Will The TV Sitcom Ever Come Back?

by Rob Me

Back in the 1990's, comedy was king on television. "Seinfeld", "Friends" and "Will and Grace" soared to the ratings top tier every week. What Happened since?

It's hard to believe now, but in the late eighties, early nineties, comedy was king on all the major networks, and the sitcom ruled them all. Sitcoms such as "Seinfeld", "Friends", "Cheers", "Golden Girls" and many more brought in millions of dollars in ad revenues for ABC, CBS and NBC. What happened to the viewing public wanting to laugh? There are a few answers that you will find kind of shocking, but if you think about it, it does make sense.

The surprising aspect of the waning days of the sitcom, is the fact that 9-11 did not make everybody turn away from shows like "The Sopranos", or "24", which was just getting started. The only sitcom that benefited from a viewer upswing after 911 was "Friends". They had a 20% increase in overall viewership two Thursdays later following that horrible Tuesday morning. After 9-11, reality shows were still huge and going stronger until the inevitable burnout of the genre resulted in lower ratings for hits like "Survivor" and "Fear Factor". The tv sitcom started to suffer from lazy writers who took the easy way out, writing ever more dull plots about boring relationship troubles that we've all seen time and time again. Larry David, the best writer on television, left the "Seinfeld" show in 1999, and that was the death knell for the golden age of the sitcom.

However, things are brightening up quite a bit with the arrival of stellar comedy hits like "The Office", "My Name is Earl", and the vastly improving "30 Rock". HBO has gotten into the comedy game too, with "Curb Your Enthusiasm", the return of Larry David as sitcom star this time, and the brilliant and un-PC star Sacha Baron Coen's show, "The Ali G Show."