I wonder how much influence TiVo and other DVRs had over the transition from sitcoms to dramas. A key feature of the classic sitcom is they can be watched in any order, every episode returning a status quo. Once we had DVRs, shows were no longer bound by this, they could expect that we would watch every episode, in order. That really opened up new possibilities in TV with The Wire, Breaking Bad, etc.
I think part of the reason older sitcoms remain popular is because they don't require much attention. I love the prestige dramas as much as anyone. But we all know we're often "multi-tasking" (a thing that basically doesn't exist) with our attention, looking at a phone, or computer, or doing the countless chores that modern technology don't seem to have done anything to eliminate, or at least replaced with others equally tedious, like responding to emails. That means that we don't have the singular attention to devote to the complicated plotlines of dramas, which, thankfully, have fewer and fewer episodes of higher quality, so that what little time we do have is well-focused. Older sitcoms provide that background noise where the stakes of missing a moment are low. You've probably already seen it; you'll see it again; and it doesn't matter.
The multi-camera updated sitcom you're looking for as a model is Nobody Wants This on Netflix. It is a good (not great) show, but points the way to a future for the sitcom genre, with its cinematic qualities and major stars. It is/was popular and has been picked up for a second season (Fall 2025). Do the data analytics and provide an update?
I think part of what we see with that rise of drama and thriller is that it's now normal for major Hollywood actors to do "prestige" television (they have to call it that, or they won't do it). It used to be the case that there was a pecking order of sorts between "film" and "television." That has gone away, and now we're seeing shows headlined by Hollywood A-listers. It used to be an event, of sorts, when a Jennifer Aniston made the leap to the silver screen, a sign that they had "arrived" somewhere. That was even a classic trajectory for some actors, to start on TV, then make "the leap." Of course, there were always exceptions to the rule, but they were the exceptions. It took outstanding B-listers, like James Gandolfini and Bryan Cranston (yes, they both were), to change that. Couple it with the death of movie theater-going, and the rise of streaming, and now we've seen the shift of more of those typical Hollywood-level dramas and thrillers to miniseries or longer shows.
Yeah, but how about George Peppard and Jan Michael Vincent? There're probably others.
What's driving the career shift? Pure A-Lister career preference? Not convinced. Possibly if there was an over-supply of A-Listers, and higher risk per film project - higher production costs, one bomb, end of career/status. Maybe that'd produce a shift. Alternatively, what are the actual cashflows to the actor when shooting a film vs a TV series, and when do they occur?
On the other hand; the Shows By Genre chart does not include "reality TV". Notoriously cheap to produce when compared to other genres, apparently.
The Finale Viewers table - the viewers number would have to be a proxy for series length (number of episodes made) and average viewers per episode. The Finale number is most likely bumped up a bit, 'cos, Event, but essentially it's a viewer retention figure.
The New Show Production chart; the rate remains fairly stable from 1950 to 1980, thirty years; slight increase from 1980 to 2000, whereupon it takes off. At a guess, that would tie-in rather nicely with the switch from analogue broadcasting to digital, which gave more hours/minutes of broadcast time, per unit of spectrum.
The prevalence of soaps and sitcoms appears to have been dropping since 1990, but I don't know if that's simply a count of series, as opposed to viewers, as there may be a superstar effect there - with both Friends and Frasier ending in 2004.
I think producers, looking at rising costs, plus higher wage demands from cast members of successful series, and changes in revenue streams, swapped strategy.
They went for viewer retention, rather than viewer acquisition. The assumption is that sitcoms are easy to dive in and out of, so viewer numbers per episode might be volatile on broadcast, depending on scheduling. This would appear to match the YouGov survey responses.
But the easiest way to get bums on seats initially, is to cast a known face.
"Of course, there were always exceptions to the rule, but they were the exceptions."
It's definitely driven by economics. I have no clue about the details of streaming vs movie releases and what actors get paid. But it certainly is the case that Jan Michael Vincent is not a Nicole Kidman or Matthew McConaughey, and the latter are now headlining television shows, after storied film careers.
I agree that sitcoms will soon come back as a popular genre. We already see it with crime and medical procedurals, that also were mostly dead in the late 2010s-early 2020s. But sitcoms (as well as romcoms) have to reinvent themselves. A lot of old sitcom characters and storylines today are seen as problematic. We forgive old sitcoms for that because they are a product of their time. But it feels like the current film industry hasn't quite figured out how to make fun of everyday life and show human relationships without making them problematic
You might be interested in this podcast featuring Michelle Nader, who is currently an executive producer on two different sitcoms(Shifting Gears and Deli Boys). One is a network show with familiar stars, and the other is a streaming show created by relative unknowns). She's been working in the sitcom space for the last thirty years. Her perspective on the state of the sitcom space, and the difference between network and streaming, is fairly unique. (My spouse is a cousin, so I've met her several times).
