Re: "I Am Legend" - some spoilers, seperated in the post.
Posted by:
robert (61.88.131.---)
Date: February 11, 2008 10:34PM
That Basil is unsuited for the job is a situation of sorts, however the comedy stems from the character of Basil himself rather than the specific situation; as HITW seems to suggest, you could put Basil into any job/ situation and the humour would be much the same.
Those 3 guys who had to bring up the baby (and it interfered with the love lives, etc, hahaha) were not particularly funny in or of themselves; neither were Genie, the guy who lived with Martian, the other guy who lived with a talking horse, or any of the characters on Gilligan's Island funny in or of themselves. In each of these sitcoms, it was the premise of the situation which created any humour (and some had very little, in retrospect). Thus, these are sitcoms.
"Some Mothers Do Have 'Em" and the old "Charlie Drake Show" both revolved around an inept character trying and failing at a succession of jobs so that the "situation", while not specifically set, was a thematic set-piece. However, in both of these cases, and with Fawlty Towers, the humour derives from the characters themselves and would probably be a whole lot less funny without the essential humour of the character (or specific 'actor', might be more to the point).
It is interesting to note that the term TV sitcom was first used, in the 50's to describe *any* comedy which was not the then typical sketch or revue type comedy show: Red Skelton, Jackie Gleeson, Abbott & Costello Shows come to mind. Hence, "I Love Lucy", which followed Lucy and Desi in a single storyline each week was perceived to be different and 'sitcom' as a term was born. This is exactly the sort of show that I would, now, argue is not a sitcom at all!