Recently there has been a dearth of good multi-cam comedies. Yes this is a subjective statement, but I think that anyone who knows anything about TV and comedy can tell you that The Big Bang Theory and Two Broke Girls are not great. As part of my research for our upcoming critiques, I have been looking into the current state of multi-cam comedies.
There is a divide amongst Tv critics I have read, regarding what has caused multi-cam to go out of style. Some say that the weaknesses of the format are to blame, while others say that the sheer number of failed/bad multi-cam shows are deterring producers and networks from making them.
According to Jaime Weinman, in an article for SlitSider (2011), there are some inherent problems and difficulties that come with shooting multicam shows. Weinman states that multi-cam sitcoms are ‘hard to defend, conceptually, because there are so many limitations: few sets, an audience laughing after every joke, actors shouting to be heard in the back row’. For him, the lack of quality multi-cam sitcoms comes from a hybrid of the two arguments I stated above. The difficulties in filming multi-cam shows mean that producers have been moving away from them. A lack of shows being produced means that, even for the creators willing and looking to make a multi-cam, there is little network interest in them.
Recently, a favourite comedian of mine tried his hand at creating a multi-cam show for a large US network (Fox). John Mulaney, with the help of Lorne Michaels (the guy behind SNL and a lot other very funny thing), created Mulaney, a true throwback to the multi-cam comedies of the past. It featured John and his friends in a New York apartment, as well as clips of John performing stand-up a la Seinfeld. The show was filmed in front of a live studio audience, as viewers are reminded at the start of each episode. The show also featured Martin Short, who is a terrific performer and thrives in front of an audience.
Mulaney was cancelled after 13 episodes. People were turned off by the format. The stand-up segments were too close to Seinfeld, and many saw it as a blatant rip-off. The reminder of the live studio audience at the start of the episode made it too obvious the show was trying to recreate a format that had its heyday long ago. Personally, I liked the show. It was inoffensive, easy to watch and fairly funny at times. I also however, don’t think it ever stood a chance.
Mulaney exemplifies the idea that the shooting format of multi-cam comedies is responsible for shows being bad. Maybe Mulaney would have flourished as a single-cam show (though probably not, given that the multi-cam aspect was its defining appeal). Shows like Two Broke Girls are so obviously following a format that they’re hard to watch. The forced personalities and awfully cliched jokes of The Big Bang Theory could never work. Unfortunately, for fans of multi-cam like myself, the format seems to be dying.
In our project, I am hoping to explore the aspects of multi-cam comedies that are both good and bad. Maybe hybrid shows, such as How I Met Your Mother are the future of multi-cam. I hope to be able to produce something in a similar vein; no live audience, but a laugh track; multiple cameras, but a lot of set changes and flashbacks. We want to experiment with taking parts of one format, and adding it to another (placing a laugh track on a mockumentary, for example). Shows like Mulaney stick to a formula which doesn’t seem to work; we want to figure out why, and then make it work anyway.
References:
Weinman, J. (2011). In Defense of the Multi-Camera Sitcom. Available: http://splitsider.com/2011/03/in-defense-of-the-multi-camera-sitcom/. Last accessed 7th September 2015.