Definition & History of Sitcoms

Sit-com stands for situation comedy. This means that it is set in a common place, such as a house hold or work place, and it is made funny by adding jokes and comedy the audience can relate to. Sitcoms originated on the radio, but now is often on the television and also set in front of a studio audience so you can hear the digetic sounds, emphasising the comedy.

History of a Sit-com

In the 1950s the first sitcom was broadcasted on the television, ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’, this was thought to have been the first most popular British sitcom. In the 1950’s sitcoms were a lot different from what they are now, as instead of fictional characters made up, it was comedians playing extensions of themselves.

In the 1960s ‘Steptoe and Son’ was created by the same writers as Hancock’s Half Hour.’ This instantly made an impression with audiences. Political issues were then brought into sitcoms which audiences could relate to and now because of sitcoms they could also laugh at political situations.

The 1970s were the main 10years that sitcoms were made popular, and some of the most famous sitcoms where created in this decade. The 1970s was known as ‘the golden age of British sitcom.’ In this decade sitcoms such as, ‘Faulty towers,’ ‘Are you being served?’ ‘Last of the summer wine’ and ‘open all hours’ were created.

In the 1980s typical sitcoms changed because of the political and social revolutions. More anarchic and less-traditional comedies were created such as ‘The Young Ones’, sitcoms like this pushed old fashioned sitcoms off the screen. ‘Only Fools and Horses was created in which was the most popular sitcom in the 90s.

By the 2000s the traditional sitcom seemed to be over, instead cult sitcoms watched by smaller audiences became more popular. ‘Phoenix nights’ and ‘Peep show’ are and example of this. In 2001 Ricky Gervais’ ground breaking new sitcom ‘The Office’ was broadcasted and was a sitcom success story, and was also broadcasted in America. In the mid-naughties sitcoms became increasingly unpopular and boring leading to the ‘death of the British sit com.’ However eventually the sitcom bounced back and became as popular as ever with sitcoms such as ‘my family’ and the ‘IT crowd .’

http://www.comedy.co.uk/features/articles/british_sitcom/