# American Sit-coms NOT set in the 20th & 21st Centuries

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-not-set-in-the-20th-21st-centuries/719491>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 7, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-not-set-in-the-20th-21st-centuries/719491 "2015-05-07T16:19:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-not-set-in-the-20th-21st-centuries/719491/61 "2015-05-09T14:46:31Z")

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> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#):
>
> No, no, no, no. Screw iMDB. I actually watched **The Wild Wild West** every Friday night when I was 6, 7 years old. I got the Complete DVD set for Christmas a few years back and have been periodically re-watching the series. It was action, adventure, James Bondish type of gadgets and over the top villains. it was **not** a comedy.

You are right about the series not being comedy. There was a joke once when Alan Hale Jr substituted for an injured Ross Martin and at the end Hale says he is going to take an ocean cruise and the background music breaks into “Theme from Gilligan’s Island”. But that was about it.  
The tv movies in 1979 and 1980 had more jokes because of the age and expanding waistlines of Conrad and Martin, especially Martin. You might call those comedies although I haven’t seen them since they were first broadcast.

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**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-not-set-in-the-20th-21st-centuries/719491/62 "2015-05-09T18:05:20Z")

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> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#):
>
> The tv movies in 1979 and 1980 had more jokes because of the age and expanding waistlines of Conrad and Martin, especially Martin. You might call those comedies although I haven’t seen them since they were first broadcast.

They were definitely done more tongue-in-cheek than the original series, bit I too would not call them comedies.

Aside from the Alan Hale episode, there was one in which Pat Paulsen played a nerdy agent with an eidetic memory. At the end, it was revealed he was also a master of jiu jitsu. And Ross Martin’s disguises occasionally yielded a moment of comedy relief. But still, _ **WWW** _ was always action-adventure.

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