Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Why period comedies generally struggle

A reader wondered why period comedies by and large, do not work. Since I never wrote one (well, okay MASH, but audiences so identified it with Viet Nam that it didn’t seem period.) I didn’t feel qualified to answer. So I asked two writers who did – Earl Pomerantz, who created BEST OF THE WEST and Phoef Sutton, who along with Mark Legan created THANKS (set in Pilgrim times. Maybe it would have worked if they called the show 30 PLYMOUTH ROCK). Today I’ll share Earl’s answer. (He has a longer one here on his own blog.) Next week Phoef’s response.

I created "Best of the West" because I love westerns and because I was tired of stories about dating. I wanted my characters to have real problems, like outlaws and Indians (many of whom, often with good reason, were not nice).

The short answer for why "period" comedies are such a tough "sell" is that you’re overlaying “artificial” on top of “fake” on top of “unreal” on top of “really hard to buy.”

The sitcom format itself, especially the kind shot in front of a live audience, with its shadowless lighting, it’s indoor airlessness, not to mention the intrusive laughter of off-screen strangers provides one artificial element.

Then you’ve got, in Best of the West, not my interpretation of the West, but my interpretation of other people’s interpretation of the West, as portrayed in movies, books and TV shows. That puts the show two portrayals away from the actual West, whatever that was. A version of a version tends offers an even greater challenge to the “willing suspension of disbelief.” There's only so much suspending you can do.

On top of, they’re wearing these strange, not particularly authentic, and not at all worn-in outfits, some of which look like they’ve just retrieved from the hangers at Western Costume. You can almost see the safety-pinned tags saying, "If lost, please return to Errol Flynn."

Best of the West aired in 1981, roughly fifteen after TV westerns were really popular. So there was also a timing problem. I couldn’t help that. When TV westerns were in their hey-day, I was still in High School.

The only thing Best of the West had going for it was it was really funny. With the above-described elements and a network's lack of enthusiasm, being funny wasn’t quite enough.

It’s hard making any situation comedy believable. Setting it in another time, or planet, or something, well, good luck if you love it, but don’t expect it to be easy.

Thanks, Earl. Not only will I share Phoef's take next week, I'll even tell you how he pronounces his name.

39 comments :

  1. Phoef is a "he"? All these years I figured it was an unusual nickname for Phoebe.

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  2. Man, I loved that show... and Frog!

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  3. F Troop worked, but it appeared earlier. Kind of a Bilko with horses.

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  4. I think that with period, 3-camera shows, along the lines that Earl suggested about levels of removal-from-reality, the problem often becomes that since it can not be at all "real" (While M*A*S*H was "real" in spades), it becomes really a 22 minute SNL-type sketch each week. And who comes back for a 22 minute sketch each week?

    And more often than not, they are FULL of anachronisms, both obvious (jokes about inventions that haven't been invented yet, etc.), and subtle. (Like modern idioms and attitudes in the jokes.) I never saw BEST OF THE WEST, so I have no idea if it suffered from ananchronitis or not.

    F TROOP apprently worked, I guess (I could never stand it, so I have seen maybe 3 episodes, and those back when it was new. Not since.), but it was certainly an overlong sketch. I remember Mel Brooks's WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN. I enjoyed it, and I think it was better than his later ROBIN HOOD movie, but it was still a 22 minute sketch.

    One show that was an overlong sketch each week that I nonetheless really enjoyed during its brief run was THE CHARMINGS, which wasn't a period comedy, but the characters did seem dropped into the 1980s from the middle ages.

    Off-topic, but I had to share. I was just watching Regis's MILLIONAIRE revival, and a contestant was asked this question:

    The Earth's equator passes through all but which of these oceans:
    A. Pacific
    B. Indian
    C. Atlantic
    D. Arctic

    ...and she had to use a lifeline. Apparently she is new to the planet. Man, I hate those chilly Arctic nights on the equator.

    What a MORON!

    WV: granei: the grandmother of a really pretentious small child.

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  5. I loved "Best of the West". I particularly remember Carlene Watkins trying to sweep the dirt floor. A few years ago I saw Tracey Walter in the street and blurted out "It's The Frog!" Jeez. The things we remember.

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  6. I am no longer ashamed to admit that I remember the show's theme song. Great show.

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  7. "unkystan said...
    I particularly remember Carlene Watkins trying to sweep the dirt floor."

    A perfect example of an unrealistic, sketch-type gag. Funny gag without question, very funny, but all virisimilitude is GONE.

    You would never have seen anyone on M*A*S*H trying to sweep the dirt floors in the tents, except maybe Klinger, when going for his perennial psycho-discharge.

    Now going for a psycho discharge is real. My younger brother got himself out of the navy by saluting officers who weren't there. He was definitely "pulling a Klinger," quite intentionally, and it worked. (He's dead now, so let them try to come after him.)

