This is a random observation, but I just realized that, for the first time, NBC’s vaunted Thursday night comedy lineup (a.k.a. “Must See TV”) doesn’t include a single, solitary live-studio-audience multi-camera sit-com. They’re all single camera, shot on film, with no laugh track: My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock, and Scrubs.
Sign of the times, I guess. Seinfeld pretty much blew up the traditional sit-com format. Everything’s that’s come after has been either derivative, schmaltzy, or both. Also, as TV evolves as a medium, it sheds the vestiges of live theater. That’s one reason why Saturday Night Live seems so stale. The format is basically a 1920s vaudeville show. It’s no accident that the most memorable SNL sketch in recent memory was prerecorded on film: Andy Samberg’s “Lazy Sunday.”
I’ve got some advice for NBC. One, cut a hole in a box…