I'm sure Saul Austerlitz has sat through many of those same shows, along with the 24 he profiles in his book Sitcom. The book is set up into 24 chronological "episodes", ranging from I Love Lucy to Community. Austerlitz details in each episode how the show came to be, what made it great, what influences it would have (or, in the later chapters, the show's influence).
Sitcom was an incredibly fast read for me, and an informative one at that. Not having seen many episodes of I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners, it was nonetheless interesting to read about how they changed the landscape of early TV by not being the same episode over and over when that was the expectation back then. Similarly, I hadn't considered how difficult it might be to develop a truly original sitcom today, as the last chapters detail how 30 Rock and Community really don't even try to be anything original and are hyper-aware of every sitcom cliche.
My Favorite Sitcoms
1. Frasier
I loved Frasier from the first episode, and the first few episodes were not always funny, as Frasier got established in Seattle after moving from Boston. No, what I loved in the first season was the tension between Frasier and his father Martin, a former police officer who was shot in the hip and couldn't live alone. They're on each other's nerves and at each other's throats, which doesn't sound all that pleasant, but it felt almost like theater, funny and intense.
The show didn't keep up that level of intensity, but the characters and the relationships between the characters made it a great show. Frasier and Martin eventually work things out (although there's always some tension between the two), Niles lusts after Daphne, and Frasier and Niles spend a lot of time throwing dinner parties and running themselves ragged competing with each other.
Sitcom mentions how many early sitcoms would make sure to resolve all issues and changes before the end of the episode, and Frasier's way of doing that was to make sure Frasier was still single at the end of most episodes. There are so many instances of either Frasier or his family fouling things up and ultimately ruining his chances. In a way, it's the opposite of Seinfeld. Jerry and company find so many ways to end relationships by finding flaws, but Frasier's too busy ruining his chances by showing his.
2. Seinfeld
I think Seinfeld's probably the most talked about show of all time, so I'll keep this short. Like Frasier, I've seen every episode enough to almost know them by heart. I think what I enjoyed most was Seinfeld's twists. I just saw the episode where Jerry's mechanic (Brad Garrett) absconds with his car because he doesn't feel Jerry's taking sufficient care of it, which sets off an entirely new chain of events. Elaine's invested in the situation because she's got a set of her bosses' coveted golf clubs (allegedly used by JFK) in Jerry's car, and Newman and Kramer (speaking of zany) interrupt a road trip in a mail truck to chase down the stolen car, which appears in front of them. Kramer feels like they're not moving fast enough, so he pushes Newman out of the truck.
The zaniness extends to characters outside the group. A mechanic steals a car because of its owners' negligence. A fellow comedian sells Jerry a suit, and his only demand is that Jerry take him out to dinner, but what constitutes dinner? Evidently, a cup of soup does not. Speaking of soup, does making unbelievable soup mean that a proprietor can mistreat his customers? It does, provided that said proprietor doesn't tick off the wrong customer.
3. The Office
Jim and Pam. For a while, it was all about Jim and Pam, and if we didn't have them, The Office might not have been as enjoyable a watch. For a few seasons, it was all about Jim's longing for Pam, and Pam's awful, soul (and dream) crushing relationship with Roy kept her from Jim even as the two flirted at the reception desk.
Jim (John Krasinski) was always looking at the camera in that "can you believe this" sort of way as his boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) ushered his employees into conference rooms for meaningless meetings. He egged on Dwight Schrute, his humorless co-worker, encasing Dwight's stapler in Jello or impersonating Dwight perfectly, but it all came back to Pam.
Michael Scott, meanwhile, was a clueless and spineless boss, unable to stand up to the warehouse when the office workers beat the warehouse at basketball and therefore should have had Saturday off. Time was wasted in so many ways, from movie Mondays to meetings about whatever was annoying Michael.
The moments that I remember most were not necessarily the funniest. In one episode, it is revealed that Michael is working a telephone sales job to help pay off the debt he's accrued over the years. This causes him to finally run away from the office, only to be tracked down and consoled by his girlfriend Jan.
There's another episode in which Michael takes the women in The Office to the mall to go shopping, and over lunch Michael reveals that Jan has mistreated him, and the women urge him to break up with her. Finally, Michael has Jim and Pam over to a dinner party and we learn just how toxic his relationship with Jan has become, as eventually the police are called.
4. Arrested Development
His siblings Lindsey, Gob (pronounced "jobe"), and Buster are different shades of clueless, but all are as self-obsessed as their parents. Michael struggles to raise his son and provide a good environment for George Michael with his family being around and George Sr in prison.
The writing is razor-sharp for much of the series, with a lot of wordplay and character-based silliness (a lot of it featuring Lindsey's husband Tobias, who can move around like a cat and puts himself in a lot of precarious situations). Gob is an illusionist whose stage shows involve a lot of him dancing around with a knife in his mouth or simply holding cards in his hand. Buster is a mama's boy who clings to Lucille and rebels against her by dating her friend, also named Lucille (and played hilariously by Liza Minnelli).
5. Taxi
There's a theme in each of my five choices. Without memorable characters, a sitcom is noise, a painful laugh track going off after every line or just plain boring. Many sitcom stars have moved on to other series, only to find that the same magic just isn't there. Joey Tribbiani couldn't really be Joey without the rest of his Friends. Jason Alexander was in a couple different series that didn't last, and same for Matthew Perry.Taxi, as Sitcom points out, didn't really have any main characters. There was no love interest to root for, so the viewer rooted for everyone in the group, especially against the vile Louie (Danny DeVito). Sure, the show centered on Alex (Judd Hirsch) as someone to give advice (or money, in an early episode), but each character had his or her own troubles, so they all helped each other out.
What made it work? There were a couple of unusual characters that occasionally stole a scene or episode. Latka (Andy Kaufman) was frequently butchering the English language but would also provide a kind of examination of American culture by comparing the traditions of his culture. Reverend Jim provided one of the funniest scenes in the show by repeatedly asking what a yellow light meant on a driving exam and not understanding the group's answers.
These worked for a laugh or two, but the characters all had relatable issues. In the pilot, Alex reveals that he hasn't seen his daughter since she was little and regrets it. Bobby (Jeff Conaway) is continually looking for work as an actor. Elaine is searching for something besides cab-driving. Louie has his own struggles, but mostly resists any urge to be a decent human being. There's an all-for-one spirit throughout the show, and the writing is good enough to support the characters.
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