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The Formula for a Successful Sitcom
indylaw writes "A team of scientists commissioned by British satellite channel UKTV Gold has developed a mathematical expression to predict the success of TV sitcoms. Using the formula [((R x D + V) x F) + S]/A, they determined that "Only Fools and Horses" and "The Office" are the best of British comedy, while "According to Bex" (which is being adapted for CBS in the fall and will star Jenna Elfman) scored in the bottom five."
They needed an equation to determine she'd flop? Man, that's a waste of time.
It's a joke.
And I usually like British humor. Strange, that.
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Need I say more
---- Go ahead, mod me down, I'll just post it again and you lose your mod points.
This is for marketing business lackeys, assume nothing
Just because your paranoid doesn't really mean they aren't out to get you
If the formula were applied to American sitcoms, what percentage of airing sitcoms would have been spared production and airing, tormenting viewers, only to be cancelled halfway through the first season?
It must be Windows. It needs half a gig of RAM and a hardware-accelerated graphics card just to run Solitaire.
Yeah, I don't think you meant to factor in Wit as an additive feature....
This is usually the problem with such a formula. It isn't the discovery of any kind of fundamental feature of the sitcom, it's just an attempt at an explanation of why the CURRENT set of sitcoms are good or bad.
My formula looks like this:The real problem is that humor is FAR harder to write than drama (ask anyone who has written both successfully), and so getting good writers is far more important for a sitcom than it is for a drama. Not that it's not hugely important for a drama, just moreso for a sitcom.
Don't forget the most formulaic of all sitcoms; The Dumb & shallow Dad/Husband & Smart and Witty Mom/Wife..
Eg.
1. Everybody Loves Raymond
2. According to Jim
3. Kig of Queens (Queen of Kings?)
4. My wife & Kids
5. that sitcom with Sienfeld's George Castanza.
I think the last best American TV sitcom was Seinfeld. Original writing & genuine comedy. Nothing comes close
Um, the "nothing" in your little pattern there /is/ the payoff. The boss says something that would get you fired in any office in the civilized world, and the guy/gal he says it to just stares at him. That's the joke. The lack of a laugh track may be making it hard for you to decide when to laugh.
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Seems like an interesting pile of horseshit, as it usual for these "mathematical formula for ..." stories.
... nope, I'm drawing a blank). The only things left are "Verbal wit in the script" and "Number of times someone falls over or is injured" ... is Only Fools and Horses really that much wittier than Blackadder? Does The Office really have that many more pratfalls and injuries than Fawlty Towers?
Can someone explain to me how exactly Blackadder and Fawlty Towers scored so relatively low compared to The Office and Only Fools and Horses? Are Edmund or Basil notably less "Recognisable" or "Deluded" about their grandeur than Del or David? Certainly there are about the same number of successful plans, and at least the same level of difference in social status (Edmund is to Baldrick as Del is to
I think it's nice that they've come up with a half assed justification to prefer their favourite comedies, but it really isn't significantly less subjective than asking a random person whether they like the show or not.
Jedidiah.
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No way it can touch Three's Company. That was crap TV at its finest.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
For an old sit-com, 'I Love Lucy' had an even less complicated formula and was still a major success:
1. Lucy get's an Idea
2. Lucy screws up whatever it is she was going to do
3. Lucy tries to hide the screw-up
4. Hilarity ensues when she gets found out
This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
My favorite was "V - verbal wit of the script".
You mean "Is it funny or not"?
Wow! There we have it! The secret of writing a good sitcom is writing a funny script. How insightful.
'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore
1. Notice that a certain British show is successful.
2. Make an American show with the same name and a desperate and flawed attempt to capture the feel of the original.
I guess the obligatory next step is
3. PROFIT!!!
but it doesn't seem to have worked that way.
By the way, is it just me, or is the text we're supposed to read getting much harder to read? (Maybe I'm a script after all.)
I don't care about success or quality, I'm asking what numbers they plugged into their formulas to get the very different results - I see no significant differences in the scores for the variables they used - but perhaps you can tell me which of R, D, V, S, F, and A where so startlingly different for Blackadder and The Office or Fawlty Towers and Only Fools and Horses.
For the record I am just as much a fan of The Office and Only Fools and Horses as Blackadder and Fawlty Towers - I just can't see why the scored so differently (beyond random "pull numbers out of your ass" subjectivity which, let's face it, is no diffferent than pulling a single "S = successfulness of sitcom" score out of your ass).
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Have you seen the original ( English ) version of The Office ?
Both Are You Being Served and Keeping Up Appearances are godawful excuses for comedy !
The whole amusement of The Office was the utter painfullness of David Brents behaviour rather than any regional jokes.