    But my great-great grandmother (also dead) never swept dirt floors.

    Funny gag though.

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  8. Wow, talk about a flashback. I had completely forgotten about that show. Watched a clip on Youtube and the memories came flooding back.

    Hey, who was the rather effeminate bartender? He looks very familiar. I looked on IMDB but didn't see him. If it was on today, it would have been played by Ken's friend Nathan Lane.

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  9. 30 Plymouth Rock?

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  10. Not only will I share Phoef's take next week, I'll even tell you how he pronounces his name.

    Is it poof? ;)

    WV: itscre - Seriously, it's Cre! Right there! There he is!

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  11. I think historic shows are face viewer assumptions that anything historical has educational value, and while one can handle education in one's drama, they don't want edutainment comedies. We don't really need the thought that there will be a quiz on The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer after the show.

    vw: "fumpa" -- what your kids call their third grampa.

    (I love how they think you need a different word if you're in a wheelchair.)

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  12. I'd like to point out Blackadder, but I wonder if it says something that the english can pull it off and we can't.

    Jonathan Roth

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  13. "Anonymous said...
    I'd like to point out Blackadder"

    GREAT show. Really grat show. But again, really just a collection of long review sketches, not remotely believable. But very, very funny.

    Rory, your "itscre" definition made me giggle like a little girl.

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  14. What about Dusty's Trail? Truly original concept: A group of people in the old West get separated from a wagon train. Bob Denver is the assistant to the wagon master, and there's also a millionaire and his wife, a dance hall star, an engineer and a farmer's daughter. It's ripe for a remake -- maybe set it on an uncharted desert isle.

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  15. Rory, your "itscre" definition made me giggle like a little girl.

    For my brief words to do that to the author of "My Lush Life," I'm honored and humbled, sir.

    WV: bollasc - Ballsac spelled way wrong.

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  16. I can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned "Hogan's Heroes." That's a period comedy which lasted from 1965-1971. Whether it worked is a matter of opinion.

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  17. Ken,

    Just wondering: Did you mean "30 Plymouth Rock" instead of "30 Pilgrim Rock"?

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  18. "mcp said...
    'Hogan's Heroes.' That's a period comedy which lasted from 1965-1971. Whether it worked is a matter of opinion."

    Well it worked in that it was a huge success, and despite a premise in the worst possible taste, became beloved and well-remembered. I don't see what more they could have asked for.

    In its case, I think the fact that it was utterly removed from reality, as cartoony as GILLIGAN'S ISLAND or F TROOP, was essential to its success. A realistic depiction of that situation would be an extremely grim drama, relieved by dark black humor: STALAG 17: THE SITCOM.

    There were a lot of WWII survivors who found it offensivly trivializing of heroism, suffering, and massive evil. I was never a fan myself. but its success is a fact.

    Rory, did you read MY LUSH LIFE? And if you did, did you buy the copy? (Libraries are evil. They let people read books without my getting royalties.)

    WV: erete: "erect" as spelled by someone who is, and is thus in a hurry to turn off the computer and join his partner in bed.

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  19. "Vermonter17032 said...
    Ken,
    Just wondering: Did you mean '30 Plymouth Rock' instead of '30 Pilgrim Rock'?"

    Maybe he meant "30 Pilgrims Rock," although, no matter how many there were, they NEVER rocked! Puritans make lousy party animals.

    "Hey Rebekka, show Hezikiah thy ankle!"

    "Jacob! Thou dust sin, being strong in drink. No more cider for thee!"

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  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  21. Best of the West was great. It had one of my favorite lines ever from any TV show. The star was a U.S. cavalry officer out West during the Indian Wars. His wife was a Southern belle. Someone asks her how they met, and she says: "He looked so dashing coming up the steps to burn my Daddy's mansion." As a Southerner and a historian, I still smile at that one.

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  22. "mcp said...
    'Hogan's Heroes.' That's a period comedy which lasted from 1965-1971. Whether it worked is a matter of opinion."

    Well it worked in that it was a huge success, and despite a premise in the worst possible taste, became beloved and well-remembered. I don't see what more they could have asked for.

    In its case, I think the fact that it was utterly removed from reality, as cartoony as GILLIGAN'S ISLAND or F TROOP, was essential to its success. A realistic depiction of that situation would be an extremely grim drama, relieved by dark black humor: STALAG 17: THE SITCOM.


    It did not hurt in the least that there were a lot of very talented people involved in the production - solid comedy writers like Lawrence Marks, Bullock and Allen, and solid directors like Howie Morris, Marc Daniels and Gene Reynolds. In fact, it is surprising how many people who worked on Hogan's also worked extensively on MASH!

