I’m a second-semester senior, so I devote a huge portion of my time to watching television. As the days count down toward graduation, I find solace in the world of TV.
Unfortunately for me, however, the number of good shows on TV is decidedly few, particularly in the area of sitcoms.
If you have ever stayed home sick from school when you were younger and didn’t feel like watching “The Price is Right,” then chances are you have seen “I Love Lucy.” Considered the grandfather of the modern American sitcom, “I Love Lucy” began broadcasting in 1951 and essentially standardized the sitcom format.
Defined by its signature slapstick humor, zany situations and the laughter of a live studio audience, “I Love Lucy” shares many characteristics with the sitcoms of today. Despite these similarities, the modern shows can’t begin to compare with the classics.
New shows like “Whitney,” “Are You There, Chelsea?” and of course the hugely popular “Two and a Half Men” pale in comparison to the sitcoms of the ’50s and ’60s. While some sitcoms receive praise from critics with clever writing, relatable characters and interesting stories, other shows that are nothing more than bad puns and endless sexual innuendos receive the much more valuable viewership, rather than the critical acclaim.
While “Two and a Half Men” enters its 10th season and marks a full decade as one of the most popular shows in America, other more intelligent sitcoms struggle to stay afloat. This brings us to Thursday night, where we soon welcome back NBC’s “Community.”
After being placed on an indefinite mid-season hiatus, “Community” returns Thursday, partly due to a grassroots movement of support for the exceptionally clever show. The show focuses on the adventures of a study group in a less than prestigious community college and features the classic comedy of the venerable Chevy Chase, the unique stylings of the young comedian Donald Glover and the Academy Award-winning Jim Rash.
“Community” is not filmed in front of a live studio audience and it does not feature prerecorded laughter to tell you when you’re supposed to think something is funny. It also tends to keep the innuendo and bad puns to a minimum. If I had to describe the appeal of “Community” in one sentence: it is a sitcom for people who like sitcoms.
As we are now more than 60 years past the premiere of “I Love Lucy,” the standard sitcom formula is older than most of our parents. While other shows rehash the same sitcom scenarios that have been around for half a century, “Community” has more respect for its audience.
Featuring characters who are extremely keen to the standard tropes of American television, “Community” can be considered to be self-referential, self-deprecating and original all at the same time, with a healthy dose of deference to the classics.
NBC had plans to cancel “Community” and it still may do so at the end of the season, despite the public outcry.
If there is something to this show that made fans turn out in such vocal support for it, and if NBC decided to give it another chance, then perhaps you should as well. Use this Thursday night as an opportunity to see that a sitcom can be funny even if it doesn’t tell you when to laugh.