Finally in Year One you should start the class thinking about the topic for the B question in the exam. The current topic is TV comedy.

Individuals need to make their own study of this topic depending on their own consumption of the many varieties of TV comedy, so that they have a thorough knowledge of at least two different texts and preferably three. Gervais in Extras might be a way of looking at postmodern comedy

ACTIVITIES

INSTITUTIONS...

‘The focus of this examination is institutional/ scheduling issues and audience pleasures. These pages on sit-com provide a background only to the topic. The specific issues of institution/scheduling and audience pleasures in relation to sit-com will need to be taught separately.’

Brief Definition

The British TV sitcom is a television series that derives humour from the same characters in a fixed location exploring a variety of comic...

History and Context

Distant ancestors of Punch and Judy shows, Situation Comedies originated, as with much TV Comedy in part on the radio in the 1920s and 1930s. Due however to the exclusive nature of ‘the situation’ and the concept of visual audience identification it remains fundamentally a successful audio-visual sub genre – Hancock’s Half Hour is a notable exception to this in the 1950s transferring successfully from radio to...

Trollied is a Situation Comedy set in a fictional supermarket, Valco in the north-west, specifically Warrington in Cheshire. It is broadcast on a Monday night at 9pm and more unusually it is on Sky 1 (it is rare for Sky 1 to commission programmes from the Sitcom genre). Trollied is repeated immediately after on Sky 2 at 10pm. In its classic 30 minute format it follows some genre conventions but offers post watershed representations.

The...

Outnumbered is a successful British Situation Comedy (Sitcom) named so simply because the two parental central protagonists, ‘Sue’ and ‘Pete’ are outnumbered by their three children. It is set in West London and although on the surface offers pluralistic representations in the guise of their unruly children who often intellectually challenge their parents it very much follows a standard genre template established by family based...

Click on the link below to download a PDF booklet you can print out.

Situation_Comedy_-_Flight_of_the_Conchords.pdf

Click on the link below to download a PDF booklet you can print out.

Genre_and_Sitcom.pdf

Sitcom is a genre which has remained successful by reacting to the changing contexts of the times in which it is produced, as well as more recently experimenting with hybridisation in order to attract its audiences.  (Depending on how much time you wish to spend, you could show either clips or episodes, and I have suggested suitable episodes which should be readily available on DVD or possibly Youtube.)

Rooted in the radio variety shows of...

These quizzes are best viewed in Firefox.

Firefox is an excellent alternative to Internet Explorer which is available free for both PCs and Macs.

Sitcoms | DVD Template.doc

Sitcoms | GCSE Workbook.doc

Sitcoms | Pre-Release Jan 2008.doc

Sitcoms | TV Sitcoms.ppt

TASK 1: History / Research Question (25 marks)

The focus for this Task on the Higher tier paper is how UK and US sitcoms have gone in different directions. In your classwork you may have covered the “cosy–domestic” British sitcom of the Terry and June or Ever Decreasing Circles format. Many of the US sitcoms that we have seen imported into the UK have been “star vehicles” for example Cybil (Shepard) or Ellen (DeGeneres) which somehow...

TASK 1: History / Research Question (25 marks)

The key to this question is how the sitcom has changed since the 1960s when it first became a television staple. The thrust of the answer should identify the key conventions of the sitcom, for example: the consistency of setting and characters; the “no learning” rule which allows characters to make similar mistakes week after week; the canned laughter / laughter track - (see other notes).

A...

An Introduction to Sitcoms

Frome College on Sitcoms

A List of British Sitcoms

Buster Tests: Sitcom Basics

BBC on Britain’s Best Sitcoms

North East Wales Institute of HE on Sitcoms

ScreenOnline on Sitcoms

Television Heaven on Galton & Simpson

Teletronic.co.uk on The Good Life

Writing Sitcoms

Robin Kelly on Sitcom Writing

The Stage Guide to Sitcom Writing

Sitcom Downloads & Other Resources

FunTrivia Quizzes on Sitcom

Kings’ School...

BTM TV

Memo

To: Creative Department Members

From: Managing Director

CC: Marketing Manager

Date: 3.12.07

Re: New Sit-com Commission

You may be aware that UKTV have been granted a digital broadcast licence for a new Comedy channel as from January 2008.

