sitcom cliche thread

Cafe Society
21

[QUOTE=gonzomax]
Cosby and Rosanne fit.
[/quote]

No way. For every dad-is-being-dumb episode of those, there was an equal opportunity mom-is-insane episode. Not to mention a kids-are-nuts episode.

I agree with those, with the caveat the All in the Family was less about Archie as a person and more about using him as a strawman mouthpiece for social ills. In the few episodes where the characters were real human beings, he was an intelligent, loving man with actual feelings on par with any of the others.

22

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
As was Arrested Development.

And The Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver, The Cosby Show, Full House, Family Ties, Growing Pains, Roseanne, Reba, and Family Matters.

And Will and Grace, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Too Close for Comfort, Three’s Company, I Dream of Jeannie, The Golden Girls, Cheers, Newsradio, Friends, Father Ted, Becker, Get Smart, That '70s Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Coach, The Office, Sports Night, 30 Rock, I Married Joan, I Love Lucy, Dharma and Greg and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.

Not to mention Gilligan’s Island, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mork and Mindy, My Three Sons, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Get Smart and Hogan’s Heroes.

Your “over-riding thread” is nowhere near a universal rule, just an unfortunate blip in the current writing rooms.
[/QUOTE]

To serve as a cliché doesn’t mean that every sitcom has to incorporate it.

Also shows like Hogan’s Heroes, Cheers and Gilligan’s Island which don’t even remotely center around a traditional family theme don’t warrant inclusion.

And if Mork and Mindy doesn’t fit the notion of an immature idiot who would self destruct if he was not quietly controlled by a woman, please tell me what is.

Obviously a cliché doesn’t need to appear in every single situation comedy ever created. Enough so that when the creators of King of Queens (a decent show we might agree) sat down for the first time, someone had to say: For God’s sake, not this again.

23

[QUOTE=minlokwat]
And if Mork and Mindy doesn’t fit the notion of an immature idiot who would self destruct if he was not quietly controlled by a woman, please tell me what is.

[/QUOTE]

Ha…you know, you may be right. I was watching it when I was…what…six? I always coded it as “an uptight woman who learns to loosen up and have fun like her wacky “little brother” figure.” I saw it as a commentary on the weird arbitrariness of Earth life and logic. :smiley:

24

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
No way. For every dad-is-being-dumb episode of those, there was an equal opportunity mom-is-insane episode. Not to mention a kids-are-nuts episode.

I agree with those, with the caveat the All in the Family was less about Archie as a person and more about using him as a strawman mouthpiece for social ills. In the few episodes where the characters were real human beings, he was an intelligent, loving man with actual feelings on par with any of the others.
[/QUOTE]

And Curb your Enthusiasm, Fawlty Towers, Life of Riley, Maude, Simpsons, Honeymooners ,Everybody Hates Raymond 'jeffersons. When a woman is the star it is possible to change and they do.

25

I was once given a baby bag of flour and a baby egg.

I made a baby cake.

26

[QUOTE=cactus waltz]
If the main characters are wacky, they can instead have a normal neighbour to counter-part them (Married With Children).
[/QUOTE]

The first time I saw Married With Children, I didn’t understand the reversal of concept. I thought that Steve and Marcy were the centre of the show, and the Bundys were the wacky neighbours. Of course, by the end of the series, pretty much everybody was wacky.

27

Two popular cliches of the 60s that have mercifully been laid to rest:

Husband and wife discover they’re not legally married.
Character gets amnesia after a bump on the head.

28

A couple more:

The guys are challenged by the girls to a competition. Doesn’t matter what it is, the girls will always win, much to the chagrin of the overconfident guys.

A foreign-speaking character says something in (French, Spanish, German, Russian). Character responds by saying, to other characters gathered nearby, “My high school (French, Spanish, German, Russian) is a little rusty, but I think he said (something reasonable). Either that or he may have said (something completely random).” Example: “I think he said he’s in a lot of trouble and needs the police. Either that or he said that he loves to dance the hula in his underwear.”

Two characters are talking, and a third, previously unknown character enters. Character A chats him up like they’re old pals. When the new guy leaves, Character B says, “So, who was that?” Character A responds, “I have no idea…I’ve never met him before in my life!”

