This book examines the popular television genre – the sitcom – via a wide range of frameworks, and places that analysis in historical institutional, and national contexts. The aim of the book is to think about how sitcom has been analysed in the past, and what this might tell us about television; and then also to offer newer ways of examining the genre that take into account contemporary contexts in broadcasting and academic research. The book is divided into sections on: genre; the television industry; analysing programmes; thinking about audiences; the future of the sitcom. While the program ... More

This book examines the popular television genre – the sitcom – via a wide range of frameworks, and places that analysis in historical institutional, and national contexts. The aim of the book is to think about how sitcom has been analysed in the past, and what this might tell us about television; and then also to offer newer ways of examining the genre that take into account contemporary contexts in broadcasting and academic research. The book is divided into sections on: genre; the television industry; analysing programmes; thinking about audiences; the future of the sitcom. While the programmes referred to are primarily contemporary and predominantly from the UK and USA, these texts are placed within historical contexts and series from other nations are also explored. In particular, the relationships between society, comedy and the sitcom are repeatedly foregrounded, and it is argued throughout that the sitcom can be used as a tool to think about wider social norms and conventions. The book draws on a wealth of primary material not published anywhere else, including interviews with sitcom audiences, and interviews with sitcom writers, producers and directors.