http://www.nytimes.com/20...anted=1&th
May 24, 2004
The Laughter Is Fading in Sitcomland
By BILL CARTER

nside the offices of television comedy writers last week nobody was laughing.

For good reason. Amid the hoopla of last week's presentations to advertisers of the broadcast networks' prime-time lineups for the fall, it became strikingly clear that the network situation comedy was in as bad a state as it has been in more than 20 years.

It is not just that "Friends" and "Frasier" have left their weekly homes. The trend across all of network television is sharply away from comedy as a staple of entertainment programming, pushed aside by an audience bored by a tired sitcom format, changing industry economics and the rise of reality shows.

No network added to its comedy total in the fall schedules announced last week, one season after ABC and CBS added to their comedy totals. And two networks, ABC and in particular NBC, cut back.

NBC, which built its dominance in network ratings on the backs of hit comedies like "Cheers," "Seinfeld" and "Friends" (and which at one point in the late 1990's had 16 half-hour comedies on its schedule), will have only four comedies in its lineup next fall. That total will be NBC's fewest since 1980, when it had only two, "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life."

The impact throughout Hollywood is already profound. "In the comedy writers' community, it's pure panic," said Sue Naegle, one of the heads of the television department for United Talent Agency, which employs scores of comedy writers and performers. She and agents from several other agencies said about 150 comedy writers would be out of work this fall. Those still working, they added, would be making much less money. Meanwhile the big Hollywood production studios like Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox Television are facing a future of likely declines in profits. They will have fewer comedies to sell into syndication, where they can fetch hefty prices for those repeats. "Comedy is a great business for studios, and it's irreplaceable," said Gary Newman, co-president of 20th Century Television, which produces "The Simpsons" and "Bernie Mac." He added, "For a studio, nothing is going to replicate getting 22 episodes a year of a hit comedy made."

Nobody is befuddled about what is happening to the comedies. They are being squeezed out by the surge in reality programs, which this fall will command network hours as never before. Every network has at least two hours' worth of reality this fall, from "Survivor" on CBS to "The Apprentice" on NBC. And most of those hours will come between 8 and 10 p.m., time slots often reserved for comedy in years past.

Beyond the growing taste for reality shows among viewers, especially the young adult viewers so many networks (and their advertisers) covet, networks are shunning comedies for cost reasons. With networks, chiefly Fox and NBC, touting plans to extend original programming throughout the year, reality shows are becoming a financial necessity as well.

Scripted shows, which cost an average of $850,000 to $1.2 million to produce, almost always need to be repeated before they can recoup. With networks avoiding repeats, they must have lower-cost alternatives. The average reality show costs about $500,000.

"No network is going to do 52 weeks a year of scripted programming," Mr. Newman said. "They simply couldn't afford it."

But something broader and more cultural is at work in the drift away from the situation comedy. Viewers, especially those under 35, seem to be bored with the entire conceit of setup/joke and four-to-six characters sitting around a sofa on a Hollywood sound stage, a format that has defined comedy on network television since the days of Lucy and Ricky.

In recent years the networks kept churning out the new sitcoms, hoping various tweaks to the format and the right casting would result in that elusive new hit. Now, they have, in effect, abandoned the battle.

"There's a whole generation now that has been weaned on all kinds of different comedy," said Doug Herzog, who returned last week as president of the Comedy Central cable channel. Even Mr. Newman conceded, "For a lot of young people, the sitcom format feels retro and tired."

Mr. Herzog, who had a brief sojourn in network television as the chief programmer for the Fox network, said he believed younger viewers had been exposed to fresher, less traditional comedy in so many other arenas that they could no longer respond to regular network comedy.

"I think you can even talk," he said, "about shows like `Rugrats' on Nickelodeon as an example of comedy that comes from a different place." He added that the very look of the network comedy, almost all of which are now shot on videotape by three cameras on a stage in front of a live studio audience, is so numbingly similar that young viewers will not even give new ones a passing glance.

"If you go channel surfing, none of them stands out," Mr. Herzog said. "For young people it plays like television for Mom and Dad. It's like black-and-white movies for them."

The contrast Mr. Herzog pointed to, predictably enough, is a show on Comedy Central that does not look like a network sitcom, "The Chappelle Show," the critically acclaimed irreverent sketch comedy show starring the comedian Dave Chappelle.

No network is doing anything even remotely like that on its new schedule. The most-anticipated comedy is the "Friends" spinoff, "Joey" on NBC, which may work, but which is, by definition, derivative. (NBC's other new comedy is an animated series, "Father of the Pride," joining the returning "Scrubs" and "Will & Grace.") ABC has two new family sitcoms to go with the five it already has on the air.

CBS, the most traditional of the networks, has two new but traditional comedies, exemplified by their stars, John Goodman and Jason Alexander.

Chuck Lorre, who created one of the more successful new sitcoms in recent years with "Two and a Half Men" on CBS, said last week that he was not entirely surprised so few comedies were being added to network schedules. "Most of the comedies recently just haven't been very good," he said.

In the last six or seven years only one new comedy, "Will & Grace" on NBC, could be remotely called a breakthrough hit. The biggest network comedy on the air in the fall will undoubtedly be CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond," and that show will be in its final season.

One area the networks are looking toward to try to find some sort of more original comic voice is animation. NBC has a high-profile new animation series in "Father of the Pride." Fox is going with one new animated show, "American Dad," and one resurrected one from the same creator, "Family Guy." The latter show is an indication of how young viewers now find comedy in places other than the networks. "Family Guy" emerged as a hit only when released on DVD.

While comedy is struggling to survive, traditional drama seems to be thriving. But limits are apparent there as well. Most successful dramas now fall into the category of police procedurals, with no fewer than six shows in the fall coming from two franchises, the "C.S.I." hits on CBS and the "Law & Order" shows on NBC. In general the networks seems to have been more willing to experiment with the drama format, adding more scientific and graphic elements to old-fashioned police shows.

Mr. Herzog said no network would put on "The Chappelle Show" because "Dave Chappelle is not going to please everybody." He added, "A show like that would get beaten down by the armies of development executives at every network."

His conclusion: "The network sitcom may not be dead, but it's on life support."

Of course almost identical statements were being made in the early 1980's when network comedy was in a dreadful slump. At the time network programmers talked about shows like "Magnum, P.I.," with its mix of drama and self-deprecating humor, being the new comedies.

Then NBC put "The Cosby Show" on the air in the fall of 1984.

"If somebody comes up with a show that's as well written and smart as `Frasier' or `Raymond,' everything will be all right," said Ms. Naegle of United Talent Agency. But she added, "I don't really see anything on the horizon that might be that show."