Are we going to get to a point where all we have is single camera no laugh track shows?

In the right hands a single camera show is great, Scrubs is like a mini-movie each episode yet I imagine the format would just be overrused and boring if everybody did it.

Only CBS really keep multi-camera shows alive, WB & UPN have a couple but nobody cares what they do ;) ABC only has a few but they seem to be phazing them out and NBC will probably not have any 'existing' multi camera shows next season.

Single camera will never lead the way because they can't get any ratings. So, four camera shows will always rule. Which is a good thing.

Maybe - but I think that might just be a case of a single camera show falling into the wrong hands. Take The Wonder Years, pretty successful and the single camera aspect only made it better - it wouldn't have worked any other way, Sons and Daughters probably would have.

I think the current single camera shows are failing because they are very niche shows and well defined, Scrubs isn't that appealing to anybody older than 34 really.

Frasier was a show for me that always felt like it should have been single camera, it was pretty much the anti-sitcom. It used a lot of swing sets, had no intersitial music and was very slow paced - I don't think it would have been any less popular shot single camera.

For Every single camera hit show, theirs about 5 of them that fail. They are talked about a lot but very few become big hits.

Single camera will never lead the way because they can't get any ratings. So, four camera shows will always rule. Which is a good thing.
I don't get that, because back in the 60s, when a lot of the fantasy shows were on, they were all one camera and like with Bewitched, was a ratings success. What makes those shows any different than now?

Originally Posted by pavanbadal
Single camera will never lead the way because they can't get any ratings.

That's an awfully short-sighted comment.

That's an awfully short-sighted comment.

There might be some good ones ratings wise, but there are much more of them that fail. My Name is Earl is the only one that does well, and that has cooled off a bit since February sweeps. The Office does OK, not great.

Arrested Development and Sons & Daughters might be the best ones out there, but they both never did well in the ratings.

I don't get that, because back in the 60s, when a lot of the fantasy shows were on, they were all one camera and like with Bewitched, was a ratings success. What makes those shows any different than now?

They had laugh tracks. Maybe that fooled the audiences.

with the way networks are treating sitcoms these days, it seems like they are ALL being phased out pissed:

They had laugh tracks. Maybe that fooled the audiences.
It probably did. Which is funny in itself.