Not that there's anything wrong with that: The Art of the Sitcom

Sitcoms: the bottom of the barrel in creativity according to many critics. The shows that pollute TBS and Nick at Night. The only thing to watch at 1 in the morning on cable television. Yet, sitcoms are almost always some of the most popular shows on television. From Seinfeld, to Friends, to Everybody Loves Raymond, to recents such as Modern Family or The Office, sitcoms continue to be a very prevalent and popular part of television programming. So why are these referred to as "not very creative" by some critics? Well the answer is that they follow the same basic structural patterns. Most sitcoms run about 22-24 minutes an episode, and fit into a half-hour time block, aside from some season finales or premieres. They also feature an episodic structure, where you don't need to see previous episodes to understand what's going on. Some shows, such as Friends or The Office, feature episodic content but also have some overarching storylines (such as the Ross/Rachel and Jim/Pam romances). Sitcoms also usually follow a basic, 3 act structure and very little character development, which makes the characters very flat, another criticism.

Recent shows have attempted to keep this same structure and make the show feel like a sitcom, but they change up some of the basic character stereotypes. A great example of this would be the Emmy-award winning sitcom: Modern Family. Modern Family follows 3 different families, the "normal" family with a mom, dad, and 3 children, a gay couple with their adopted Asian baby, and an old man and a young Latino woman who have recently married. Modern Family takes the classic TV family stereotypes and turns them upside down. The structure is fairly episodic, aside from one or two references to other episodes, and follows the basic 3-act structure and 30 minute time block that most other sitcoms use.

The key difference for Modern Family, is that rather than focusing on 2 or 3 main characters, and adding in a bunch of less important characters (The Office, Friends, and Seinfeld are all culprits of this), or just focusing on one family (Everybody Loves Raymond), Modern Family can focus on 3 different families, and focus on a different main character every week. This offers a refreshing take on the sitcom genre, and it is probably why it dominated the Emmys this year.