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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of I

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Speaker 1: heart radio. Stuff you should know is recorded in front

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Speaker 1: of a live studio audience. Hey, and welcome to the PODCAST.

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Speaker 1: I'm Josh and there's chuck and this is stuff you

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Speaker 1: should know. The WHAMOBAMO double episode about Sitcoms, probably the

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Speaker 1: most important thing in any of our lives. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is sort of our homage to the, more specifically

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Speaker 1: the American Multi Camera Studio Audience Sitcom, even though we're

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Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit about other forms of the genre. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the Brits come up here, there maybe a Keywi appearance

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Speaker 1: and uh, and what we're gonna try to do, everybody,

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Speaker 1: is do this Sitcom Style and record to thirty minute episodes.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if they're gonna be twenty two minutes

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Speaker 1: including the ads, but that would be that would be

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Speaker 1: a stroke of genius. But we're gonna do our best,

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Speaker 1: which means we're probably not gonna do a listener mail.

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Speaker 1: Then let's get right to it, right. Yeah, let's we're

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Speaker 1: talking sitcoms and just right out of the gate we

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Speaker 1: should explain what a Sitcom is. Everybody knows what a

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Speaker 1: Sitcom is, but if you stop and think about the word.

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Speaker 1: It's actually a Portmanteau of situation and comedy. A Sitcom,

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Speaker 1: that's right, uh, and it's a very you know ed

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Speaker 1: helped us put this together. It. It is definitely Portmanteau

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Speaker 1: that some studio executive no doubt came up with, because

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Speaker 1: it's kind of dumb, sounding like it's a comedy about

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Speaker 1: a situation. You know what I'm saying? I do know

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Speaker 1: what you're saying, but at the same time I think

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Speaker 1: it actually does aptly described sitcoms, because every Sitcom, the

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Speaker 1: basis of it is you have your main characters in

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Speaker 1: some sort of dilemma situation and then by the end

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Speaker 1: of the episode that dilemma situation is resolved. The situation

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Speaker 1: is resolved. A Sitcom generally yeah, uh, and it looks

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Speaker 1: like that people in the industry. We're using this term,

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Speaker 1: maybe even back in the radio days of the nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: because it comes up in print kind of for the

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Speaker 1: public's eyeballs in early nineteen sixty four. Uh, for the

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Speaker 1: best we can tell, in life magazine and the Chicago Tribune,

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Speaker 1: where they talk about what a Sitcom is and kind

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Speaker 1: of have to explain it to the two people, but

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Speaker 1: they do indicate that it's it's sort of been used

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Speaker 1: as industry uh slang for a little while. Right, exactly. So, Um,

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Speaker 1: there are certain things that do like make a Sitcom

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Speaker 1: a Sitcom, and you know, they started out as very

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Speaker 1: basic and then kind of built along the way and then,

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Speaker 1: as you know, writers UH started to come of age

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Speaker 1: having grown up on Sitcoms, they learned to kind of

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Speaker 1: play with the format more and more and create all

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Speaker 1: sorts of different takes on sitcoms. But there are some

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Speaker 1: basic structures to basically every sitcom that's ever existed. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and this is kind of fun because, like Ed nailed

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Speaker 1: a lot of this and some stuff. As a Sitcom Guy,

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Speaker 1: I was like, not quite right, I'm so nervous. Now

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Speaker 1: I know he did a great job, though. Well, first

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Speaker 1: of all, he points out that it's a comedy. Of

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Speaker 1: course it's Um sort of the obvious one. They are

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Speaker 1: a half hour long, which is why these episodes will

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Speaker 1: be a half hour long. Yeah, I chuck. I looked

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Speaker 1: for one hour Sitcom and it just does not exist.

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Speaker 1: The closest I saw was love boat, and I don't

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Speaker 1: know if you could really call love boat to Sitcom.

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Speaker 1: I think love boat defied genre. It's something it definitely did.

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Speaker 1: For sure, from what I saw, was the only one

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Speaker 1: hour show that had a laugh track. Okay, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the laugh track. I think you can look forward to

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Speaker 1: the shorty on Wednesday, right. Yeah, definitely all about the

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Speaker 1: laugh track. Uh. So, the situation, and again these are generalizations.

