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I think it's weird that any sitcom in the 21st century is using three wall stock sets and live studio audiences. It's very strange. I mean, I get that if you took the audience out of this or Big Bang Theory or whatever, no one would know when to laugh, because nothing actually funny ever happens, but it always strikes me as such a strange, outdated choice. It would be like intentionally shooting a T.V. show on old film.

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As someone who doesn't watch TV shows really and the last time I was really into sitcoms was the Friends era, what is the more common alternative these days?

I don't know which style is more common, but the shows that do better, at least critically, tend to be more movie-style shoots. Moving cameras, multiple-takes on scenes to get different shots, any actual editing in post-production, rather than just cutting different camera angles together, real locations, lots of stuff outside, that sort of thing. Basically the style The Office pretty much popularised is the big thing now. Even something as massively, all-conqueringly mainstream as Modern Family is using a more traditionally movie-like shooting style, and that's just to use the current mega-show as an example, not to mention stuff like Curb Your Enthusiam, Louie, Veep, Eastbound & Down, Arrested Development, New Girl, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock, just to name the big ones.

 

In this day and age, if you see a lot of the same three walled set shot from the same angle, basically like a talk show, you're seeing something shot for convenience. That might be because the show's got a low budget, or it might be because the show's mind rapingly lazy, thinks you're a retard, and looks you up, personally, on Facebook, to laugh at your rubbish life. If you also hear a live studio audience and awkward pauses for laugh breaks, and the acting is that very "wait for the music to fade out...someone walk into the room, everyone angle their body toward the camera, aaaaand START TALKING" style, like a theatre, it's probably the later.

 

It's basically the difference between this;

 

[video=youtube;caK6KVi0qPo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caK6KVi0qPo

 

And this;

 

[video=youtube;O15NpjeQcCA]

Edited by John Hancock

I only got into Modern Family about 6 months ago, but man it really is funny.

 

And Sophia Vergara is hawt. Julie Bowen has that whole "she's hot, but I'm not sure why" vibe going too.

Julie Bowen's hot because she's hot, no?

 

I don't even really like Modern Family, I just think it's a really well made show, and it's a smash-smash-smash hit, so it's always a good counter-point to the people still making shows that wouldn't have looked out of place 20-30 years ago.

Julie Bowen's hot because she's hot, no?

 

It's weird. I haven't quite figured it out yet, she's not my usual type but something about her is just amazing levels of hotness to me? Especially in Modern Family. Maybe I'm a sucker for disparaging looks to camera or something? :lol

Use the right thread dammit! :lol

She's probably of the age where everything's just a mess under the clothes, but she's still super pretty.

 

(Julie Bowen's the Asian chick right?)

For reference, Julie Bowen:

 

http://images.starpulse.com/news/bloggers/8/blog_images/julie-bowen-3.jpg

 

I feel a "hot or not" thread rearing it's not-so-ugly head...

I feel the exact same way about Julie Bowen, but Sophia Vergara is unbelievable! I also think the actress who plays the oldest daughter is the same age as me, so she's another bonus

 

I'm not really a sitcom kind of guy after the show I really used to love, Scrubs, went completely downhill in its last few seasons, but I think its a pretty hilarious show overall and I crack up at the stereotypically bitchy over the top gay couple - I think they've pulled that off perfectly

Do they use weird Lord of the Rings camera tricks, or are the actresses who play the daughters just the absolute tiniest humans ever?

No Sarah Hyland who plays the eldest daughter is just a tiny petit little thing and Ariel Winter who is the younger daughter is still under 18 so is still growing.

 

I think Winter is about 5'4" and Hyland is about 5'2"

 

I do like the show though and not just for the hotness of Bowen, Vergara and Hyland but mainly for Phil and Jay. I love Ed O'Neil, the guy was Al Bundy in Married with Children, he has a black belt in BJJ and his role as the old man coming to terms with his gay son, his marriage, his adopted daughter as well as his new trophy wife and her crazy ways and family is funny and with depth.

 

But for a modern sitcom, well an American one, perfection was reached with season 3 of Scrubs.

I'd agree that Louie is the best thing on T.V. right now. I'm torn between which I like more out of that and Curb Your Enthusiasm. I think Curb is way, way funnier, but that's almost beside the point. The new Letterman angle in Louie might have been the best multi-episode story arch in any television show I've seen this decade, if not century, if not ever.
  • 2 weeks later...

Having gone back and watched some of the episodes again whilst the good programmes disappear off the TV for the summer I can also fully recommend The League.

 

Even if you don't like American Football, even if you don't do Fantasy football there is still so much there for you to laugh at. Plus it has guest spots from the likes of Lake Bell, Jeff Goldblum, Seth Rogen, Brooke Nevin, Alia Shawkat, Sarah Silverman, Eliza Dushku, Timothy Olyphant, Jayma Mays, Adam Brody and tonnes more. Plus its really god damn funny.

 

EIT: Oh and Dana White too, yes that Dana White.

Edited by Evil Gringo

Do Twenty Twelve and W1A count? There not exactly sitcoms but they are intelligently funny

 

Apart from that I like the Middle

  • 4 months later...
I can't really think of a good one

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