Why has there never been a successul 1-hour comedy on TV?

[MonkeyFunk]

Every comedy in the history of TV that counts was in the half-hour format.

Sure, there are dramas that are humorous, and they're an hour.

But there's no single comedy that EVER ran an hour. why is that?

Broadway comedies typically run 90 minutes or more. Is it impossible to write a repeating comedy in that format? Or is comedy inherently limited to 3 eight-minute acts for TV?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. Sitcoms don't have the narrative and character arcs of dramas.

That's partly why they only last 30 minutes -- just enough to present the problem, solve it, then learn the lesson.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear MonkeyFunk.......

You mean a one-hour comedy show, and not a variety show?

Because there have been several one-hour long variety shows......

Ed Sullivan, Laugh-In, like that......

Though I must agree...........nothing in recent decades, as far as I know!

:hi:

[MonkeyFunk]

4. oh, the old variety comedy shows

were 90 minutes!

I'm talking abut a scripted comedy.

Why is a 60-minute (meaning really 44 minutes) so impossible?

[jpgray]

3. You mean plot driven comedy?

I don't remember ever seeing any. There were obviously sketch comedy shows that have done well with an hour. Another non-plot-driven one would be Mystery Science Theater, which was successful in its day, though not to everyone's taste. That had an hour and a half of onscreen time per week.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. yes

I mean plot-driven comedy. 90 minute was the standard for sketch-comedy. I'm talking about regular scripted comedy - why is 60 minutes impossible?

[gemdem]

5. My memory is fading, but wasn't SOAP an hour long?

I don't recall. (It's that age thing again.)

Edit: typos

[MonkeyFunk]

6. No

Soap was a half-hour.

[opiate69]

8. Having no cable TV, I haven't watched it, but I understand "Ugly Betty" is an hour-long comedy

http://tvcomedies.about.com/od/bettytheugly/Ugly_Betty.htm

[Fenris]

9. I've seen "Ugly Betty" classified as a drama in TV Guide.

:shrug:

I don't necessarily agree, as I think of it mostly as a comedy, but it is a telenovela.

[begin_within]

12. It started as a comedy but has evolved into a drama much more than a comedy.

At least that's how it appears to me - the emphasis is on drama now, and there is only one, or at most, two funny moments in the entire hour, compared to about 10 good laughs in the first episode.

[jane_pippin]

10. My guess is that it's easier to stay consistent and sustain

a level of comedy, if that makes sense, in the half hour format. For a weekly show, it's already tough to be consistenly funny for a half an hour for so many weeks. And look at how many crappy sitcoms there are as it is. Plus, look at how terrible Saturday Night Live is. I think it's just difficult to keep it up. The only comedy that I think could pull it off would be The Office (American or British), and even Extras, because the way Ricky Gervais structured the plot and the pace of the shows--with so many layers and a definite narrative--I think another half an hour could be worked in without too much anguish. But, they're also very tight, well constructed half-hours and I don't know that I'd want to risk seeing that change even if it meant more Office/Extras for me.

[asthmaticeog]

11. Brevity is the soul of wit. nt

[begin_within]

13. You didn't like "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In?"

A one-hour comedy that was a hit show. At least the early years of it were funny and original. It got stale towards the end of its run.

[dysfunctional press]

14. saturday night live is 90 minutes...

and it was a good show when it started it's run.

[dysfunctional press]

15. csi:miami...? that show is a total joke.

nt

[LNM]

16. Wasn't Moonlighting a Comedy?

Sybil Shepard and Bruce Willis.

[Left Is Write]

26. That was one of those "dramedy" things - drama with a humorous edge.

[caty]

17. The Carol Burnett

show ran for 11 years.

http://www.tvparty.com/vaburnett.html

[Left Is Write]

25. That was a variety show/sketch comedy. I think the OP was referring to situation comedies.

[RandomKoolzip]

18. Mystery Science Theatre 3000 was a TWO-hour comedy.

And, IMO, succeeded on thousands of levels.

[Strawman]

19. Even the occasional "back to back" hourlong episodes of sitcoms...

always seem to be of the "a very special" dramatic variety. And they're usually split into 2 parts.

I can't think of one.

[leftofthedial]

20. The laugh track union limits comedies to a half hour

any longer and several of the members of the laugh track choir would get hoarse.


and several other members would blow their brains out pretending that shit was funny.













(BTW, I do know how laugh tracks actually work. It's a joke.)

[SmileyBoy]

21. What about Monk??

I don't know if it can be called a "true" comedy, and there's no laugh track anyway.

[Mojambo]

35. Very close, but can't be called a strict comedy

It's funny as hell though.

[Auggie]

22. Depends on what classifies as comedy. But I bet it's because good comedy

is so difficult to write and produce on a weekly basis.

[SmileyBoy]

23. Is Curb Your Enthusiasm one hour??

:shrug:

[NoPasaran]

27. Nope. 30 minutes, like everything else n/t

[Left Is Write]

24. The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour - an hourlong sitcom.

[NoPasaran]

29. Not sure that would count

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/6066/epguhour.html

[Left Is Write]

31. Why not? The OP said there had NEVER been a plot-driven comedy that ran for an hour.

The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour did, and it was the first thing I thought of.

[NoPasaran]

33. Well, I admit that I'm not the Commissioner of Television

But if i was, I would limit it to regularly-scheduled weekly series, since even 30-minute sitcoms have sometimes had longer "special" episodes.

Whether it counts or not, it's sure not an idea that caught on, since nothing like it has come along since that anyone can remember.

[Left Is Write]

37. No, it didn't catch on.

But clearly, with 13 episodes, Lucy-Desi was more than just a "special" version of I Love Lucy.

[NoPasaran]

40. Well, I have to admit I have no memory of seeing it, anyway

Although if CBS used it as a summer replacement in the 60s there is no way I could have avoided it.

[Catchawave]

38. First one that came to my mind !

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/6066/epguhour.html


....and they're still funny!

[patricia92243]

28. Laugh-In was an hour (I think)

[NoPasaran]

30. It was an hour

But I think we're really talking about sitcoms, not comedy/variety shows.

[InternalDialogue]

32. ABC came pretty close with Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley back-to-back

Technically, I still can contribute nothing else to this thread.

[MichiganVote]

34. Wasn't Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, an hour long?

[InternalDialogue]

36. I wonder if your premise is invalid:

It's not that there hasn't been a SUCCESSFUL 1-hour comedy on TV, it's that it doesn't appear that there's been one at all.

[mitchum]

39. "Ally McBeal"