Why I Don’t Comment on Current Sitcoms

And why I obviously made an exception for this one

Writing a sitcom is hard. Really hard. I should know. I’ve written some, including episodes of other people’s TV sitcoms (including Miranda, My Hero, My Family) and other people’s radio sitcoms (Elvenquest, Another Case of Milton Jones). And I’ve written episodes of my own TV sitcoms (Bluestone 42) and radio sitcoms (Hut 33, Think the Unthinkable).

You can get the writing right and people just don’t seem to like it. You can get it wrong and get away with it. Part of it is subjective and timing. Some shows just don’t land well or feel dated. Part of it is technical.

There are one or two sitcoms on TV at the moment that I personally think are technically flawed, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Conversely, one of my favourite sitcoms of all time, Arrested Development, was incredibly well written and executed and nobody in the mainstream, at least, cared either then or now. There are other sitcoms that I’m told are very good, but just not to my taste: the sitcom equivalent of Gilead by Marilynn Robinson. Sorry. Not a fan. Publicly declaring that a certain sitcom ‘just isn’t funny’ is as meaningless as saying ‘I don’t like the colours in that Matisse painting’. If anything, that just makes me look dumb, even if it’s my opinion. It may also be true that I am indeed dumb.

Dave Cohen and I tend not to review recent sitcoms on our Sitcom Geeks podcast. We tend to ask established writers or comedians about sitcoms that affected them as kids or teens, or shows they really learned from. So Al Murray talked about Fawlty Towers, Graham Linehan waxed lyrical about Seinfeld and, more recently Steve Bujega (Buffering) fondly remembered Saved By The Bell.

It's also not a good look to be a sitcom writer and go around slating other people’s sitcoms. It’s a small industry in the UK, and who wants to be the guy who goes around passing judgment on everyone else’s work? Stewart Lee manages to slate other comedians as part of his act, but that feels like it’s part of his persona. And he’s an elder statesman of the form who’s not attempting to appeal to the mainstream. But even when those who’ve earned the right to do it, like John Cleese, criticise current comedy, it sounds rather sour.

Endangered Species

Moreover, why threaten an already endangered species? The classic 30-minute story-of-the-week sitcom feels like a rarity. This is partly because new shows are criticised overly harshly as episode 1 of a brand new sitcom of unknown characters is compared to episode 60 of Only Fools and Horses and found wanting. Surprise, surprise. When your own preferred genre is under threat, don’t contribute to the naysayers.

So I don’t publicly criticise sitcoms. I know how hard they are to write, how things beyond your control can go wrong and how a show might just not be my kind of thing.

However, there’s a new sitcom on Channel 4 called Everyone Else Burns, described as a “coming-of-age comedy about a Mancunian family and the puritanical Christian sect they are devoted to.” And Premier Christianity magazine asked me to write something. I didn’t feel I could say no. So I said yes. And here’s what I wrote:

If you wanted to know how to be happy, would you ask these two?

Listen to Cooper and Cary Have Words.