The Sitcom Story

     The TV sitcom is episodic, as discussed by Colin Tait in his guest lectures. This means that throughout the course of a sitcom's run on TV, it will tell story upon story; these stories are fairly standalone and require no extensive background knowledge of the characters or overreaching sitcom plot. Each episode has its own individual narrative structure with all the basic qualities of a plot, easily broken down into a beginning, a middle, and an end. On occasion, there may be large relationships or character situations that will change and develop over the course of a season or a series' run, but individual plots are placed into easily-understandable 30-minute episodes. These episodes neatly wrap up at their ends and leave viewers satisfied. The largest cases of actual cliffhangers or unanswered questions occur within rare "To Be Continued..." episodes or the occasional open-ended series finale. With this set up, viewers are able to watch sitcoms at their own discretion. It frees them from intensive commitment, not forcing them to watch every week to understand the plot, and they are able to pick up at any time in a sort of mindless state, without having to remember what has previously happened. Viewers will easily understand the episode's individual plot with its beginning, middle and end. This set up also makes sitcoms re-watchable and allows for reruns to populate the airwaves.

     A classic example of the sitcom genre is Seinfeld, the ever-famous "show about nothing." In the show, each episode takes on a new, seemingly menial topic and infuses it with observational humor that everyone can relate to. Because each episode tackles something new, each episode is standalone and wrapped up within that 30-minute time frame. The show focuses around four main characters (Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer) whose interactions comprise the plot of each episode. An episode might introduce a guest star or a character who plays an integral part in the episode itself, but that new character will likely only be seen one time. Occasional relationships between characters may spring up, but viewers are unlikely to be thrown by their appearance in an episode. For example, George is engaged for a while during the series, but his fiancee can either be disregarded until she is needed for a George-centric plot line, or else her presence in the non-central lines of the episode will be quickly understood, without need for explanation or background info. Each Seinfeld episode also follows the basic "beginning, middle, end" plot structure. For example, in the infamous episode titled "The Contest," viewers watch the main characters compete in a battle of will to see who can go the longest without masturbating. In the beginning, George is caught masturbating by his mother; this then sparks the idea for (and start of) the contest when he tells the tale to the others at their signature diner the next day. Throughout the "middle" of the episode, we see each character's trials and tribulations in their quest to stave off. Kramer is the first to go, with the others quickly beginning to fail and follow in his footsteps when tempted by various means. You also have the characters on a quest to find dates since they can't get what they want by themselves under the rules of the contest. As the episode wraps up in the end, we see a complicated web of everyone's dates (or attempted dates), including how some of them react to the knowledge of the contest. At long last, it is implied that there was no true winner as they all give up at once after trying for so long. Seinfeld is the perfect sitcom to watch for some laughs and 30 minutes of entertainment - it doesn't matter where you pick up or leave off, each episode will give you everything you need in a neatly wrapped package.