My favourite genre of comedy is the sitcom. I think that applies to about 95% of people.
Sure we can love paying $200 to see Robin Williams or Billy Connolly. (Once in a life time experience)
Sure we love going to the flicks to see a good comedy movie and it rarely happens. ( Most comedy movies stink)
Sure we get big belly laughs from the great comedy sketches of great sketch comedians. (But we can't watch them over and over again)
But sitcoms are like our best friends.
I don't like defining sitcom. I consider half hour comedy shows in which we get to know the characters as sitcoms. So GET SMART to me is a sitcom. (yer it's satire but it's the format)
Australia doesn't do good sitcoms and there's a simple reason why.
But I digress. I've come up with a great sitcom idea and think it could be a success but here's what it needs.
For the purpose of this article I'll call it AUSSIE FAMILY (that's not the title)
AUSSIE FAMILY if gone through the procedure of every other Aussies comedy will fail no matter how good I think it's potential is.
So back to the heading.
HOW TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL AUSSIE SITCOM?
1. Take all the key elements from the best U.S comedies. Not the British. The British don't seem how to nail a punchline.
2 Get all the best comedy writers in Australia on board. Have 20-30 writers if need be.
Australian comedies fail because of our "closed shop" mentality. We are too protective, which means scared of our project being shared.
3 Get an American from a successful sitcom to be the script editor or supervisor.
4 Forget about creating characters as such , create funny lines of a certain style for each character. Then their characters will evolve from the their lines. Look at Carla in CHEERS she evolved from just being a wise cracker.
5 Every character must have an angle no matter how small. The perfect example is Larry in NEWHART.
6 The characters all live in the now, the past is not part of the sitcom world.
e.g CHEERS Sam had a brother. His appearance in one episode was the extent of his involvement. Never mentioned before, never mentioned after. Same with Ted Baxter in Mary Tyler Moore Show.
GUEST STARS
Not a big thing in U.S sitcoms but for Australian sitcoms it's necessary.
That's most of my ingredients for an Aussie Sitcom.
