Proscenium Style Sitcom and its Demise

The Proscenium style of creating a sitcom is the original way that sitcoms were produced. They involved a live studio audience, set structures, and multiple cameras that filmed the show live-on-tape. These things were very important to early sitcoms such as The Honeymooners and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The live studio audience gave the at home audience the feel that they were on set, laughing with the silly antics of all the characters. Set structures had an influential role because the "outside" world of shows was very rarely seen, the majority of the show took place mainly at the family house or a common place for all the characters. This added to the family aspect of sitcoms because it showed families, such as Will Smith's family in Prince of Bel-Air, all the time hoping to influence families in the audiences with the message of being together. Multiple cameras made it easy for the editors to put the cleanest episodes together by editing different views of the set together to potentially cause more humor then looking at the show from one viewpoint only.

While there have been many different extremely popular sitcoms with this style over the past twenty years it seems to be fading into recession. Many of the more popular sitcoms in today's TV world have gotten rid of the studio audiences, as well as setting sitcoms not so much in studio sets but outside in what seems to the viewing audience could be next door to your own house. The one thing that has stayed the same is multiple cameras shooting at different angles in order to be able to get the best shot without having to keep re-filming scenes. Examples of this type of show are Modern Family, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and 30 Rock.

While I don't watch primetime TV on the national channels often(NBC, ABC, CBS) I do keep track of which shows are the most popular and these days it seems that the Proscenium style has faded from the most popular TV shows. How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men are a few of the shows still being filmed that follow this style. Also the Drama and the Dramedy(drama and comedy in one show), like CSI and Glee, seem to be taking over the television market. Slowly but surely i believe that the Proscenium style of sitcoms is being pushed out the door by this newer genre and even though classics such as Seinfeld and Friends will always be shown in syndication, new TV shows will never be the same.