Has the rise of the “sad-com” killed studio sitcoms with a live audience?

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Half a century ago, the cast of the new BBC comedy The Good Life performed in front of a live audience in Studio 8 at Television Centre. Producer John Howard Davies recalls the initial reaction wasn’t overwhelmingly positive. He remembers going home that night and wondering if the show would ultimately succeed.

He didn’t need to worry after all. By the end of the show’s four seasons, it was regularly watched by an average of 17 million people, and the actors had become famous. A year later, in 1978, a special final episode was filmed, and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were there to see it.

“The Good Life” remains one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time. But how did we know back then that a moment like Margo falling in the mud – wearing her bright yellow raincoat and boots – was genuinely hilarious? Simple: 320 people in the audience laughed heartily, and they let us know it!

As a big fan of classic British comedy, I always think about those shows from my childhood and how much they relied on laughter tracks. Shows like ‘Last of the Summer Wine,’ ‘Keeping Up Appearances,’ and ‘Fawlty Towers’ weren’t just funny scripts – they were built around visual gags, often where the main character, whether it was Hyacinth or Basil, would trip up or something similar. There’d always be a little pause for the other actors to react, and then this big wave of canned laughter would hit – it really completed the experience and let you know when you were supposed to be laughing!

The show was once reliably cheerful and widely popular. What happened to make it different?

July 2001, with the debut of The Office, marked a turning point for British comedy. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant revolutionized the mockumentary format through subtle techniques – like David Brent’s longing looks at the camera and intentionally awkward pauses, such as the extended scene of Keith quietly eating a Scotch egg. A key to their success was replacing traditional studio laughter with moments of deliberate silence, creating a more realistic and often uncomfortable viewing experience.

Has this newfound subtlety paved the way for a different kind of comedy? It seems so. While a few shows like ‘Not Going Out’ and ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ still reliably get big laughs, most new TV comedies are more subdued and realistic. These shows are often called “dramedies” – a mix of drama and comedy – or, sometimes, more sadly, “sadcoms.”

Shows like Back to Life, starring Daisy Haggard, and Mum, with Lesley Manville, have moved away from big laughs, opting for a more subtle and heartwarming kind of humor. Actors like Toby Jones – known for roles in Don’t Forget the Driver and Detectorists – have become known for this gentler style of comedy, prioritizing quiet enjoyment over loud guffaws.

I’ve noticed comedy has really changed lately. It’s not just about quick jokes anymore – we expect actual stories, characters we connect with, and something that feels real, just like with serious dramas. It demands so much more from the writers. In fact, Tim Crouch, who wrote for the show ‘Driver,’ once told me he basically wrote a drama, but with the limited funds you’d expect for a comedy. It really stuck with me – it shows how much the bar has been raised for comedic writing.

Some recent comedies would be funnier if they had a live studio audience to react to the jokes. Without that, a show can feel flat, and it would be interesting to see how a classic sitcom holds up without its familiar laughter track – to see if it’s still genuinely funny without it.

Let’s not dismiss everything just because of a few flaws. Comedic characters like David Brent have always existed – we had similar figures like Basil Fawlty and Rupert Rigsby before him. And before Toby Jones’s character, there was Richard Briers’s Martin, who was equally memorable.

Truly great comedies aren’t about clever delivery; they’re about memorable, engaging characters that audiences love and support, no matter what. It’s these well-developed characters, not just the jokes, that will continue to make us laugh for years to come.

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2025-10-21 03:11