Colin Tain discussed several sitcom characteristics on Wednesday that I wanted to develop a better understanding for in the near future. The first characteristic I would like to discuss is the predictable and familiar plot development of any sitcom. If you have noticed, when watching a sitcom, they start off slow and progress after fifteen minutes. Also, this type of sitcom focuses on a central question with simple plot progression and concludes with no loose end, which is called an episodic sitcom. This sitcom tends to have characters that tend to not transfer their learning from the last episode to the next and who will maintain their ideologies at the beginning of each episode. This characteristic displays and prolongs a sitcom of original characters with different perspectives to be put together for potential conflict for a concentrated audience.
Take for instance, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne perpetuates a great example of episodic sitcoms because if you watch the show several times you will be able to notice the characters from the first episode you watched and the last one you happen to tune into are the same. An episodic sitcom allows for cycles and repeated patterns to capture the maximum amount of audience attention. Yet, these patterns are then changed over time because a character gets older and more mature and pushes the audience away and a good example would be the sitcom Save By the Bell. This show capitalized on adolescent years for many teens in the 90s, but the characters got older and so did the audience, leaving the show to cancel.
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