“School?” In the summer?
Sorry. I am the servant to whatever comes to mind.
Recent technological advances have changed the way TV series
can be watched and, consequently, enjoyed.
And I can write about that sometime.
Basically, it boils down to you can now watch shows whenever you want
to, and you can watch multiple episodes at one sitting. Great.
Now I don’t have to write about that.
That’s all I know. Though I may at
some point offer my take on how these augmented viewing options have changed
things. I mean, in the Old Days, we had
to wait an entire week until…
Discipline, Earlo!
Sorry.
It’s summer. We want to go outside.
I’ll keep it short. I
want to go outside too.
Thank you.
You’re welcome. So okay,
today, I want to focus on how technology affected the way situation comedies
were put together, i.e., the limitational boundaries that required situation
comedies to be constructed the way they were.
I shall confine myself to the type of situation comedies I
was, with minimal exceptions, involved with – shows filmed with multiple
cameras running at the same time attended by a live studio audience whose
responses were simultaneously recorded and accompanied the broadcasts. In fact, the primary reason the multi-camera
process was invented…
Not today, Earlo.
Okay.
In describing the obligatory structure imposed up0on the
sitcoms of the day, I shall not deal with the significant issue of budgetary constraints. Financial concerns necessitating limiting set
construction inevitably imposed…
You said you would not
be dealing with budgetary concerns.
Boy, you’re strict.
Stick to the story or,
before you know it, we’ll be turning back the clocks.
Okay! I mean,
okay. Excuse the exclamation point. I was just feeling frustrated.
No problem.
Okay. Now…
If you look at shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show or Cheers,
you will notice, especially with Cheers,
that the overwhelming majority of scenes take place in the bar, or that poolroom
area next to the bar. Why? Because the bar set was so enormous, it took
up a tremendous amount of space on the soundstage, leaving no room for almost
anything else.
The exception was what they called the “Swing Set”, which
was a set required for the specific needs of that episode – a hotel room, a
restaurant, a doctor’s office, etc.
There was available room for one of those. But only one at most per episode.
The consequence of such spatial limitations was that the
stories had to be constructed to feature the “Standing Sets” – those sets that
appeared on every show and were therefore left “standing” on the soundstage for
the duration of the season – as the central location in which the majority of
the episode would take place.
This structural constraint almost literally imprisoned the
storytelling possibilities. You told the
bulk of the story in the cell, with occasional visits to the Mess Hall, and, if
you’re on cable, the showers. (But there
was no cable.) Maybe the odd trip to the
“Visiting Room” with the wire mesh and you talked on the phones, or, if you’re
on cable, to the trailers for “Conjugal Visits.” (But there was no cable. Though you could see how people might like cable.)
Two “Standing Sets”, one “Swing Set.” And it was “Gentlemen, start your engines!”
Did it feel creatively straightjacketing? You bet it
did. But that’s all we had to work with,
so off we went. (Except once, when, for
my show Family Man, I did away with
the studio audience, using the bleacher area for more “Swing Sets”, thereby
expanding my storytelling range by allowing my characters to venture to more
than three locations in one episode.)
Wait, Earlo. What you just talked about was constraints
caused by limited space. What does that have to do with technology?
It was combination – space limitations and available technology. Not
only was there no space for more “Swing Sets”, but even if there were, the
people attending the filming would not have been able to see what was going on
in them.
Why not?
Because…you know what?
I’ll tell about that you tomorrow.
This is, like, a whole
blog post where you never got to the point.
Well I might have, if you hadn’t kept interrupting me. “We
wanna go outside! We wanna g…”
You’re blaming the
audience?
Doesn’t everyone?
Come back, and I will tell you tomorrow what you left me no
time to tell you today.
I’m not sure I want
to. You might do this again.
Not if you just listen.
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