On Friday, in response to my review of Whitney, Mark asked “What’s wrong with single-camera comedies?” (or something like it). Okay, let’s set out some definitions. Here’s 30 Rock as a single-camera comedy.
And here’s 30 Rock as a multi-camera comedy.
You’ll notice, for starters, that the multi-camera comedy
Is shot on video, looks cheaper and is over-lit
Has a studio audience guffawing at almost everything
Has performances geared towards a guffawing studio audience and ensuring that the people at the back of the studio can hear what’s being said
Largely is stuck indoors
Not as funny
Okay, you might not be able to tell those last two instantly from those clips, but my points stand. Nevertheless, for much of sitcom history, multi-camera has been the way things have been done, single the rarity, so some might prefer it to single-camera.
So today’s question is:
Do you generally prefer single- or multi-camera comedies?
Playboy. Say the word and there’s going to be an immediate reaction. Some people will be excited at the hint of some flesh, some people will think it anti-female and some people will instantly think ‘porn’ and try to ban whatever you’re talking about.
So it is with NBC’s The Playboy Club – formerly known as just Playboy – which had the Parents Television Council boycotting it before they’d even seen it, which had NBC’s Utah affiliate saying they weren’t going to show it because of its associations with pornography and which had various people saying it should be boycotted because it was demeaning to women.
The producers and stars protested that this was a historical drama/crime story/soap and that everyone was making something out of nothing before they’d even seen it. Okay, the nudity clause in the stars’ contracts didn’t help, but this was NBC so the chances of actual nudity, given the Janet Jackson ‘Superbowl nip slip’ is still being dragged through the courts, was zero, but that didn’t seem to stop anyone.
Anyway, now it’s on our screens so everyone can see what the fuss is about – or at least 5m people can, given the show’s lackluster ratings on Monday.
Set in Chicago, 1961, it stars Amber Heard – best known in the US as “that girl in the new Guess jeans ads” and in the UK as “Top Gear‘s best ever but slowest ‘star in a reasonably priced car'” (and on this ‘ere blog as one of our regular ‘random actors‘) – as Maureen, a new ‘bunny’ in Chicago’s Playboy Club. She gets herself into hot water when she’s attacked by a patron who turns out to be a mob boss. Naturally, she kills him with her stiletto.
Aided by Nick Dalton – played by Eddie Cibrian, best known in the UK as “that guy who took over from Adam Rodriguez for a season in CSI: Miami when he had a hissy fit” and in the US as “that scum who ditched his model wife and baby so that he could have an affair with the equally married Leann Rimes” – Maureen manages to cover up her crime.
For now.
With a scattergun approach that involves firing just about everything possible at the screen, ranging from social issues and soap opera love triangles to singing, dancing and a little bit of ultra-violence, the show has a little something for everyone. Given all those ingredients, it’s a little duller than you might hope, as well as a little stupider, but it at least shows some promise.
I used to love Dharma and Greg (or at least Dharma and Greg). They were so sweet and fun together, despite being in a Chuck Lorre sitcom.
On Monday night’s episode of another Chuck Lorre, Two and a Half Men, who should make a cameo appearance but Dharma and Greg! Except it’s over a decade later and their marriage has gone a little sour, just like all of Chuck Lorre’s sitcoms. How sad. Memories – ruined.
Incidentally, I wonder what happened to that ITV remake that was planned?
There’s a lot of Whitney Cummings around US TV at the moment. Best known from Chelsea Lately, not only does she have her own show on NBC – the eponymous Whitney – she’s the exec producer and co-creator of 2 Broke Girls, a supposed comedy about two waitresses who decide to run their own cupcake business – once they have enough money to quit their waitressing jobs, mind.
In case the mildly tepid Whitney hasn’t put you off the concept of a sitcom written by Whitney Cummings, here’s a little nugget of extra information that might sway you: it’s co-created and co-written by Michael Patrick King aka “The Man Who Ruined Sex and the City“.
So not funny in the slightest, but it does have two redeeming features: a relatively likeable pair of central characters; and Kat Dennings (Thor). But that’s it.
Here – try to laugh your way through this trailer.
