View Full Version : What type of Sitcom writing you like


James"Thunder"Early
07-22-2004, 08:37 PM
What type of sitcom do you like? the Norman Lear/Susan Harris style or the Grant Tinker style or some other type.

EmoJoe
07-22-2004, 08:38 PM
Can you give an example of shows for each catagorey?

Mr. Television
07-22-2004, 08:41 PM
I like both but Norman Lear in my opinion was in a class by himself. I also liked all of Susan Harris's hit shows so I'll pick them.

James"Thunder"Early
07-22-2004, 08:41 PM
Originally posted by RurryMicelli
Can you give an example of shows for each catagorey?

All in the Family is a Norman Lear show, Golden Girls is a Susan Harris and Mary Tyler Moore is a Grant Tinker. of course these are just examples of the writers I mentioned.

EmoJoe
07-22-2004, 09:06 PM
Originally posted by King Forrester
All in the Family is a Norman Lear show, Golden Girls is a Susan Harris and Mary Tyler Moore is a Grant Tinker. of course these are just examples of the writers I mentioned.

Okay I only saw All in the Family from those shows.

What would Whos The Boss? be?

Mr. Television
07-22-2004, 09:14 PM
Originally posted by RurryMicelli
Okay I only saw All in the Family from those shows.

What would Whos The Boss? be? Norman Lear did All In The Family, Sanford And Son, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day At A Time and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Susan Harris did Soap, Benson, Golden Girls, Empty Nest and Nurses
Grant Tinker did MTM, Rhoda, Phyllis, WKRP In Cincinnati
WTB wasn't put out by any of these people. But it was still a good show.

barwars
07-22-2004, 09:53 PM
I like Grant Tinker's style (although I like Norman Lear's too, and Golden Girls has always been a fave).... other shows that fit this style include Taxi, Cheers and Night Court.

But the best writing came from 2 shows that were in a league of their own....

Frasier

and

Seinfeld

Moonlit_Suburb
07-22-2004, 11:37 PM
I'm a huge fan of the Carsey-Werner sitcoms...

Roseanne
That '70s Show
3rd Rock from the Sun
Grounded for Life
The Cosby Show

I also love the writing (and directing) on Malcolm in the Middle. That show is all kinds of brilliant.

Other sitcoms with good/witty writing...

Alf - Yes Alf. That alien is a riot
Dharma & Greg - Underrated, IMO
Married with Children - Very clever writing

Mr. Television
07-22-2004, 11:42 PM
Originally posted by Moonlit_Suburb
I'm a huge fan of the Carsey-Werner sitcoms...

Roseanne
That '70s Show
3rd Rock from the Sun
Grounded for Life
The Cosby Show

I also love the writing (and directing) on Malcolm in the Middle. That show is all kinds of brilliant.

Other sitcoms with good/witty writing...

Alf - Yes Alf. That alien is a riot
Dharma & Greg - Underrated, IMO
Married with Children - Very clever writing The Carsey-Werner sitcoms are good too.

Mrgman
12-07-2005, 10:36 PM
.

What would Whos The Boss? be?
It was creater by Hunter-cohan also created different strokes

Number 9 Dream
12-07-2005, 10:39 PM
The Carsey-Werner sitcoms are good too.

Ditto.

Kristen
12-08-2005, 12:53 AM
Well, I think it's obvious that I like the Grant Tinker shows. ;) But Susan Harris is also awesome, GG is like my second religion. No offense to anybody, but I've never been a big Norman Lear fan. Just not my cup of tea.

McFly121
12-08-2005, 03:07 AM
Sorry, I gotta stray from any of those. I think my favorite type of comedy is where it's rich in occurence, sort of ironic. But there are so many schools of comedy....

Embarrassment (i.e., trying to sing but sound like sh**, just watch those American Idol auditions);

Ironic (the guy who put the bucket of water over the door now becomes a victim of it);

Play on words (Leo: "They looked up my butt with a telescope big enough to see Venus"....Riggs: "Well, I guess all they saw was Uranus".);

Sexual (Ross: "Yeah, that is how they measure pants...in prison!");

Dumb (Woody: "Oh, no! I lost my watch!...Oh, whew, here it is on my another wrist.")

Making fun of (Mr. Belvedere: "I've had it up to here!"...Ueker points to Belvedere's stomach: "Or out to there.")

Sarcasm (Joe: "What are we gonna do??!!"....Brian: "I know! I saw it on a Twilight Zone episode once. All we have to do...is stop time!")

Slapstick (Harry: "Where's the ashes?" Art: "Oh, sorry I had to use that herb tea to test the coffee maker." Harry: "Art, this wasn't herb tea. This was Herb!" Cut to Dan ingesting last gulp of "tea".)

Tough call.