Word: sitcomming
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...movies are autobiographical," says Almodovar, "but only in the essentials, not in individual anecdotes." In the subversive sitcom What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1985), "I wanted to talk about my family, and about the horrendous family life of the barrios." Mom (Maura) sniffs glue, pops pills and burns the chicken. Dad sings German songs -- reason enough for her to kill the dull brute with a ham bone. By this time the viewer may feel like put-upon Mom or bashed-in Dad, so assiduously has Almodovar cataloged his atrocities. But the filmmaker had more cunning indiscretions in store...
Most pervasive, however, has been the use of "kinder, gentler." Since August, journalists have conjured up the images of a kinder, gentler Congress, Soviet Union, FCC, sitcom and leveraged buyout. The Washington Post even reported that the IRS was preparing a "kinder, gentler 1040." New York Times columnist William Safire feels that the epidemic (to which TIME itself has not been immune) has taken hold because journalists need such pithy lines to play on. Says Safire: "It's catnip, and we're all cats...
...Nickelodeon signs off. The channel offers mostly old reruns, from The Donna Reed Show to Saturday Night Live, but the retreads are given a self-parodying spin with tongue-in-cheek promos (a "How to Be Donna Reed" home-study course) and special events like a "Do-It-Yourself Sitcom" contest. In that one, viewers were asked why their life ought to be a comedy series. Three families were then chosen to act out their own mini-sitcoms, with the help of guest stars like Eve Plumb of The Brady Bunch...
More original programming is on the way. This week Nick at Nite offers Tattertown, a cartoon pilot from raffish animator Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat) about a world where discarded objects come to life. Nickelodeon, meanwhile, is developing a sitcom about kids at a dude ranch, as well as a new show for preschoolers, Eureka's Castle, that will use animation, puppets and live action to explore problems like being afraid of the dark...
...team responsible for The Cosby Show, Roseanne presents the flip side of the impossibly perfect Huxtables. Yet the two shows have some key similarities: both were inspired by the monologues of a stand-up comic, and both depend on loosely structured, slice-of-life episodes rather than sitcom contrivances. A typical Roseanne segment might revolve around something as prosaic as a visit to a restaurant or a discussion of how to pay the bills. (Roseanne's strategy: "You pay the ones marked final notice, and you throw the rest away.") Best of all, behind the put-downs and childish taunting...