  Miley Cyrus in 'Hannah Montana.' |
For 50 years, sitcoms were the engine that drove television. From I Love Lucy to The Honeymooners through All in the Family and M*A*S*H, The Cosby Show and, more recently, Seinfeld and Friends, sitcoms helped networks laugh all the way to the bank.
The state of network sitcoms today, however, is no laughing matter. ABC, once crammed with TGiF comedies, is now down to Samantha Who? and Scrubs. NBC, which rode shows like Cheers, Frazier and Will & Grace to “must see” millions can barely draw a crowd even with critically acclaimed comedies 30 Rock and The Office. The last breakout sitcom hit — CBS’s Two and a Half Men — broke out six seasons ago.
What happened? Like westerns and variety shows, did sitcoms simply wear out their welcome?
There are almost as many theories as their used to be sitcoms. Reality shows — cheaper to produce and with the same home-run potential — certainly stole the sitcom’s thunder. A YouTube generation weaned on short yuks can’t sit for a half hour of anything anymore. It’s just a down cycle and sitcoms will be back, insist some, including Everybody Loves Raymond creator, Phil Rosenthal. “I think it’s going to be the end of laughing anywhere,” he told critics when his show went off the air in 2005. “After that, smiling will soon go, too.”
Rosenthal, who knows modern audiences, was just being sarcastic. Still. He has to know that sitcoms have become a hard network sell as savvy, jaded viewers tune out the seen-it-before genre.
But what of viewers who hadn’t seen-it-before — say, eight- to 12-year-olds?
Which brings us to where traditional sitcoms have gone to die: The Disney Channel. YTV. Family Channel. Anywhere where kids — and merchandising — rule.
“Something is happening in comedy. It’s not hip to be funny anymore,” says Brent Piaskoski, creator of the made-in-Canada Family Channel series The Latest Buzz. “Edge has replaced jokes,” he suggests. It’s why Conan O’Brien gets more respect that Jay Leno, “who’s a human joke machine,” says Piaskoski.
Edge has no edge over jokes in ’tween TV. While not entirely an irony-free zone, shows such as Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana and The Latest Buzz score with kids by being about kids but also by going straight for the funny.
“They’re not as jaded yet,” Piaskoski says of youth audiences. He recently shot an episode of The Latest Buzz — about five high schoolers putting out their own teen magazine — before a live, studio audience in Toronto. “They really got into it,” says Piaskoski. “We’d do a scene twice and they’d laugh both times.”
A native of Calgary, Piaskoski toured for years as a stand up comedian before becoming a TV writer. A big fan of Corner Gas, he wrote for According to Jim before developing ’tween shows Radio Free Roscoe and Naturally, Sadie.
Others have made the leap from network sitcoms to ’tween TV, including —most surprisingly — Julie Brown. The ’80s comedy siren — who once starred with a then unknown Jennifer Aniston on the Fox comedy called The Edge — recently co-wrote and appeared in the Disney/Family Channel TV-movie Camp Rock. That’s a little like Madonna (who Brown used to mock) writing children’s books.
In the mid- to late-’80s, Dan Schneider was the tubby kid in Howard Hessmann’s ABC sitcom Head of the Class. He went on to help launch Amanda Bynes’ career as a writer and producer on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show and later The WB’s What I Like About You. More recently, he’s been the creative force behind such ’tween faves as Zoey 101, Drake & Josh and YTV’s iCarly.
“My goal is to have 10- year-olds and the 40-year-olds laughing together,” says Schneider.
Jocelyn Hamilton shares that goal. As VP of creative development at Corus Kids, which programs YTV, she’s always looking for shows that “speak directly to the youth audience” but that also “parents sitting with their kids in the early evenings won’t mind watching.”
