By: Damon Condon

Sitcoms in the Streaming Era

The creative standstill between viewers and streamers has come to a head. As streaming slowly inches its way to overtaking the conventional ways of watching television, the divide between what viewers want and what is being produced grows. 2023 brought about unusual results in terms of overall viewership further proving the severity of this problem. The top ten most streamed shows in the U.S. were all acquired titles with no streaming originals on the list. An acquired title refers to a television show that was previously released on another network or stream and was licensed to another company for streaming. This also meant that none of the shows that debuted in 2023 were in the top ten. Audiences have made it clear that they prefer the formats of the past over current releases, but streaming companies are refusing to make changes to their current format, especially regarding the sitcom.

As we move into a post-streaming world, analyzing the history and growth of the American sitcom is crucial to understand where the sitcom stands today. The format dominated linear television since the inception of the situational sitcom starting in 1947 with Mary Kay and Johnny (Moore, 1997). Shows followed Mary Kay and Johnny’s format closely until the debut of I Love Lucy in 1951. Lucy would change the trajectory of the sitcom and television forever. The show was the first to shoot on film, in front of a live studio audience, and was serialized instead of episodic like previous sitcoms. These changes ushered in the period that would later be known as the Golden Years of television, with other cultural staples debuting such as Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best.

Tastes began to change in the late 1960’s, and rural sitcoms were canceled across the board. The 1970’s would present the most formidable change to the genre, however. All In the Family was created by Norman Lear and started a revolution known as “relevance television,” a format that covered pertinent social issues during its time. In contrast to previous familial sitcoms, the characters were not idealized. The lead, Archie Bunker, was openly a bigot in open opposition to the cultural changes happening in the country. The controversy surrounding the show, combined with the upset over The Mary Tyler Moore  depicting a single woman with no steady love interest or father figure would create an unprecedented change in the television landscape.

The 1990’s would bring a second resurgence to the sitcom in response to the more serious and violent tone that many procedurals were beginning to implement. Traditional family comedies of old remained on the air as the decade began such as The Cosby Show and Growing Pains, but as the years went on, a change began to occur. More realistic sitcoms began to find their way into the mainstream with Roseanne leading the way. Others began to follow in the lower middle-class footsteps, soon ushering in a second genre, the urban comedy. This new twist on the format would lead to some of the biggest sitcoms of all time, including Seinfeld and Friends, and featured slices of daily life in the big city, often slowly veering into more dramatic territory.

After September 11th, the landscape of television would again change with people turning away from the sitcom. With a few holdovers, and the rise of children’s television, the sitcom landscape became more divided, and the demand began to decrease by the mid 2000’s as reality television and game shows began to increase in popularity and the birth of prestige television as HBO began to produce its own content. However, the hold that legacy television held remained, and can still be seen to this day in terms of streaming numbers.

The sitcom is fundamentally impacted by the times it is airing in, as demonstrated above. Massive changes to the format ushered in every ten to fifteen years dependent upon global events, and this trend is still ever present today. Its ever-evolving popularity can be directly correlated to times of hardship and war come and go. People used to flock to their television screens for comedy and comfort during difficult times. As the years passed, and peace returned, the need for the sitcom faded. The cycle has been easy to follow through history, but all of that changed with the inception of streaming. Today very few sitcoms are on air, let alone created for streaming. In our post-streaming world, Friends still sits in the top ten most streamed shows in 2023. Although not a typical sitcom format, Gilmore Girls has sat in the top ten since hitting streaming almost a decade ago.

Audiences are proving they want shows that follow the formats of old sitcoms, and streaming has obliged in unconventional ways, such as the reboot. In the last decade, we have seen streamers attempt to replicate the ways of the past by rebooting franchise after franchise, most being of the sitcom nature. The trend started with Arrested Development, paving the way for a reboot of Full House which ran from 1989 to 1995. Its sequel series, Fuller House, hit Netflix in 2016 and featured almost the entire original cast. But reviewers were not so kind to the nostalgia-dipped sitcom. In fact, the reviews were devastating. The show however performed solidly and lasted five seasons, but audiences and critics alike noted that there was a divergence between the two in tone with Fuller House being aimed at a much younger demographic, and not appealing as widely to adults with its sickeningly sweet sensibilities.

Fuller House set the precedent for those to come as this trend of aged down appeal has been seen across the board as old sitcoms have been rebooted with the same situation unfolding on Girl Meets World, a continuation of Boy Meets World, the new Frasier reboot, and more, all missing their signature tones that defined their era. These sanitized versions of once great sitcoms left a sour mark on their audiences, with Girl only lasting three seasons. Arrested Development scraped its way to a second post-cancellation season, with no word of more on the horizon and no formal cancellation ever being announced. 

There have been few reboots and revivals that have seen success with audiences and critics alike. The Connors being a prime example, proving the family sitcom isn’t quite dead just yet. Although not as ubiquitous as the original, the show has become beloved by fans and made a splash compared to most reboots as a whole. On the non-revival front, The Big Bang Theory has led the way as the top streaming sitcom, beating out Friends in the 2023 rankings. Its spin-off, Young Sheldon, a single camera familial comedy about the titular character and his family, is just now finishing its incredibly successful seventh season run. The two franchises as a whole have combined into a massive success for CBS, with Sheldon often dominating as the top-rated primetime program multiple weeks in a row, as well as being in the top 5 of most streamed overall shows and helping knock Suits out of its streaming top spot from 2023. These shows are outliers in a landscape that has seen the sitcom slowly disappear from American television screens. Their formula may be their saving grace in a decade where we have seen many longstanding successful sitcoms come to an end.

The standoff between between streamers and viewers has grown exponentially, as it appears streaming services are unwilling to budge on what they are producing. Audiences are retreating to streaming to rewatch the shows of the past instead of giving their viewership to new and original content, with consumers showing disinterest in the programming currently available. The standoff has grown exponentially, as it appears streaming services are unwilling to budge on their ways. One or the other is going to have to give. Streaming companies must listen to their audiences if they want to create shows that stand the test of time, and audiences may just have to learn to appreciate what they are given, even if it goes against what viewership truly means. How we do so and who finally caves is a face off we are witnessing in real time, and we, the audience, are in for a show.

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming next week, which will discuss the current landscape of streaming productions.