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Speaker 1: The form has been tweaked and subverted over the years,

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Speaker 1: but it is almost always about a smallish group of people. Um,

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Speaker 1: not always a family, but many, many times it's a family.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a group of friends. Obviously that the UH

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Speaker 1: workplace comedy is going to be colleagues, but many, many sitcoms,

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Speaker 1: especially in the Hadaia Sitcoms, were about families. Yeah, and Um,

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Speaker 1: the basic structure, from what I saw, the minimum essentially

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Speaker 1: is four you you want to have four characters and

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Speaker 1: there's actually a set of types for those four characters.

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Speaker 1: There's the hero, the Anti Hero, the love interest in

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Speaker 1: the buddy, and this pops up everywhere, from married with

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Speaker 1: children to Seinfeld. But then obviously, of course people have

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Speaker 1: toyed with that because there were six friends. I think

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Speaker 1: there were six characters. On how I met your mother.

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Speaker 1: There's a bunch of them on Big Bang theory. The

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Speaker 1: Simpsons are far and away one of the best sitcoms

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Speaker 1: ever and they have myriad characters who can have their

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Speaker 1: own episodes based on them. So, for in the family, though,

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Speaker 1: that's true. So so that seems to be kind of

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Speaker 1: the nucleus that everything else grows from. As far as

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Speaker 1: the number of CA yeah, I was looking back at

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Speaker 1: the fourth thing and it is interesting because you look

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Speaker 1: at Seinfeld and all in the family. I Love Lucy

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Speaker 1: had the two couples. The honeymooners had the two couples.

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Speaker 1: I think Dick Van Dyke had two couples as well. Well,

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Speaker 1: he had himself and Laura Petrie's wife, Mary Tyler Moore,

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Speaker 1: and then he had Rosemarie, I can't remember what her

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Speaker 1: character's name was, and then I can't remember what. So

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Speaker 1: he worked with a woman and a man and they

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Speaker 1: formed the other two characters. Right, right, right. They weren't

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Speaker 1: a couple, though, right, no, they weren't. They were just buddies.

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Speaker 1: All right, it's been a while since I've seen that,

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Speaker 1: but they all had sex with each other. Right. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: in every episode they would end. It got really graphic,

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Speaker 1: especially for the fifth you think got very weird. Uh.

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Speaker 1: As far as the format goes, there is UH, like

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Speaker 1: if you're a screenwriter or you're reading a script of

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Speaker 1: a of a Sitcom. I mean scripts are formulaic no

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Speaker 1: matter what, but Sitcom scripts are really, really formulaic, uh,

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Speaker 1: in that they are twenty two minutes long. The there's

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Speaker 1: an a storyline, which is, you know, sort of the

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Speaker 1: main plot of that episode. Uh, and then you have

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Speaker 1: at least a B storyline, Um, and sometimes that's it,

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Speaker 1: but sometimes you'll have c storylines, maybe even a D storyline.

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Speaker 1: But kind of traditionally you've got an a and a

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Speaker 1: B and Ed points out that, and he's kind of

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Speaker 1: right in some ways, that generally the storylines are resolved

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Speaker 1: in each episode. But over the years that really sort

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Speaker 1: of fluctuated as far as you had running plot lines

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Speaker 1: that would last kind of a season, whether it's are

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Speaker 1: this character and that character going to get together or

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Speaker 1: one might get pregnant and so that season sort of

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Speaker 1: has a recurring storyline about them having a baby. But

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Speaker 1: generally what you wanted in a Sitcom was to be

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Speaker 1: able to watch them in any order and still enjoy

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Speaker 1: the show. Yeah, like if you if you watch any

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Speaker 1: episode of Gilligan's island or Mr ed or even the

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Speaker 1: Adams family. Like there's you can watch them in any

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Speaker 1: order and there every episode is going to make sense

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Speaker 1: because they were generally designed to stand alone, featuring the

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Speaker 1: same characters and the way that they do that. I

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Speaker 1: saw there's two TV tropes associated with this chuck. One

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Speaker 1: is the reset button, which is where that dilemma or

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Speaker 1: situation that characters are put in becomes fully resolved by

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Speaker 1: the end of the episode and things go back to normal.