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  23. As far as English sitcoms aside from Blackadder go, it's thanks to Jimmy Perry and David Croft that we seemed unable to do anything but period sitcom up to about 1990; Dad's Army (WWII), 'Allo, 'Allo!(WWII), Hi-De-Hi! (1960's), I'm sure there were more. But we have the tradition of high camp which the US don't - and we couldn't do Mad Men.

    WV: uprophly = what you used to mumble when the pharmacist asked you what you wanted.

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  24. I've always wondered what it must have been like when someone pitched the idea for Hogan's Heroes: "Hey, guys, I've got a great idea for a show. It's set in World War II. In a prison camp. Run by the Nazis. It's a comedy."

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  25. My great-uncle, whose bomber was shot down in WWII and spent two years in a German POW camp, loved Hogan's Heroes, so go figure.

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  26. I can't believe I didn't remember Hogan's Heroes. I loved that show. I remember watching a movie on TV with many of the same actors, The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, which is almost unwatchable, but also seemed entirely odd since there were so many actors from Hogans Heroes, but none of them played the characters they did on the show. As a child it was very offputting.

    No one can help me with the name of the bartender in Best of the West? Anyone?

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  27. roy said:

    "I am no longer ashamed to admit that I remember the show's theme song. Great show."...

    In fact, I always thought the theme song sounded a lot like, or maybe even was based on the theme song to the old BAT MASTERSON show that starred Gene Barry.

    My feeling was that it was always going to be tough to be able to sustain a show such as BEST OF THE WEST which sprung out of a genre that relied so much on visual action. Being shot on a 3-camera soundstage with an audience, the scripts and stories would really have to be tailored to the dialogue and such visuals which could be produced on a 3-camera soundstage; that alone must have severely limited the comedic and story line options.

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  28. On the pilot for BEST OF THE WEST, two characters duel, and they both miss each other. I've read that, in fact, is how a lot of duels ended back in the old days.

    DAD'S ARMY was hilarious. It used to play on a local PBS station (remember, it was public television that gave us yanks Monty Python). DAD'S ARMY even poked fun at the Blitz, at a time when there still a great many people alive who remembered the nightly bombings.

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  29. Also, on the BEST OF THE WEST pilot, is this exchange of dialogue:

    GOOD GUY: You wouldn't shoot an unarmed man! Think of your reputation!

    BAD GUY: That is my reputation!

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  30. Did anyone ever see the pilot for "1775"? A family comedy set, well, in 1775 in Colonial America.

    Ryan O'Neal, Jeffrey Tambor and, no joke, Adam West as George Washington!

    word: ovaracce - an Italian omlette made from human eggs.

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  31. Douglas:

    Rory, did you read MY LUSH LIFE? And if you did, did you buy the copy? (Libraries are evil. They let people read books without my getting royalties.)

    I did and I did.

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  32. When I was in school I had a history teacher who told us his father was a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp, and Dad didn't like "Hogan's Heroes". I also have a book about TV sitcoms that makes the thought-provoking claim that by showing audiences American soldiers so easily outwitting the enemy, it encouraged them to be more accepting about what was going on in Vietnam (and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C" did the same thing by being completely divorced from anything resembling combat).

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  33. "Rory L. Aronsky said...
    Douglas:

    Rory, did you read MY LUSH LIFE? And if you did, did you buy the copy? (Libraries are evil. They let people read books without my getting royalties.)

    I did and I did."

    So YOU were the one!

    Thanks for the roughly three bucks that I got per copy. Hope you enjoyed it. The sequel is done and waiting for my publishers to decide whether to poublish it or not.

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  34. And if they find it spelling "publish" as "poublish" too often, it'll never see the light of day.

    WV: assteary: when your butt weeps.

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  35. Man, I had such a crush on Carlene Watkins.

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  36. Thanks for the roughly three bucks that I got per copy. Hope you enjoyed it. The sequel is done and waiting for my publishers to decide whether to poublish it or not.

    I'm a tightwad, but I'm disappointed to find out that my royalty intermediary is even cheaper than me.

    Your publishers had better decide to publish it soon. I'd like more good comedy on my bookshelves.

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  37. You know, Douglas, maybe for better royalty payments, you should change your name just this once to Danielle Steel and push the book as "The Lost Classic by Danielle Steel, Now Finally Found." ;)

    WV: latering - When you loiter too long in a no-loitering area at 11 p.m. Screw you; I've been writing all day. I'm tapped out.

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  38. "Rory L. Aronsky said...
    Your publishers had better decide to publish it soon. I'd like more good comedy on my bookshelves."

    Maybe if I'd titled it "Tallulah Morehead and the Deathly Hallows" instead of "Tallyho Tallulah," they'd be quicker to pick it up.

    Glad you enjoyed MLL.

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