Ghosts and Abbott Elementary are part of TV's "It Takes a Village" sitcom trend

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https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...c-best-sitcoms

The It Takes a Village comedy -- shows built around cooperation and communication and community -- have been historically a dominant strain in network television, says Robert Lloyd. "Whether set in a workplace or a family or among friends, these shows model a world in which characters solve problems together, and — as important — in which problems are, in fact, solvable, a tonic in an absurdly polarized world," says Lloyd. "Their mood, allowing for occasional moments of Great Seriousness, is sunny, their glass never less than three-quarters full — of lemonade, probably. Critics might call them unrealistic and sentimental, even childish, as if darker comedy more accurately reflected Real Life. But people respond to sentiment; we aspire. Only the most perverse of us hope for anything but a good outcome, on television as in life. And even with the pie for viewers sliced thin, these series routinely outperform Emmy-winning premium cable hits by many millions." Ghosts and Abbott Elementary aren't the only It Takes a Village Shows. "CBS has a clutch of cross-cultural ones," says Lloyd, including The Neighborhood, The United States of Al and Bob Hearts Abishola. Grand Crew, The Conners, The Goldbergs, Black-ish and Home Economics also fit in the category, as well as past shows like Michael Schur's The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation. Such shows, says Lloyd, "create a kind of depth that doesn’t always seem profound, either because of the joke-a-minute context or, conversely, because serious or sentimental points are made so explicitly — subtext as text. And yet loyal viewers, who become family by extension, recognize their richness."

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• Ghosts looks like a huge risk for CBS, but it's hiding a familiar (and effective) sitcom structure: "Watching Ghosts grow into a legitimate hit for CBS, both as a linear broadcast ratings success and the number one streaming comedy on Paramount+, has been a distinctly strange phenomenon," says Myles McNutt. "It was supposed to be that cult show you can’t believe is on CBS; instead, it’s the network’s second-biggest comedy, and a disruptive moment in our understanding of how the forms of the television sitcom are being deployed on broadcast television’s most risk-averse network." Ghosts stands out because it's a single-camera comedy on a network famous for traditional multi-camera sitcoms and it's a genre comedy. "However, while we have been trained to think of single-camera as a disruptive format choice (especially at CBS) and genre as a limitation on a show’s audience, Ghosts’ success stems from the fact it isn’t treating them this way," says McNutt, adding that "its bones are something that broadcast sitcoms have always relied on: a diverse set of characters in a dynamic situation easily adaptable into the careful blend of mirth and pathos a sitcom needs to build a connection with its audience."
• Román Zaragoza got the Ghosts showrunners to ensure the accuracy of his Native American character: The Sasappis actor, who is of Akimel O’otham, Mexican, Japanese and Taiwanese descent, tells the New York Observer: "After the pilot, I had really good conversations with the Joes—(executive producers) Joe Port and Joe Wiseman—about bringing a Lenape consultant into the project. If you want him to be Lenape, you should be engaging with the tribe or someone who is associated with the tribe, because otherwise, it could come off a little disrespectful. I’m like, 'I’m not Lenape. I’m not knowledgeable on the Lenape people’s history. That’s not me, so I would love to bring someone in.' So they brought in Joe Baker, who is this amazing resource and amazing guy, who is enrolled in the Delaware Tribe. He’s Lenape, he’s the executive director of a Lenape center. He’s been such a blessing for us and so supportive, and you can really see the impact he had on Sasappis and on the show as a whole, from my costume changing from episode 1 (to) episode 2."