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Speaker 1: That's the reset button. Then there's a snap back where

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Speaker 1: things aren't necessarily resolved, but in the next, next episode

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Speaker 1: everything's back to normal regardless, as if nothing happened previously. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean occasionally he might hear a reference, but sitcoms

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Speaker 1: are famous, like you never heard Arnold and Willis in

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Speaker 1: subsequent seasons saying Hey, remember that time we were almost molested?

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Speaker 1: That was crazy. Yeah, they don't reference that stuff. No,

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Speaker 1: and then we'll get a little more into like those

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Speaker 1: kind of serious episodes of Sitcoms, because those were landmark

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Speaker 1: episodes for a reason. But the reset is is a

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Speaker 1: pretty funny trope, I think, totally Um and then there's

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Speaker 1: really a big distinction in how they're shot. There's really

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Speaker 1: two ways that they're shot and they're they're kind of

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Speaker 1: wrapped up, or there named, I should say, by the

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Speaker 1: original ways that these sitcoms were shot, and they're called, Um,

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Speaker 1: one camera or three camera, and you would think that

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Speaker 1: three camera would seem like the more innovative, expansive kind

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Speaker 1: of sitcomment. Is Actually the opposite. The three camera one

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Speaker 1: is what the traditional Sitcom is, is filmed, is right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and they kind of say multi camera these days. But

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Speaker 1: if you're talking about the old school live in front

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Speaker 1: of a studio audience, uh, what you have is this,

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Speaker 1: and I have to bring up the fact that I

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Speaker 1: was on one. I was on dear John, I was

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Speaker 1: on one too. Were you really well? So if you

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Speaker 1: should know, yeah, alr, I guess I was on two then. UH, yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: ours was. We'll talk about ours in a minute. But Um,

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Speaker 1: if you're talking the live in front of a studio

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Speaker 1: audience thing, what you have is very long, wide stage

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Speaker 1: with bleachers where people sit, and then in front of

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Speaker 1: that you have usually two or three permanent sets, uh,

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Speaker 1: and what's called a swing set, which they would bring

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Speaker 1: in each week. So what's the swing set. Well, on

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Speaker 1: like let's say cheers, would have always, of course, the

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Speaker 1: bar and then like Sam's office, were probably permanent sets

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Speaker 1: and a swing set might be like if that episode

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Speaker 1: they dined out at a restaurant or something like that.

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Speaker 1: So it's something that you could like. It's kind of generic.

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Speaker 1: You could strip down and repurpose it in many different ways. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and they bring in these set walls and redress them,

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Speaker 1: but like let's say Seinfeld, obviously would be Jerry's apartment

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Speaker 1: and the diner would be the permanent sets and if,

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Speaker 1: like the season where George worked for the Yankees, his

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Speaker 1: his office set would be a swing set. That would

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Speaker 1: be just sort of stored and wheeled off and preserved,

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Speaker 1: because you want to you don't want to have to

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Speaker 1: Redo all that stuff every time. But sometimes it was

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Speaker 1: just like one week only it would be like an

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Speaker 1: antique shop or something. Or in my case on dear John,

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Speaker 1: it was a restaurant, uh that I played a bus

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Speaker 1: boy in, and I was texting with my brother, actually,

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Speaker 1: Scott has a you know, he worked on dear John

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Speaker 1: and had a lot of experience on some of these shows,

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Speaker 1: and he said there were always at least two permanent sets.

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Speaker 1: He said some shows had as many as four. I

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Speaker 1: think he thought UH was one with Charlie Sheen that

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Speaker 1: I never watched. UH, two and a half men? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think he said two and a half men had

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Speaker 1: what he thought was four permanent sets, and it all

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Speaker 1: kind of depended on how big these the stages were,

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Speaker 1: where they shot it, Um, and also how how well

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Speaker 1: funded the the show was too. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then like something like Seinfeld, they all the street

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Speaker 1: scenes and stuff like that. They shot those on the

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Speaker 1: adjacent backlots and in when they shot the real shows, uh,

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Speaker 1: in front of an audience, they would they would show

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Speaker 1: those bits on the TV screen while they're like changing over,

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Speaker 1: just so the audience would sort of be able to

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Speaker 1: all along. Oh, Gotcha. Okay, so we'll talk a little