As you suggested, the dearth of sitcoms shows there is an opportunity. It just needs to be 'A&R'ed' and packaged right. I'm ready to laugh at (largely) the same people who hang around the same places for 30 minutes at a time.
I dont want to accept that sitcoms are dead. I agree that they are perfect comfort food and dont quite match the demand for today but they are the perfect break from the chaos around us. If Netflix or another streaming platform found a way to recapture that Id be shocked if it wasnt a welcome success.
It's interesting to see the sitcom almost perfectly follow the soap opera curve. Soap operas seem to slowly move to new formats like the short drama apps. I wonder if we'll see more and more sitcoms on those platforms too.
I may have not been reading very carefully but I did not notice Modern Family mentioned.
If so, it would be like a story on crime drama genre without mentioning The Wire.
Five prime time Emmies, tied with Frazier, 250 episodes, and I believe the success of this show is highly important in understanding the state of the genre, at least until the end of its run in 2020.
Awesome article! I do a podcast where we revisit pop culture from our pasts and I’ve been wanting to look into past sitcoms because of their powerful nostalgic pull. I’d love to see a return of sitcoms because it’ll cut through the over saturated dramas. We need more laughs, more lighthearted entertainment that shows us we can be kind to each other, that life is full of ridiculousness, I mean all of it. We need less violence and antiheroes.
I watched a couple episodes of Taxi a few weeks ago. The level of talent on that show just amazes me. Every regular cast member had decades-long careers afterward.
It's weird, but I don't remember the series finale of The Simpsons. Hold on...
[someone whispers in my ear]
Wait, what?!
I wonder how much influence TiVo and other DVRs had over the transition from sitcoms to dramas. A key feature of the classic sitcom is they can be watched in any order, every episode returning a status quo. Once we had DVRs, shows were no longer bound by this, they could expect that we would watch every episode, in order. That really opened up new possibilities in TV with The Wire, Breaking Bad, etc.
I have an idea: they're just not funny anymore. Could that be it?
Watch an old episode of Cheers, or Taxi, or the first Bob Newhart Show. Compare to current sitcoms. Repeat as needed.
I think part of the reason older sitcoms remain popular is because they don't require much attention. I love the prestige dramas as much as anyone. But we all know we're often "multi-tasking" (a thing that basically doesn't exist) with our attention, looking at a phone, or computer, or doing the countless chores that modern technology don't seem to have done anything to eliminate, or at least replaced with others equally tedious, like responding to emails. That means that we don't have the singular attention to devote to the complicated plotlines of dramas, which, thankfully, have fewer and fewer episodes of higher quality, so that what little time we do have is well-focused. Older sitcoms provide that background noise where the stakes of missing a moment are low. You've probably already seen it; you'll see it again; and it doesn't matter.
This is why I cherish and appreciate and love Abbott Elementary so much and ESPECIALLY since it’s on cable television!
The multi-camera updated sitcom you're looking for as a model is Nobody Wants This on Netflix. It is a good (not great) show, but points the way to a future for the sitcom genre, with its cinematic qualities and major stars. It is/was popular and has been picked up for a second season (Fall 2025). Do the data analytics and provide an update?
"The sitcom's preeminence waned amid this deluge of television programming, though its decline stemmed from more than a crowded marketplace."
Umm, "according to our genre dataset, sitcoms have historically accounted for approximately 10% of new shows".
I'd assume other genre datasets over the same period show lower percentages of new shows? Otherwise, I'm not sure that 10%-ish counts as pre-eminence.
Anyway, aren't sitcoms delivered in 30 minute packages? Drama being at least 60?
Willing to bet that there's been a shift in the economics of 30 minute shows vs longer.
Senior Moment Alert! The other chart - shows sitcoms behind soaps, both ahead of drama.
Curiously, the rise of drama looks like 3x, but Thriller is 10x.
I think part of what we see with that rise of drama and thriller is that it's now normal for major Hollywood actors to do "prestige" television (they have to call it that, or they won't do it). It used to be the case that there was a pecking order of sorts between "film" and "television." That has gone away, and now we're seeing shows headlined by Hollywood A-listers. It used to be an event, of sorts, when a Jennifer Aniston made the leap to the silver screen, a sign that they had "arrived" somewhere. That was even a classic trajectory for some actors, to start on TV, then make "the leap." Of course, there were always exceptions to the rule, but they were the exceptions. It took outstanding B-listers, like James Gandolfini and Bryan Cranston (yes, they both were), to change that. Couple it with the death of movie theater-going, and the rise of streaming, and now we've seen the shift of more of those typical Hollywood-level dramas and thrillers to miniseries or longer shows.