That was the network thinking a generation ago when shows such as Full House were “Thank God it’s Friday” hits at ABC. Marc Warren and Dennis Rinsler were writers on Full House before going on to create the shows That’s So Raven and Cory in the House at Disney. The youth channels, they feel, have taken over that family audience, TGiF tradition. “Disney, to their credit, stepped in and saw a void,” says Warren. “There’s no place else on television to do that kind of writing and do that kind of television.”
Rinsler feels the family channel shows are the only places where young people “can see themselves and see stories about themselves.” Even when the odd family sitcom does sneak on a network today, such as Everybody Loves Raymond, the young actors “do a couple of jokes and then they send the kids to bed.”
When it comes to television, says Hamilton, kids today are like everybody else. They just want to kick back and relax when they get in front of the TV set. “Compared to video games or YouTube, television —whether its live action or animated — allows for that silly kind of fun,” she says.
She points to Lizzie McGuire as the show that broke the damn for all of ’tween TV. “It didn’t hurt that Hillary Duff went on to become a major star, or that High School Musical made millions,” she says.
Parents with closets full of “Duff Stuff” and High School Musical gear would have to agree.
OK kids, show us what you’ve got:
The Suite Life On Deck
Sundays at 3:51 p.m.
Family Channel
A spin off Disney’s The Suite Life with Zack & Cody, with the two mischievous blonde moppets (15-year-old Sprouse twins Dylan and Cole) now enrolled in a semester-at-sea program on board a luxury liner. “Our mother can pay for it with her employee discount,” explains Dylan. “She decides to let us go on this cruise while she continues to work back at the Tipton (the posh Boston hotel where The Suite Life with Zack & Cody was set).”
Life With Derek
Sundays at 7:48 p.m.
Family Channel
As the title sequence implies, a bit of a Brady Bunch clone, starring Canadian kid Michael Seater as high school senior Derek. He’s part of a blended family of five kids, including boy-crazy stepsister, Casey (Ashley Leggat). In its fourth season.
Returns in December
on Family Channel
The popular Disney Channel series that made Miley Cyrus an achy-breaky star. Real life dad Billy Ray Cyrus plays her manager/father. For those of you that still don’t know, it’s about a typical teen (Cyrus) who has a double life as an international singing sensation. Off-screen, young Cyrus has been locked away in Vault Disney ever since her icky Vanity Fair photo shoot creeped out parents last spring.
Overruled!
Coming in March
Family Channel
Ever been cross examined by as teen? That’s what happens here as Jared (Coop) Cooper flashes his briefs as Banting High’s self-appointed teen lawyer. Canada’s Jasmine Richards (Naturally Sadie, Camp Rock) is in on the fun. Richards got her start in acting when she won the part of young Nala in the Toronto stage production of The Lion King.
The Latest Buzz
Fridays at 6:30 p.m.
Family Channel
A Canadian-made sitcom featuring five 14-year-olds — Rebecca, Michael, Noah, Amanda and Wilder —who put out their own teen magazine. The kids all attend Ernie Coombs High, a nice shout out to the late, great Mr. Dressup. Season Three features several guest stars, including Life With Derek’s Ashley Leggat. It also features the worst laugh track since Gilligan’s Island.
iCarly
Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
YTV
Miranda Cosgrove (Drake & Josh) stars as Carly, an overnight Internet sensation as the host of her own online web show, iCarly. Pitching in are best friends Sam (Jennette McCurdy) and Freddie (Nathan Kress). Typical posts include “Hey! What Am I Sitting On,” and “Wake Up Spencer” (where the gang wakes up one of their pals at unreasonable hours). From Nickelodeon.
Wizards of Waverly Place
Fridays at 7 p.m.
Family Channel
Another popular Disney Channel import, this time with a Harry Potter spin. The Russo kids (Selena Gomez, David Henrie and Jake T. Austin) are like any other Manhattan teens — except they are wizards. Can they keep their powers in check? Despite hailing from the sun belt in Phoenix, Henrie was a local hockey phenom and now skates in a Hollywood pick up hockey league with TV mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI) and ex-Kings such as Marty McSorley.