A couple of others that were pointed out to me in an episode of Scrubs:

(said to someone angry or upset) “Someone needs to switch to decaf!”
(said to someone acting unusually nice or kind) “Who are you, and what have you done with ____?”

Thanks very much. This was almost as fun as the original.

29

[QUOTE=friendlyguy]
The guys are challenged by the girls to a competition. Doesn’t matter what it is, the girls will always win, much to the chagrin of the overconfident guys.

[/QUOTE]
I’ve seen that flipped twice in recent years, in Oliver Beane and Corner Gas. A woman challenges a guy to a competition (ping-pong or pool), followed by a brief montage, and the guy ends up winning ten in a row because, frankly, he’s just a better player.

30

Ice fishing.

In sitcoms, almost everyone goes ice fishing at some point. I guess confinement + cold = comedy gold, plus there’s plenty of time for a nice heart-to-heart to cap the show off.

Who goes ice-fishing in real life? No one! (Yeah, I see you there with your hand raised. Put it down. You’re a freak. The rest of us never go ice fishing. It only happens in sitcoms).

31

[QUOTE=RandMcnally]
I killed mine that night. It wouldn’t stop crying, it pissed me off.
[/QUOTE]

I liked Xander’s answer in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He boiled his. Which turned out to be a good thing, since the eggs contained demons.

32

[QUOTE=initech]
Ice fishing.

In sitcoms, almost everyone goes ice fishing at some point. I guess confinement + cold = comedy gold, plus there’s plenty of time for a nice heart-to-heart to cap the show off.
[/QUOTE]

Especially after the sitcom dad (Carl Windsow) falls through the ice, his son saves him, and the whole family talks of the near death experience.

33

At about 23 minutes into the program, the authority figure (often an omniscient father) will put his arm around an errant child and dispense some sage advice.

34

One of my favorites:

A main character is angry and decides to tell off a boss, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc. via answering machine, e-mail, letter, etc.
They then find out that it was a simple misunderstanding.
Now they must get the help of their friend to intercept the letter, e-mail, answering machine, etc. before the boss, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc. gets to it.

As seen on Three’s Company, Laverne & Shirley, Perfect Strangers, Seinfeld, etc.

35

A modern one: A woman gets pregnant (usully from a one-night stand) but can’t tell the baby’s father (for whatever reason). Five hundred of her closest friends will find out, but she won’t tell the father.

36

[QUOTE=Hampshire]
Now they must get the help of their friend to intercept the letter, e-mail, answering machine, etc. before the boss, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc. gets to it.

As seen on Three’s Company, Laverne & Shirley, Perfect Strangers, Seinfeld, etc.
[/QUOTE]
Tippy toe! Tippy toe! Lemon tree!

That’s what you had to tell me? Your father wears sneakers in the pool?
I guess I’d have to go with the “close friend” you see only on the Very Special Episode when s/he gets killed/maimed and teaches the main character a lesson and is never seen/spoken of again.

37

The “Character Faking A Disability”: Chicken pot…chickent pot…chicken pot piiiiiie

38

In workplace based sit coms there’s usually an episode were a junior employee is visited by his out of town parents. To make herself/himself look better, she/he’s told his parents that she/he’s actually the boss. When the parents visit the office (except the boss) plays as if the junior schlub is running the show.

39

I’m glad this isn’t used anymore:

Person tries to wash a load of clothing.
Person leaves machine running and goes on to do other things.
Helpful (mother, father, brother, sister, neighbor, uncle, guest) decide person is so incompetant that they must have forgotten the detergent so each adds more.
Bubbles.
Canned laughter.

40

I don’t see these much anymore, but I don’t watch many sitcoms these days.

Family decides to vacation in California, Hawaii, England, or Japan. All of their friends and wacky neighbors go along. Someone jumps a shark.

Adult tries to explain to a precocious kid about how when a man and a woman love each other very much, they, uh… Kid tells another character that the adult doesn’t seem to know much about sex.

Character A chews out character B, then storms out of the room. Then returns and says “Wait, this is my room, you leave!”