Sitcoms

Television shows are generally narrated through one of two formats: episodic or serial. However, sitcoms are most often episodic. Several characteristics of sitcoms are associated with episodic narration. Each episode is usually meant to teach one particular lesson, where a character will raise a question and receive an answer within the 22-minute timeframe of a sitcom. Most episodes will not extend into the next week; each episode will be its own complete story, which can stand on its own apart from the series. This leads to predictability and the audience is familiar with how each episode will play out before watching it. In general, there is no great character arc throughout an entire sitcom series — the characters are stagnant and sometimes never even age or progress through life or school. This allows many sitcoms to be not only funny, but also rather absurd. Characters are put into strange and unrealistic situations, and by the next episode these happenings are ‘forgotten.’ This is the formula for most sitcoms, both animated and live-action.

One sitcom that exemplifies this episodic narrative strategy is the animated series Family Guy. Each episode of this show stands apart from the series as a whole, in which one entire plot will begin and finish and what took place in a particular episode will not be mentioned again in succeeding shows. An example of one of these episodes in one entitled “Road to Rupert” in which two of the show’s main characters, Stewie, a talking baby, and Brian, a talking dog, set off on a cross-country road trip to find Stewie’s lost teddy bear. Throughout this trip, they encounter a myriad of odd people and end up in several crazily unrealistic situations, only to end up safely back at home by the last minutes of the episode, no questions asked. In the following episode, these events will not be referred back to or even remembered, and the audience knows and expects this. It is all part of the episodic formula in which episodes do not connect to form a developing plot. Because of this, the characters never experience any real change.  Every week, the viewer can expect to see Peter Griffin in his white button-down and green pants, sitting in a bar with his friends Joe, Cleveland, and Quagmire; Stewie in his red overalls, planning the murder of his mother and takeover of the world; Brian the dog womanizing and drinking; Meg at the butt of every joke, etc. They never age and rarely, if ever, do things in their lives change.  Family Guy, like many sitcoms, never amounts to much more than any one episode.