History of the Sitcom is an eight-part CNN documentary television series that traces the development of the American situation comedy show from the 1950s to the 21st Century. The show features 184 interviews with creatives, actors and directors including Norman Lear, Mel Brooks, Yvette Lee Bowser, Marta Kauffman, and Carl Reiner (in his last recorded interview).[1][2] The series follows a similar format of the CNN Original Series The History of Comedy.
The series takes an expansive view of what can be considered a sitcom; it includes traditional programs shot with multiple cameras in front of a live audience like I Love Lucy as well as modern single camera programs like Fleabag. The decision about which programs to include, according to series producer Bill Carter, came down to: "If the overarching purpose of the show is to make you laugh, it can be considered a sitcom. And in almost all cases, the shows are half-hours rather than hours."[3]
"The series uses the same team — executive producer John Ealer and former New York Times media writer Bill Carter — that recently created CNN's six-part The Story of Late Night.
They first had to first decide how to define a sitcom, which originally was three cameras on a soundstage before a live studio audience and a laugh track. But in recent years, comedies such as The Office and Modern Family dispensed with the laugh track and audience. "We created a sniff test," Ealer said. "Does it feel like a sitcom? Insecure is not the same as The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Yet they both represent how comedy opened up the viewpoints of Americans in profoundly funny ways." Carter noted that M*A*S*H was considered a groundbreaking comedy despite heavy doses of drama. "If you started to eliminate shows because they had a lot of drama, you'd get rid of a lot of great comedy," he said.
History of the Sitcom began production just before the pandemic and used the rest of the year to interview a whopping 184 people for the series, including some of the biggest living luminaries of the sitcom world, from Ted Danson to Tina Fey. Ealer said they strategically began lining up interviews of the older luminaries first and fortunately did so right before the pandemic."
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"Moms, dads, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters – more than just a hilarious reflection of the people we grow up and old with, sitcoms have opened our hearts to a more inclusive visions of what 'family' can mean."[5]
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"Sex & The Sitcom"
July 11, 2021 (2021-07-11)
"Since America has long found it easier to laugh about sex than talk seriously about it, sitcom humor has had a critical role ushering in a new era of openness, not just towards sex, but toward women's rights and gender identity."[5]
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"Just Friends"
July 18, 2021 (2021-07-18)
"When Americans look beyond family or work for their identity, the 'hanging out with friends' sitcom hilariously redefines the genre while also revealing television's challenging quest for inclusivity and authentic representation."[5]
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"Working for Laughs"
July 25, 2021 (2021-07-25)
"Work families can be even funnier than our biological ones, since the endless array of wacky sitcom characters on the job offers hilarious insights into the state of the American workplace."[5]
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"Facing Race"
August 1, 2021 (2021-08-01)
"In many homes, difficult conversations about race and diversity have first happened on the sitcom screen, helping pave the way for progress with hilarity and laughter."[5]
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"Movin' On Up"
August 8, 2021 (2021-08-08)
"Upward mobility, the American Dream, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps – sitcom laughs have helped generations of Americans come to grips with their place in a supposed 'classless' society."[5]
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"Freaks, Geeks & Outsiders"
August 15, 2021 (2021-08-15)
"Aliens, geeks, monsters, immigrants, witches… the fresh perspective of sitcom fish-out-of-water give us funny new insights into the ever-changing face of America."[5]
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"Escaping Reality"
August 22, 2021 (2021-08-22)
"Sitcoms have long been the ultimate comedy comfort food, but what sitcoms offer escape from – and what they offer escape to – reveal a lot about the state of the American mind, and the state of sitcom form itself."[5]
List of sitcoms represented
Each episode section below lists the film clips from the decade that are featured in that episode. The list below will order the sitcoms in the chronology order in which they appear in the show and only have shows that are credited on the right/left corner once they are introduced. If a series appears many times in the same episodes, it will be listed on the time it is mainly mentioned.
