j.j. smith

I'm just wandering why they cant produce anymore good sitcoms, that attract all kinds of ages?? Thoughts??

RichC2

I like a good number of sitcoms these days, but the days of the family sitcom has kind of gone away. The last one I can think of was King of Queens. I think with all the channels out there, everything has simply been spread too thin. CBS tried with Mike and Molly, and failed.

Plus there hasn't really been a family friendly comedian to base one around lately.

I still like Modern Family, but more often that's more an adult show about family than a family show. So I guess there's also The Middle?

j.j. smith

I think also that these college kids that are being hired, have never experienced real life comical situations or dramatic situations. Just because you got good grades,went U C L A film school and you have in, doesn't make you a great writer! And i think that's why the all these sitcoms are failing bad!!

RichC2

Naw. Most of the people in charge of sitcoms right now are people like Chuck Lorre (two and a half men, big bang theory, mom, etc; ) whose in his 60s. The creators of most sitcoms right now are around 50. They have their own distinctive comedic taste, which is popular, but sucks for most of us. They're trying to be edgy but a pretty terrible at it.

There's also something painfully unnatural about the delivery on most sitcoms these days, it's some weird over-the-top soundstage production that doesn't work well.

DJariya

Michael Patrick King, who is the head writer, creator and showrunner for 2 Broke Girls, is 59 years old. And that show gets alot of crap for it's gross & juvenile humor. He's hardly a 20 something film student fresh from college.

Humor is so subjective. Some really popular comedies are loathed and some not so popular, lowly rated comedies have cult followings.

j.j. smith

These couple shows, I don't even waist time, id rather watch general hospital!!lol! But seriously, look at nbc, they have three new comedies coming out, one is entitled A to Z, and the other is another couple show, they wont make it a year!! Wandering who makes these decisions?? Who's getting closed on all this BS!!

RichC2

Yep. But I also noticed the lack of family centric sitcoms lately. There really isn't one the whole family can sit down to and enjoy like there were (ad nauseum) in the 90s. I forgot about The Goldbergs.

NBC has had luck targeting a subset of the 18 - 49 household crowd that pulls $100,000+ combined income. They greenlight shows that appeal specifically to that demo, generally young professionals and young couples. A to Z is actually the only one of their programs I have any upcoming interest in due to its star (Cristin Milioti), but agree it's doubtful to last a year.

I'm more interested in Celebrity Beat-off.

Groucho

Louie
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The League

davidh777

For all-ages shows, you might try Nick or ABC Family rather than the main networks.

DJariya

You're not going to find anything like Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Step by Step or Diff'rent Strokes on TV nowadays. That "family friendly" type comedy has come and gone.

Most nowadays don't seem to enjoy those multi-camera 90's style sitcoms anymore.

j.j. smith

Im a professional and I am in my 40's, wife also, and a lot of friends as well! None of us even watch any of that garbage! I guess im use to the taxi's, cheers', happy days and wings!! the great ones!!

PhantomStranger

The viewing audience is too fractured today, families don't watch television together anymore. Sitcoms were always kind of disposable comedy, relying on their characters and formula for success. The Big Bang Theory is just about the last successful true sitcom, but even that did not become a monster hit until it hit syndication.

DJariya

The DVR and streaming essentially killed families watching shows and family friendly shows together. No one nowadays seems too concerned about watching their favorite shows at 8pm on Mondays or whatever. People watch stuff on their own schedule when they have time. That's why you don't see those types of shows get made anymore.

RoyalTea

though's types of shows is not come and gone!! they still exist on basic cables. You might think you're 80s shows are much superior, but you saw that shows as a kid. Todays kids like todays kids shows just as much as you liked your shows when you were kid!!!

resinrats

Tim Allen's Last Man Standing is a traditional family sitcom.

davidh777

These days "family" shows are reality competitions and the like.

j.j. smith

I think there is something out there that could be a big hit, and necessarily doesn't have to be from L.A. or N.Y. person!!

madcougar

Exactly. I had this same conversation with my girlfriend last night. Technology has taken away the need to sit and watch live tv. I've been binge watching Game of Thrones on demand and realized that I was sort of missing on the "group" aspect of a show like this because I wasn't watching it in "real time" with people, but consuming it in one whole chunk. Same with the "family" sitcom. Few families actually sit down and watch tv together. Heck, I bet that kids today don't even watch tv anymore.

fujishig

I think it's also similar to why there aren't weekday afternoon or Saturday Morning cartoon blocks on regular tv anymore... there are whole channels dedicate to that stuff, playing things on repeat 24/7, so kids have their own thing to watch; throw in Netflix streaming, which is full of kids shows, and you can have the rugrats entertained while mom and dad sit down to watch whatever they want to watch.

edited to add: if this is like the setup for some epic spam, then kudos to the OP for at least putting some effort into the thread. If not, welcome to the board!

j.j. smith

Two and a half men was good with Charlie.

Drexl

I was about to suggest Jim Gaffigan as one you could build a show around.

And then, speak of the devil: http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/07/29/tv...ael-ian-black/

northmoor

I agree and have also wondered why there do not seem to be any current sitcoms that are in the category of some of the ones I really enjoyed through the years: Andy Griffith, Leave It To Beaver, Gomer Pyle, hogan's Heroes, All In The Family, Happy Days, M.A.S.H., Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, .... to name some. Are there any current sitcoms that people would rank with those?

Xiroteus

I have not had a sitcom on my radar in over a decade. They could be good yet there is no hook for me.

Michael Corvin

Family sitcoms in the vein of TGI Friday blocks are alive and well on Disney channel. Good Luck Charlie, Jessie, Girl Meets World, Austin & Allie are very much in the same vein as Step by Step, Full House, Family Matters, ahem, Boy Meets World, etc. Haven't watched the 80s-90s shows lately but I don't recall them being up there with, say Cosby. Full House is still pretty fun to watch with the kids. The Disney shows do share one thing in common, ridiculous over-acting.

It's a chicken or egg situation though. Families watch these shows because that's what's on(we do AGT, the Voice, Mythbusters and Bear Grylls' shows). If networks were capable of producing decent family sitcoms anymore we'd watch those.

Ban him!

Depends on how you define sitcom. All the ones you mentioned are traditional multi-cam shows with either a live audience or some form of canned laugh track which are rare these days. The comedies without an audience (Modern Family, 30 Rock, Arrested Development) tend to get more critical acclaim than your Big Bang Theory(look nerds!), Mike & Molly's (fat jokes!) and Broke Girls shows.

Original Desmond

I agree that the quality of sitcoms has gone downhill and what's more, ones which show some promise (e.g. i thought Friends with Better lives) get cancelled very early on

Doesn't help that you have rubbish like Anger Management with a 70 episode season