Yeah, but how about George Peppard and Jan Michael Vincent? There're probably others.
What's driving the career shift? Pure A-Lister career preference? Not convinced. Possibly if there was an over-supply of A-Listers, and higher risk per film project - higher production costs, one bomb, end of career/status. Maybe that'd produce a shift. Alternatively, what are the actual cashflows to the actor when shooting a film vs a TV series, and when do they occur?
On the other hand; the Shows By Genre chart does not include "reality TV". Notoriously cheap to produce when compared to other genres, apparently.
The Finale Viewers table - the viewers number would have to be a proxy for series length (number of episodes made) and average viewers per episode. The Finale number is most likely bumped up a bit, 'cos, Event, but essentially it's a viewer retention figure.
The New Show Production chart; the rate remains fairly stable from 1950 to 1980, thirty years; slight increase from 1980 to 2000, whereupon it takes off. At a guess, that would tie-in rather nicely with the switch from analogue broadcasting to digital, which gave more hours/minutes of broadcast time, per unit of spectrum.
The prevalence of soaps and sitcoms appears to have been dropping since 1990, but I don't know if that's simply a count of series, as opposed to viewers, as there may be a superstar effect there - with both Friends and Frasier ending in 2004.
I think producers, looking at rising costs, plus higher wage demands from cast members of successful series, and changes in revenue streams, swapped strategy.
They went for viewer retention, rather than viewer acquisition. The assumption is that sitcoms are easy to dive in and out of, so viewer numbers per episode might be volatile on broadcast, depending on scheduling. This would appear to match the YouGov survey responses.
But the easiest way to get bums on seats initially, is to cast a known face.
"Of course, there were always exceptions to the rule, but they were the exceptions."
It's definitely driven by economics. I have no clue about the details of streaming vs movie releases and what actors get paid. But it certainly is the case that Jan Michael Vincent is not a Nicole Kidman or Matthew McConaughey, and the latter are now headlining television shows, after storied film careers.
I agree that sitcoms will soon come back as a popular genre. We already see it with crime and medical procedurals, that also were mostly dead in the late 2010s-early 2020s. But sitcoms (as well as romcoms) have to reinvent themselves. A lot of old sitcom characters and storylines today are seen as problematic. We forgive old sitcoms for that because they are a product of their time. But it feels like the current film industry hasn't quite figured out how to make fun of everyday life and show human relationships without making them problematic
You might be interested in this podcast featuring Michelle Nader, who is currently an executive producer on two different sitcoms(Shifting Gears and Deli Boys). One is a network show with familiar stars, and the other is a streaming show created by relative unknowns). She's been working in the sitcom space for the last thirty years. Her perspective on the state of the sitcom space, and the difference between network and streaming, is fairly unique. (My spouse is a cousin, so I've met her several times).
https://youtu.be/vUYTNsVwIJA?si=uXxZpEd-8BlNzz51
As you suggested, the dearth of sitcoms shows there is an opportunity. It just needs to be 'A&R'ed' and packaged right. I'm ready to laugh at (largely) the same people who hang around the same places for 30 minutes at a time.
I dont want to accept that sitcoms are dead. I agree that they are perfect comfort food and dont quite match the demand for today but they are the perfect break from the chaos around us. If Netflix or another streaming platform found a way to recapture that Id be shocked if it wasnt a welcome success.
It's interesting to see the sitcom almost perfectly follow the soap opera curve. Soap operas seem to slowly move to new formats like the short drama apps. I wonder if we'll see more and more sitcoms on those platforms too.
Excellent post! I recently wrote about my favorite sitcom moments.
https://open.substack.com/pub/adrianneibauer/p/adrians-top-five-245?r=gtvg8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
What are some of your favorite moments in sitcom history?
I may have not been reading very carefully but I did not notice Modern Family mentioned.
If so, it would be like a story on crime drama genre without mentioning The Wire.
Five prime time Emmies, tied with Frazier, 250 episodes, and I believe the success of this show is highly important in understanding the state of the genre, at least until the end of its run in 2020.
Awesome article! I do a podcast where we revisit pop culture from our pasts and I’ve been wanting to look into past sitcoms because of their powerful nostalgic pull. I’d love to see a return of sitcoms because it’ll cut through the over saturated dramas. We need more laughs, more lighthearted entertainment that shows us we can be kind to each other, that life is full of ridiculousness, I mean all of it. We need less violence and antiheroes.
I watched a couple episodes of Taxi a few weeks ago. The level of talent on that show just amazes me. Every regular cast member had decades-long careers afterward.
Goodnight, Mr. Walters.