# Sitcom Rules **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866 "2014-04-11T12:01:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/41 "2014-04-12T10:57:32Z")
The introduction of a pair of handcuffs leads inevitably to a character locked to an object or two characters locked to each other. The handcuff key is invariably lost or missing. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/42 "2014-04-12T13:40:03Z")
It’s rude to interrupt someone or ignore their protests, no matter how important the information you have is, or how much harm the other person will suffer because they don’t know what you’re trying to tell them. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/43 "2014-04-12T13:47:23Z")
Couches are always placed in the middle of the room. Toilets never require scrubbing and, in the case of the Brady Bunch, need not be present at all. Your friends will barge through your door at any hour without knocking. No two people in your circle of acquaintances will ever have the same first name. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/44 "2014-04-12T14:56:44Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Rosanne managed to still have a smallish (looking) living room/house, but even that was bigger than my house and I probably make more than those two put together and I’m in considerably less debt. It’s just one of those TV things, you need the space for the people and the cameras to move around and make it all look nice. The Conners lived in Lanford, Il. If they’d lived in Chicago, the house would have been impossibly big, but they made a point of the fact that the washer and dryer were on a makeshift porch. It was a small house. Realistically cluttered, too. Meat lockers and walk in freezers are people-eaters on TV. Does anyone know what the first show to do an episode about getting stuck in one was? I imagine it was probably\* I Love Lucy\*, or _Leave it to Beaver_. I actually know someone with a morbid fear of getting trapped in one, even though they have had open-from-inside doors for decades. And he doesn’t even work somewhere that has one. Also, people who go on long trips always either forget their cell phones, or forget to charge them-- this is a new one, because cell phones have ruined the “OMG, where is he, he should have been home hours ago!” trop. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/45 "2014-04-12T15:53:29Z")
People from your long distant past will always show up. Ditto your long lost relatives, some you don’t even know about. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/46 "2014-04-12T16:13:05Z")
Sitcom characters seem to enjoy spending holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas with their co-workers or roommates rather than their actual families. Even when someone has plans to fly home to see family, they’ll be stuck at the office/apartment/whatever due to a cancelled flight. And the characters seem to have endless funds and the free time to spend all evenings at the local bar/hangout, rather than at home, watching TV alone. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/47 "2014-04-12T16:43:20Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > No two people in your circle of acquaintances will ever have the same first name. Tell that to Daryl and his other brother Daryl on Newhart. The spouse is not cheating - it is his sister/cousin/aunt at the restaurant with him! Kids’ talent shows or school pageants, no matter if it is high school or grade school, seem to have a minimum $40,000 budget for sets and lighting and costumes. Speaking of costumes, come Halloween, all characters seem to find Oscar winning costume designers to do their perfectly designed costumes. Come Christmas, there will be a rip off of “It’s A Wonderful Life” or “A Christmas Carol”, often done in part in B&W. Even if she works in the same office and lives in the same neighborhood, the hefty, sassy, black chick will be able to zip off one-liners using ghetto slang and a big snap of her fingers. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/48 "2014-04-12T17:05:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Sitcom characters seem to enjoy spending holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas with their co-workers or roommates rather than their actual families. Even when someone has plans to fly home to see family, they’ll be stuck at the office/apartment/whatever due to a cancelled flight. > > And the characters seem to have endless funds and the free time to spend all evenings at the local bar/hangout, rather than at home, watching TV alone. I think Mary Tyler Moore is the only TV character whoever had separate work and social sets. And one of them was just Valerie Harper plus a bunch of one-off characters. Unless you count Phyllis as a friend. Also, regarding the money: it’s drama, to sitcoms, but stalkers and serial killers always have unlimited funds, even though the profilers say that they’re “unemployed or marginally employed.” I could never be a serial killer, because I couldn’t afford all the stuff. A couple of those drum barrels would set me back pretty far, let alone building my own dungeon. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/49 "2014-04-12T17:11:57Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > It’s rude to interrupt someone or ignore their protests, no matter how important the information you have is, or how much harm the other person will suffer because they don’t know what you’re trying to tell them. That is one that drives me particularly crazy - just interrupt them and tell them the really important, life-changing item already, for God’s sake! > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Sitcom characters seem to enjoy spending holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas with their co-workers or roommates rather than their actual families. Even when someone has plans to fly home to see family, they’ll be stuck at the office/apartment/whatever due to a cancelled flight. > > And the characters seem to have endless funds and the free time to spend all evenings at the local bar/hangout, rather than at home, watching TV alone. That’s another good one - a character gets married or something, and the only people who show up are their co-workers and friends (i.e. characters on the sitcom), rather than a realistic cross-section of family, friends, cousins, etc. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/50 "2014-04-13T02:16:48Z")
Pregnant women will go into labor and have their kids in stuck elevators, the backseats of taxicabs, and pretty much anywhere except a hospital delivery room. (Although “Friends” did manage to have all its births – by Ross’s ex, Phoebe, Rachel, Monica & Chandler’s surrogate – occur in hospitals.) ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/51 "2014-04-13T02:32:10Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Whenever there’s a thread like this, I wonder whether people have actually watched TV shows made in the past decade, or whether I’m just not watching the dumb sitcoms. > > Because the sitcoms I’ve watched lately (The Office, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, Community) spend a lot more time lampshading and mocking this kind of cliche than they do indulging in them (Lesley Knope’s nausea on last night’s Parks and Rec notwithstanding). I have seen many sitcoms in the last 10 years and while a few attempt to lampshade or lampoon sitcom tropes, the majority are cookie cutter examples of many of the items listed on here. You can almost quote the dialogue in most series before the character speaks it. Cliches are far easier to write than something new and inventive. Also, it’s almost cliche itself to mock cliches. Most sitcoms have about 2-3 seasons (at most) of original ideas and yet the successful series have to stretch that limited creativity over as many as 7-9 seasons. Occasionally more. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/52 "2014-04-13T03:41:16Z")
I stopped watching sitcoms after seinfeld got canceled. Modern family is fairly brilliant and cliche free. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/53 "2014-04-13T11:15:49Z")
If you attempt to hypnotize someone while another person watches, the other person will be hypnotized. > [@Superhal](#): > > Modern family is fairly brilliant and cliche free. It may not rely on sitcom cliches much, but it is by no means cliche free. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866/54 "2014-04-13T13:03:32Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Modern family is fairly brilliant and cliche free. I tried watching it for a while at two different times. No, it is horribly cliche ridden. You can see the ending “joke” right from the start it is so predictable. A stereotypical sitcom. Plus it does the “talking to the camera” faux-documentary/reality show thing. * * * If someone says something bad like “I hate people with green hats.” There will be someone with a green hat walking behind them right then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-rules/685866.md?page=2)