Lecture: "The Development of Television Comedy"

I. Early TV Comedy

A. Variety-comedy: Texaco Star Theater, Your Show of Shows

B. Radio-inspired Backstage Sitcom: The Jack Benny Show

C. The Ethnic Sitcom (1949-1957)

1. Immigrant Assimilationism

CLIP #1: The Goldbergs ("The Singer", 1955): Molly talks with her neighbors

CLIP #2: The Goldbergs: The family wants to sacrifice for Rosalie

2. Race on Early Television

CLIP #3: The Beulah Show (Marriage Counseling, ABC, 1952)

CLIP #5: Imitation of Life (film: Douglas Sirk, 1959): Mother is rejected

3. The TV History of Amos ‘n’ Andy

CLIP #6: Amos ‘n’ Andy ("The Kingfish Gets Drafted", CBS, 1952)

1948: Talent Raids

1951-1953: The show in production for CBS television

1951: Ineffective NAACP protests

1951-1962: The show runs successfully in syndication

1963: CBS Films attempts to sell the show to foreign markets

1964: Local Chicago station begins re-running the show; Effective protests

1966: CBS Films quietly withdraws the show from syndication

1990s: Video Yesteryear releases the entire run of the show onto videotape

II. The Transition from Variety-comedy to Sitcom

CLIP #7: The Burns and Allen Show ("The Tax Assessor"): Burns addresses the audience

III. The Television Sitcom

A. Sitcoms which arose out of the variety format

CLIP #8: The Honeymooners ("The $99,000 Question"): Ralph loses on the game show

B. The filmed sitcom

CLIP #9: I Love Lucy ("The Quiz Show"): Game show visits the Ricardos’ home

C. Standardization of sitcom plots

CLIP #11: Cheers ("What is Cliff Claven?"): Cliff loses on Jeopardy!

D. The dominance of the Domestic Sitcom in the late 1950s and early 1960s

CLIP #12: Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet ("An Evening with Hamlet"): Carradine’s visit

Click Here to Return to the MTA 400 ("The History of Television") Syllabus

This page was last updated on January 8, 2001

Questions or comments?  Please phone me at (406) 994-6403 or send e-mail to:  metz@montana.edu

Walter Metz, Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Montana State University--Bozeman