The Sitcom and U.S. American TV
Martin Lüthe
Kommentar
In this seminar we will look at the sitcom as an important genre in the history of TV broadcasting. In fact, we will aspire to conceive of the heyday of TV as entangled with the success and pervasiveness of the sitcom. Beginning with radio, the situational comedy has impacted U.S. serial storytelling even before U.S. American families made room for TV and has undoubtedly served as an engine of the broadcasting era (and arguably all the way through the private cable / the post-network era of the 1980s and 1990s). Even our contemporary media age of post-TV initially still capitalized on the familiarity of the sitcom formula; however, the age of digital streaming services and the second screen has since impeded on the lasting success of the sitcom as genre, partly as a result of changing programming and viewing practices (think: complex TV and reality TV as powerful competitors in our contemporary audiovisual digital media ecologies). We will look at a variety of different sitcom formats (from the classic family and work-place sitcoms to the animated sitcom) and on the cultural work they have done (and still do?) and the stories they allow U.S. culture to tell itself about itself.
Requirements and class mechanics:
Participation credit requires regular and active attendance and a written response to reading assignments for a total of eight sessions.
Full credit requires all of the above and a research paper.
Participation in class and reading responses will be ungraded.
14 Termine
Zusätzliche Termine
Di, 15.07.2025 12:00 - 14:00Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung