Ben Lamb discusses within his article on narrative form and British TV the structure of television conventions and how they’ve changed over the decades. His points on mise-en-scene I found quite interesting, as some aspects of it have held with time while others now definitely show their age. Talking about character interaction around a scene’s set, referring to a sitcom from the 1950’s, Lamb states characters in the front room “do not interact or interfere with the immaculately placed objects that populate spaces”, which still applies in a lot of more formulaic sitcoms of this era, but otherwise has slowly been transformed into making the sets work for the action playing around it, with more interaction and subtle details, such as referenced in class with sequel series That ‘90s Show (Mancuso, 2023) where details of the show were updated from its predecessor, but maintained important details and continuity that allowed the cast to engage with the environment that felt familiar to past viewers, without feeling dated.

I thought this was quite a cool way of doing set design, particularly for a show that is set in an era that has passed us, with our connotations not only of that decade, but also its era’s shows. It definitely helped inform me when it came to doing our set design for our show, because I wanted to gain some level of inspiration from previous shows of a similar ilk, without actually copying them, but providing a feel that is similar with the genre and shows within the “high-school quiz show” subgenre. I think I achieved that to some extent, but I probably could in future use shows like That ‘90s show as an example of how to date things to their era or place, without them feeling dated in the technical sense, just aesthetically.

References:

Lamb, B. (2014) Narrative Form and the British Television Studio 1955–1963, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34:3, 357-368, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2014.937181
Mancuso, G. (2023, January 19). That ’90s Show. Netflix.