There’s been buzz lately that the series finales of “Friends” and “Frasier” might mark the end of sitcoms.
For those of you who have never pulled that term apart, “sitcom” is short for “situational comedy,” and while “Cheers,” “Seinfeld” and “Friends” may have been the best sitcoms of the ’90s, the sitcom as a genre is by no means dead.
It could use a makeover, however, styled on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and BBC’s “The Office.” These re-vamped sitcoms recognize the trend toward reality television by blending a mock documentary format with dry wit and sarcastic writing. Instead the major networks carry a slew of flat, predictable sitcoms with little humor and even less originality. Now, considering the seemingly endless interest in any reality series with enough drama and surprises, the reality genre might stick around for a while.
But luckily one network continues to experiment with the future of situational comedy — both live-action and animated. Thanks to the envelope-pushers at Fox, innovative and edgy sitcoms debut each year, and after some misfires (ahem, “Oliver Beene”), “Arrested Development” emerged this season as a critics’ favorite.
As a rule, no matter how ignorant or misinformed they seem, critics are smarter than the rest of us. They are the first people informed of new shows and a good critic watches everything that comes out from start to finish. So when they get down on their knees to beg for viewers for a failing show, maybe we should listen to them. From “Entertainment Weekly” to “Television Week,” entertainment critics are pleading for us to watch “Arrested Development.”
Why beg? Well, to begin with, it’s a great show with amazing writing, ridiculous situations, quirky characters and unconventional filming. Without a laugh track, the comedy centers on the antics of the Bluth family, whose patriarch is imprisoned on charges of securities fraud, forcing the responsible child, Michael (Jason Bateman) to help his under-appreciative family, while salvaging the family business. With or without amazing guest star performances from Julia Louis-Dreyfus (hey, she can actually play a character that’s not Elaine) and Liza Minnelli, the cast shines through the genius dialogue with deadpan delivery.
Despite all this the show is failing. The latest Nielsen ratings put “Arrested Development” at No. 107 out of 159 shows — not a respectable position by any means — prompting some talk at Fox of axing the show. With a lousy 8:30 p.m. Sunday airtime, “Arrested Development” faces stiff competition from “Law & Order,” “The Sopranos” and, my personal favorite, “Alias.”
Ultimately Fox will decide what to do with the show in the upcoming months, but it would be a shame if the network chose to cancel. After all “Seinfeld” struggled through its first few seasons, and we all know how the rest of that story goes. Yada yada yada.
Medill senior and PLAY TV columnist Katherine White knows good TV when she sees it. She can be reached at [email protected].