My brother and I occupied ourselves with this for the better part of an hour the other day (and only stopped because we had to run). So I thought I’d see if there were enough people on the SDMB as easily amused as my brother and me.
Sitcoms. There’s many ways to label them. Some are great ensemble pieces. Others are star vehicles. There are sharply written sophisticated efforts and broadly written farces. But I think we’d all agree that there’s really only one definitive way to categorize a sitcom.
From what direction did people enter the main set, right or left. Of course.
So, the rules are simple:
[ol]
[li]Offer a sitcom.[/li][li]Name the main set, the one where most of the action took place (don’t be wishy-washy–pick one). In the sitcom universe, a large majority of these will be the living room, but it doesn’t have to be.[/li][li]Identify the direction (from the audience’s perspective) from which people entered that main set. This should generally be how people entered it from the “outside world”–in other words, the front door. No debates about whether more people entered that set from the kitchen or from the street. The front door wins.[/li][li]Last but most important, you can’t pick a sitcom that has the same direction as the one immediately prior in the thread. No consecutive righties, no consecutive lefties.[/li][/ol]
Got it?
OK, here goes the first (which happens to be a righty, which must be followed by a lefty):
Sitcom: All in the Family
Main set: Living room
Direction: Right (people came into Archie’s living room from the right, see?)
No. I hadn’t considered “center,” but so long as the next pick isn’t “center,” it’s OK. Clarification of rule #4: No consecutive directions, whether it be right, left, center, or whatever (anticipating that sitcom where people drop from the ceiling).
By the way, I would have categorized Home Improvement as a righty, myself, but I’ll defer to jayjay.
Sitcom: Roseanne
Main set: Connor house
Direction: Left (since the rules specify living room; I’d estimate over the course of the show more people entered the Connor house through the kitchen but rules is rules)
To clarify, the rules don’t demand that you pick the living room as the main set. But if you do, then the proper entrance is the front door (hence your post is perfectly acceptable according to established international sitcom direction game rules).
Main Set: One room in a Brooklyn apartment, which served as kitchen, dining room and living room.
Kramden and Norton always entered via the front door, which was located on the back wall of the studio set. So, as they entered, they walked directly toward the audience.