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Speaker 1: more about the different camera setups. Right. That just that

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Speaker 1: distinguished the two basically the two types of sitcoms. A

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Speaker 1: little more in a minute. But do you want to

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Speaker 1: talk about the origins of Sitcoms? Yeah, should we take

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Speaker 1: a break, like Sitcom style? Okay, let's do it. We'll

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Speaker 1: be right back after this word from Ben Gay. I

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Speaker 1: want to learn about a terrestortic college for it Actyl,

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Speaker 1: how to take the perfect but with all about fractals,

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Speaker 1: think it's gone. That's a hun the Lizzie border murders,

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Speaker 1: and again I've all runs on the plane. Everything we

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Speaker 1: should know. Word up, Jerry George. Okay, we're back and

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Speaker 1: we're talking sitcoms and everybody thinks TV when you think

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Speaker 1: of Sitcoms, but it turns out that sitcoms have their

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Speaker 1: origin further back in that uh on, in radio, and

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Speaker 1: actually it goes even further back than that to Vaudeville.

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Speaker 1: But the first even contours of a Sitcom is found

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Speaker 1: in a radio show called Sam and Henry, which became

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Speaker 1: much more famous after it changed its name to Amos

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Speaker 1: and Andy, and a lot of people say that was

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Speaker 1: probably the first Sitcom because it had recurring characters. There

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Speaker 1: were situations that the characters were put in catch phrases.

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Speaker 1: That's another big, you know, kind of trademark of of sitcoms.

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Speaker 1: If you can get America saying like one of your

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Speaker 1: characters saying to one another like you've got a hit

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Speaker 1: show on your hands. You know, get a load of him.

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Speaker 1: It was always something dumb like that, I guess. Oh Yeah, definitely,

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Speaker 1: uh like Sanford and son had to be Elizabeth. I'm

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Speaker 1: coming to join you, are you big dummy, you big dummy.

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Speaker 1: Oh Man, I love that Joe so much. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: a good show, I believe some I mean there's you

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Speaker 1: talked to different people about sort of what the first

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Speaker 1: sitcoms were and you're gonna get some different answers. Uh.

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Speaker 1: One is certainly going to be one called fiber, McGee

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Speaker 1: and molly, and it had again, all the ingredients that

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Speaker 1: you might think of as like typically Sitcom, although that

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Speaker 1: was a radio show that only had a brief appearance

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Speaker 1: on television. Uh, and he had shows like the honeymooners,

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Speaker 1: of course, one called Mary Kay and Johnny H that

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Speaker 1: a lot of people say was the first Sitcom. That's

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Speaker 1: where I put my money. Yeah, but when you ask

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Speaker 1: a lot of people what really broke it open as

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Speaker 1: far as the genre goes, I think most people will

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Speaker 1: say I love Lucy for sure, which I think debutede

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Speaker 1: and it changed everything. Is We'll talk about in a second.

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Speaker 1: But we have to shout out pin rights progress, which

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Speaker 1: was a BBC Sitcom that air did nineteen six so

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Speaker 1: it beat Mary Kay and Johnny by a year. But

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Speaker 1: no one knows what it's about because no one, no

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Speaker 1: one preserved any of the episodes. Yeah, it's funny. It

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Speaker 1: seems like the UK and the United States are far

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Speaker 1: and away the leaders in the genre, because I did

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Speaker 1: look at other countries. It's never been that big in Australia.

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Speaker 1: I mean there are examples, of course, but the UK

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Speaker 1: and the US just ate it up for some reason. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's like dueling banjos. Yeah, who's the guitar player and

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Speaker 1: WHO's the Banjo player? I think it changes from time

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Speaker 1: to time depending on the quality of the shows put out.

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Speaker 1: But I said something check that I think is really

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Speaker 1: important pin rights progress. I it's probably a falsity to

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Speaker 1: say that no one knows what it is about, but

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Speaker 1: I don't believe there's anyone alive, probably never heard of it,

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Speaker 1: who's seen it. I hadn't heard of it either. The

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Speaker 1: reason why no one's seen it is because in the

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Speaker 1: early days of television, we're talking like the late forties,

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Speaker 1: um even mid forties, they would just broadcast the thing

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Speaker 1: live and you sat down in front of your TV

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Speaker 1: and you watched that thing and it never existed again.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of thing that. Yeah, our friend Alex from

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Speaker 1: ephemeral has probably done an episode on this kind the thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: great show, by the way. Everyone should check that out.

