By DOUG STRASSLER
As with most of my significant others, I have a love-hate relationship with my cable television’s On Demand service. I love it because it helps me watch more television than will fit into my DVR, which is often saturated to the gills. On the other hand, with most movies and TV shows available to watch at my leisure, there’s no limit to the amount of shows a discipline-averse couch potato like myself can add to my repertoire.
Case in point: a couple of weeks ago, I was home sick and decided to catch up on several of my regular shows from that week. Once I had caught up, though, instead of reading, checking email, or napping, I decided to watch some more TV. I went to the CBS On Demand station and decided to sample the pilot episode of the new sitcom Accidentally on Purpose.
The premise is pretty basic: Jenna Elfman is Billie, a 37-year-old movie critic for a San Francisco newspaper run by her boyfriend, James (Grant Show). Because he’s a blowhard, she breaks up with him, and ends up engaging in a brief rebound affair with a 23-year-old chef named Zack (Jon Foster). Several weeks later, Billie discovers she’s pregnant, decides to keep the baby and let Zack move in with her, with no strings attached. Mayhem is guaranteed to ensue.
There’s no reason for me to have watched Accidentally. I’m certainly not a fan of the leads. I think I’ve seen one episode of Dharma and Greg. And I watched two movies with Foster in the last year involving lots of characters getting it on with each other, and still managed to snooze during both. (Side note: I did like Show as Jake Hanson on Melrose Place, and I find it odd that he turned down an offer to return to the current CW revival of the show in favor of this sitcom).
No, I think what led me to the show was a case of morbid entertainment curiosity. When I read about the new shows of the fall season, Accidentally looked DOA to me, and I wanted to inspect the damage. How could this show, which essentially rips off the central conceit of The Object of My Affection, be good? Furthermore, could it really last a full season, let alone beyond? (I still think Elfman’s current real-life pregnancy will outlast the show.)
The pilot itself was breezy and stupid, but harmless. (For starters, a movie critic could never afford Billie’s gorgeous San Fran pad. In fact, she probably wouldn’t have her job at all right now. But I digress.) But then I did something odd. I watched the next episode. And then another! And I plan to catch up to the next episode as well. Why would I do such a thing?
I think the answer has less to do with Accidentally than it does with my own nostalgia for the sitcoms of my youth – shows like Cheers, Family Ties, and in this case, most relevantly, Murphy Brown. I actually miss laugh tracks! Accidentally, like most remaining CBS sitcoms, still uses the device. Now, I never needed it to tell me a joke had just been said, and I didn’t always agree that it was funny. But it was part of the rhythm of the show, and I liked it. Hearing that canned laughter whenever Woody Boyd, Skippy Handelman, or Corky Sherwood said something nutty was always part of the joke (Ahem… I believe you mean Corky Sherwood-Forest — Mark). The faux-documentary style employed by Modern Family and The Office may be de rigueur, but I don’t think it makes a sitcom feel more sophisticated. Nowadays, actors add in pregnant pauses and directors add an extra beat before cutting away from an actor, just to hammer home a joke. (I’m looking at you, Sex and the City. You too, 30 Rock.)
Is the new sitcom style, sans laugh track, really better? I can’t say for certain. Of all the shows I watch regularly, only How I Met Your Mother still uses one. I’m not going to run out and start watching Brothers or Gary Unmarried to experiment, but I am interested to hear what the rest of you think. Are you happy to trade in the days of Perfect Strangers’s Larry Appleton for 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon?
In the meantime, I’ll be chuckling along with Billie and Zack at her latest sonogram.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Gonzalo // Oct 23, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I didn’t grow up with sitcoms, so I don’t have a big attachment to the traditional multi-camera, live-audience filming style. At the same time, it often amazes me that people can be so dismissive of traditional sitcoms just because it isn’t the cool new flavor anymore – it seems like unnecessary snobbery to me.
Anyway, I like how you explained laugh tracks as part of the rhythm of traditional sitcoms, in the same way that extra beats and glances to the camera offer those moments in ‘mockumentary’ sitcoms (The Office, Parks & Rec, Modern Family).
Still, if you’re itching for traditional comedy that’s actually funny, I’d say you drop Accidentally, and start watching Big Bang Theory, which is (by most accounts, including mine) the best traditional sitcom on air (I love How I Met Your Mother, but it’s only half-traditional, as it’s filmed single-camera, and then shown to a live audience for the laugh track). The Middle is supposed to be decent too, but I haven’t sampled it yet.
2 Doug Strassler // Oct 23, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Thanks, Gonzalo! I should give Big Bang a try; Jim Parsons seems to be doing an awesome job. Does The Middle also have a laugh track?
3 Randee // Oct 23, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Are you sure anybody (other than the Disney Channel) really still uses a laugh track? I would swear everybody uses a live audience — including Accidentally (and also back in the days of Family Ties, Cosby).
It’s Wikipedia, but still; the Wikipedia entry on laugh tracks notes: “Since the 2000s, shows with laugh track became a rarity in the dispute for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. In 2000, of the five nominated shows, only Sex and the City did not use a laugh track. Of the seven shows nominated in 2009, only How I Met Your Mother uses a laugh track, albeit out of necessity due to the large number of scenes per episode, and flashbacks featured in the story; the laugh track is later created by recording an audience being shown the final edited episode.”
Or did you mean “live studio audience”?
4 Gonzalo // Oct 23, 2009 at 5:35 pm
@Doug: I kind of assumed The Middle had a “laugh track”, probably it’s been described as “traditional” a few times (and because it aired as a block with Hank). But I just checked on Hulu and it doesn’t, so you’re right on that one.
In any case, BBT = awesome. I started watching with season 2, and I found it surprising how good old-school comedy could be (there hasn’t been much of that in the past 4 or 5 years since I started watching TV more). I still can’t believe it wasn’t nominated for an Emmy this year (Entourage? really? still?), probably a side effect of the perception that multi-camera sitcoms are not cool/hip/modern enough.
@Randee. Good point. I usually say “laugh track” regardless of whether the show’s taped in front of a live audience (e.g. Big Bang Theory), re-played in front of an audience (e.g. How I Met Your Mother), or truly using “canned laughter” (e.g. Disney channel stuff). From reading Wikipedia, it sounds like only the latter two actually use “laugh tracks”. Perhaps Doug was also using that term indiscriminately?
5 Rachel // Oct 24, 2009 at 7:30 am
I second the BBT rec. I just started watching it a few weeks ago and I adore it. Probably more than anyone should love a sitcom. Jim Parsons is the funniest thing on TV right now and Johnny Galecki is a perfect foil.
6 Doug Strassler // Oct 25, 2009 at 10:43 am
Gonzalo’s right; I use laugh track interchangeably with studio audience to describe the canned laughter versus the more naturalistic style that’s so in vogue.
But I’ll definitely have to give BBT a whirl.
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