The history of sitcoms Essay Example

The history of sitcoms Paper My Family are immediately recognised as an upper middle-class family, as they are typical of West London, the soft underbelly of the South. The sofa and living room are used as the main setting in both of these 2 sitcoms, but the way that props and cameras are positioned further reinforces their different social classes. The Royles cramped living room is shown at awkward angles and no windows or open spaces are shown. This gives the impression of a pokey terraced house. The living room of My Family is airy and spacious, a wide area of it being shown and lots of carefully placed ornaments and windows. The Simpsons is also a working class family, whose standards lie between those of the two extremes; My Family and The Royle Family. The big difference, however, is that The Simpsons is set in a fictional area of America Springfield. As with the two English sitcoms, the living room is the main scene, but more of the outside world is explored than in My Family or The Royles, which are both quite inward. OCCUPATION: In this sense, the Simpsons and My Family are more conventional in work than the Royle Family. Ben and Homer the men of the families, both earn money for the rest of their family with quite advanced jobs (Ben works as a white-collar dentist and Homer as a blue-collar nuclear power plant controller). However, Jim, (the leading male of the Royles), is unemployed. His wife Barbara is the main earner, a blue-collar worker in a bakery. Both of the other women are between jobs, although sometimes Susan works as a tourguide, and rely on their husbands as a main source of income. Each of the three sitcoms have at least one child in school. We will write a custom essay sample on The history of sitcoms specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The history of sitcoms specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The history of sitcoms specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Bart and Lisa, the child characters of The Simpsons, are young and both attend primary school. Anthony of the Royles and Michael of My Family are the only child characters of these two sitcoms, and are in secondary school. Another similarity in occupations is that one character in all three sitcoms stays at home; The Simpsons baby Maggie, My Familys unemployed son Nick, and the retired Nana Royle. PRODUCTION BACKGROUND / AUDIENCE READINGS All three sitcoms are now shown on the BBC channels, but originally they were made in very different ways. My Family, the most recent of the three, was first shown in 2000, and was written as a BBC in-house production. The Royle family debuted in 1998 as a Granada production and The Simpsons, which first started out as 48 shorts in a separate program, first made its appearance as an independent sitcom in 1987, on American television. It is a C20th Fox Production. The Simpsons and MY Family are designed to appeal to the whole family, and are thus shown pre-watershed time. They are shown on mainstream channels, and entertain with more than one genre of comedy to suit children and adults alike. The Simpsons is probably the most widely enjoyed of the three, as it is a cartoon so it relates most to children, without losing out on adult viewers. The Royle family, however, appeals to a much more specified genre of people. It is shown late at night, and is put in the alternative comedy slot along with programs like Alan Partridge and The Office. Although its audience is small, the Royle Family has developed a loyal cult following with its unconventional situations and controversial humour. Some aspects of production, however, are true to all 3 sitcoms. An example of this is the inclusion of well-known actors. In each sitcom this is done for different reasons. Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston play the Royle Familys Barbara and Jim. This adds to the realism of the sitcom as these actors previously acted the realistic soap Brookside. The producers of MY Family have included a well-known cast aswell, for example Zoi Wanamaker starred in Harry Potter. The reason for this is to boost My Familys ratings and make it more popular. Adding familiar faces causes more people to relate to the sitcom. The producer of the Simpsons uses celebrities to add humour. As this sitcom is a cartoon, caricatures and deliberately bad voice-overs can be used to make the sitcom funnier to watch. CREDITS/TITLE SEQUENCE Each sitcom introduces their characters by showing them in their typical environments. Both the Simpsons and The Royle Family include the couch scene in their opening sequences, this Simpsons including originality by showing a different humorous sofa scene every time. My Family, however, ends their title sequence more conventionally, showing a family portrait of the characters. All three-title sequences are accompanied by music. The Simpsons and My Family are both introduced to an upbeat theme tune, whereas the Royles dreary Oasis song immediately sets the depressing mood. The lyrics, half the world away, suggest the Royle Families cut off, inward status from the outside world. Also, the Royle family uses black and white shots to complement this mood, whereas Simpsons and My Family are less explorative, shooting their credits and title sequence in colour. TYPES: Generic characteristics have been shown since the start of sitcoms MY Family, The Royle Family and The Simpsons being no exception. This point is most clearly portrayed in the men of the families. This point is most clearly portrayed in the men of the families. Ben of My Family is arrogant, cynical and delusional, and holds the dominant place in the family, as does Homer Simpson. Homer is blundering, immature and stupid, yet still a character that audiences sympathise with. The Royle Family is probably the odd-one-out, with its leading male Jim. Jim is seen mostly on the sofa watching television, therefore in that sense he is domesticated, and he also doesnt work, unlike the men of most sitcoms. Subtle role reversal is used with Jim and his wife Barbara, for uniqueness and humour. However, he is the dominant person of the household, as he has his own particular seat on the sofa whereas the other family members dont, and also has permanent possession of the remote control. These two characteristics are needed to establish Jim to the audience as the head-of-the-house man. The women of these 3 sitcoms also share generic characteristics. They are all domesticated, and hold their families together, but some of their traits are very different. Marge Simpson is a typical affectionate mother; she cleans, tidies, cooks for and looks after her children (and husband), trying to make hers the perfect family. She is also seen as the stereotypical nagging housewife, her discerning moaning acting as her motif throughout shows. Barbara, of the Royle Family, also cares for her family, but in a different way; she goes out to work. Given this, she is less domesticated than Marge, spending more time socializing with her family or working than cooking and cleaning. It could be said that she tries harder to hold her deficient family together, as she has the burden of an idle husband and immature yet adult children, and doesnt moan about it. This is effective as Barbara is a character that the audience will sympathise with and respect. Susan, of My Family, has very little maternal or loving characteristics and therefore doesnt make a very strong bond with the audience. She is not very domesticated, as she often states she cannot cook, and also she is more the head of the household than Ben, instructing her children and husband on what and what not to do. The fact that she works also takes any maternal nature out of her character, and her sarcastic, tempestuous and sometimes-immature nature is used to get laughter from the audience rather than to make a bond with them. In fact, there is no palpable affection shown between any of the rest of the Archer family either. Every character contains an element of sarcasm, and the main entertainment from My Family comes from The Families ridicule and general intolerance of one another. One thing that most sitcoms have in common is the inclusion of one normal voice a character that possesses no prominent qualities. This is effective in keeping some reality to a sitcom especially if in all other aspect its is unlikely that any of its situations would happen.