Does It Work In Theory?
I'm not sure when sitcoms started being serials, but maybe it was in the 80s with Cheers, where the central dramatic arc was whether Sam and Diane would get together. And the most famous and popular on-and-off relationship, which ran from beginning to end (way too long), was in the 90s between Ross and Rachel in Friends.
The latest sitcom a la soap is The Big Bang Theory, where the whole premise is will Leonard, a nerd, have a chance with Penny, the cutie next door. The finale ended with them going out. How will the date go? Guess we'll find out next season. Do I care? No. In fact, if they get run over by a bus, that might improve the series, since they're the two least compelling characters.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:03 AM
2 Comments:
There must be a rule of sitcom-dom that says you have to have one or two comparatively normal people around whom the wackiness revolves. I can think of several where it wasn't (All In the Family (everyone represented a archetype), Cosby (everyone was "normal" except cute kids), My Name is Earl (all weird)) but they seem to be forcing it in Big Bang. You could argue that in both old and new sitcoms used the model- both Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart (sort of in both his series) were compelling and funny in their own right but stood in for everyman. Also, currently the American Office has Jim and Pam who are not only normal but likable ironic jokesters (but the Office a history of shooting other agents of normality off into weirdness as the show goes on-Ryan and Jan)
As you say, on Big Bang, Leonard and Penny aren't particulary funny (Leonard is, I think, meant to be)or compelling but they seem to be necessary straight guys for all the wacky guys to react to (and not being terribly likable, I don't see the soap opera story as successful other than as a mechanism for setting up situations for the others. (Saw Wolowitz in an old MAD TV sketch about the War on Christmas- a lot younger but the same character)
Having a central character who reacts to the weirdness of others is an old strategy, going back at least to Jack Benny. But Leonard and Penny are meant to be funny, it's just not working that well. Worse, we don't care about the romance. Sam and Diane were both funny characters, but also had a relationship that was the overarching story on Cheers, and one we did care about. All the characters on Friends were meant to be funny, but the soap opera between Ross and Rachel became so popular it threatened to dwarf everything else. But Lenny and Penny are the black hole at the center of The Big Bang that's threatening to make the show implode.
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