an endangered species. There are lots of reasons, including competition from comedy channels on cable and the Internet, but a fundamental one is that network sitcoms are still seeking broad appeal at a time when writers can no longer rely on common values or widely shared forms of inhibition.” The taboos that are consistently broken by these shows will eventually leave it so that nothing can be surprising or funny anymore. However, I think that there will be a time when network sitcoms are able to balance themselves out with competing audiences of the internet and other alternative media. EVERY medium now is trying to find their niche within the new technological media world, and they will all eventually find that happy medium place.

'80s Sitcom Star Has Something To Say!

Quintessential 1980s sitcom star, Justine Bateman from Family Ties, took her stance on the issue of net neutrality before the Senate Commerce Committee in April of 2008. Net neutrality, as defined by Wikipedia, concerns the equal use of broadband networks and “a neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on the kinds of equipment that might be attached, on the modes of communication allowed, which does not restrict content, sites or platforms, and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.” Wikipedia’s definition is a long way of saying that net neutrality is good because it doesn’t allow the big broadband networks to overshadow the smaller ones. It also doesn’t restrict any content or access to anything on the internet. However, this is increasingly the effect in the television industry because of fewer corporations owning the television networks, thereby creating a rise in television regulation.
Actress Justine Bateman, along with our “read-write” internet advocator Professor Lawrence, Lessig spoke in front of the Senate Commerce Committee to support net neutrality. Bateman spoke out against the idea of media consolidation in entertainment and offered a sign of hope through the internet where creative control is at the hands of the content producer. Interestingly, the article titled “Justine Bateman, Net Neutrality & Celebrity Witnesses” features Bateman’s statement to the Senate amidst the author’s obvious disdain for celebrities speaking out and net neutrality (you can read this article for arguments against net neutrality). In this article, Bateman says that:

In entertainment, I believe we are on the verge of a creative renaissance and the Internet is the new grid upon which this renaissance can rest…and the idea of your site succeeding of failing based upon whether or not you paid the telecom companies enough to carry your material or allow quick access is appalling.

Her solution to what she calls “TV’s inevitable move to the internet” is to offer her own website that promotes free-of-interference and well-produced shows brought directly to the internet user. This new website is called FM78.TV and emphasizes the idea that there is a new “creative revolution” coming to the internet. It officially throws out the notion of being forced to distribute a final product through the television and film media in order to obtain an audience. The website says that for the first time the television networks are losing their grip on distribution, leaving a large space on the internet where the “content creator is in control of their own work.” FM78.TV’s first internet TV project is currently in production and is called Candy Inc., a comedy, that stars Bateman and Judd Nelson.
Justine Bateman is probably one of the first celebrities to realize the inevitable shift from shows on television to the internet, and has capitalized on a future phenomenon. This raises the issue for a much bigger need for net neutrality on the internet once this shift manifests. The internet is fairly fair-content orientated now and needs to stay that way once the television networks find their own niche for shows that are produced and distributed for internet-direct.