The main content of the channel will be classic comedy programmes and films from years gone by. They have managed to strike a deal with the BBC for many of their great classic sit-coms –...

Please read notes for Foundation tier marking and use in conjunction with the Higher tier notes below.

Marking The Papers

In writing this paper, I have assumed that you are using it to support and check the work that you have done in class. Without wishing to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, I think if you are intending to use this as an exam paper, you might want to work backwards. Read the papers at the start of your teaching and then try...

1. History / Research Question (25 marks)

There has been a marked decline in the situation comedy genre since its heyday of the 1970s. Today there are very few comedy programmes that follow the traditional conventions of the situation comedy.

• Use the research that you have done on at least THREE sitcoms to explain what the traditional conventions of the television sitcom are – ONE of your chosen sitcoms must be from the UK, ONE from the US...

Dear Colleague,

Here at The Laffter Stoodio, we have been looking at television situation comedies over the last four decades. Yes, there’s been some great series on television in the UK and “across the pond” in the United States and some fantastic comedy moments, but we want to do something new, which is why we’ve asked...

This is a Mock Exam paper written by Keith Langton to simulate the actual exam paper to be released by AQA in April 2008.

I would like to make it clear that I have no connection with the AQA Media Studies department and this paper is purely my own invention; it should NOT be taken as an indication of what will appear on the actual exam paper as I have no idea or information regarding the contents of that paper.

The questions contained herein...

Marking The Papers

In writing this paper, I have assumed that you are using it to support and check the work that you have done in class. Without wishing to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, I think if you are intending to use this as an exam paper, you might want to work backwards. Read the papers at the start of your teaching and then try to cover the areas that “might come up” in the Mock!

Again, I must emphasise that I have no...

1. History / Research Question (25 marks)

There has been a marked decline in the situation comedy genre since its heyday of the 1970s. Today there are very few comedy programmes that follow the traditional conventions of the situation comedy.

• Use the research that you have done on at least TWO sitcoms to demonstrate and explain what the traditional conventions of the television sitcom are and how the genre has developed and changed since the...

Dear Colleague,

Here at The Laffter Stoodio, we have been looking at television situation comedies over the last four decades. Yes, there’s been some great series on television in the UK and “across the pond” in the United States and some fantastic comedy moments, but we want to do something new, which is why we’ve asked...

This is a Mock Exam paper written by Keith Langton to simulate the actual exam paper to be released by AQA in April 2008.

I would like to make it clear that I have no connection with the AQA Media Studies department and this paper is purely my own invention; it should NOT be taken as an indication of what will appear on the actual exam paper as I have no idea or information regarding the contents of that paper.

The questions contained herein...

What is a Sitcom?

A Situation Comedy is a comedy series built around a familiar group of characters in the same location.

[Geoff Barton’s ‘Glossary of Media Terms’]

When approaching Sitcom or Situation Comedy as a television genre it is important to establish how it has developed historically and what it might evolve into in terms of its possible futures.

As with any analysis in Media Studies, the Key Concepts need to be addressed. In this...

Simpsons Archive

Sitcom.co.ukk Masses on history of right through to those currently in production and even links to getting tickets to watch recordings of sitcoms

Sitcom Guide Who Killed the British Sitcom

BBC on SitComs

BFI on Teaching Sitcom

Gender & TV Situation Comedy - Northallerton College

Transparencynow.com Excellent media and communication studies site by Ken Sanes.

Theories of Humour on Wikipedia

BBC Comedy

British Comedy Guide

Filmsite on Types of Comedy

An Introduction to Genre Theory by Daniel Chandler

Wikipedia on Comedy

Wikipedia on Comedic Genres

Listen to Pete Wall’s podcasts below to get a better understanding of how to prepare for the AQA GCSE Media Studies Controlled Test on Television Situation Comedy.

Click here to download An Introduction to the GCSE Controlled Test on Television Situation Comedy as an MP3 file or listen to it now using the player below.

Part One - An Introduction to the GCSE Controlled Test on Television Situation Comedy

Click here to download Simulation &...