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Speaker 1: But that's how they that's how they made shows originally right.

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Speaker 1: And then finally they're like, okay, we've got two coasts here.

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Speaker 1: Most TV shows were broadcast in New York, filmed in

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Speaker 1: New York live, but you know, they were at like

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Speaker 1: say eight pm on a Friday, and most Angelino's in

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Speaker 1: San Franciscan's didn't want to rush home from work to catch,

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Speaker 1: you know, the latest Um Mary Kay and Johnny. So

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Speaker 1: they figured out that they needed to somehow preserve that

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Speaker 1: show so that they could send it off to the

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Speaker 1: West Coast and they came up with something called kinescope,

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Speaker 1: the lowest hanging fruit they could have reached. Some some

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Speaker 1: executive said, why don't we just show it on a

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Speaker 1: TV and then film that television screen with a camera,

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Speaker 1: with a thirty five millimeter film camera, and the frame

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Speaker 1: rates are gonna be weird and it's gonna look terrible,

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Speaker 1: but at least we can broadcast it on the west coast.

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Speaker 1: And they did that for a while and that was

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Speaker 1: sort of the first Um, the first time that the

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Speaker 1: that they were both coasts were able to watch the

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Speaker 1: same show. Yeah, and Chuck, it sounds clugy. It gets

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Speaker 1: even clugier at like at first there was no way

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Speaker 1: to actually broadcast from the east coast of the West

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Speaker 1: Coast vice versa, for the first few years of television.

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Speaker 1: So they would film that, that show off of TV

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Speaker 1: onto film and then they would take that real and

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Speaker 1: mail it out west for them to show. And then

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Speaker 1: finally in n a t and t came up with

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Speaker 1: a coaxial cable that allowed for the first transcontinental broadcast.

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Speaker 1: But even still they were using kinescope and they used

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Speaker 1: sometimes what was called hot kinescope because the film had

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Speaker 1: just been developed within the three hours before they needed

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Speaker 1: to broadcast it to the West Coast. That's how fast

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Speaker 1: they were turning it around. Man, I bet there was

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Speaker 1: a lot of tension, yes, to turn that stuff around,

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Speaker 1: you know, and they didn't even have cocaine in the

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Speaker 1: industry yet. They were just taking it as a medicine

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Speaker 1: at the time. That's true. Yeah, uh. So when what

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Speaker 1: really broke things open and what, as a landmark show, both,

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Speaker 1: you know, as a comedy and technically, was I love

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Speaker 1: Lucy and I looked a little bit more into this. Uh,

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Speaker 1: while they developed this three camera set up. Um, it

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Speaker 1: was because of Philip Morris. They were the sponsor of

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Speaker 1: the show and they didn't want Um. They thought that

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Speaker 1: there were more smokers. Well, I think they had dated

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Speaker 1: that said that more people smoked east of Chicago. Apparently

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Speaker 1: out West it. I mean, obviously people smoked back then,

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Speaker 1: but not like they did in the northeast and on

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Speaker 1: the East Coast. So they didn't want the show to

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Speaker 1: be shot and produced live in Hollywood. That's why they

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Speaker 1: really wanted it in New York City. Um, at the

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Speaker 1: same time, Desi Arnez and Lucy, I think lucy was pregnant.

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Speaker 1: They also wanted uh to stay in L A. So

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Speaker 1: there was a bit of a budding head situation of

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Speaker 1: sponsor versus is like a TV star, and they worked

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Speaker 1: it out with this three camera format. Yeah, so essentially

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Speaker 1: what they did. So movies were already around at the

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Speaker 1: time and there was a process for making a movie

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Speaker 1: where you would shoot a scene, taking a few takes

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Speaker 1: of it, then you would move your camera, relight the scene,

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Speaker 1: Um and then do the same scene from a different

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Speaker 1: angle and so on. And so forth, until you had

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Speaker 1: the scene and all those things could be edited together.

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Speaker 1: But Lucy and Dezi really wanted to have a live audience,

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Speaker 1: to have that energy and that kind of feedback, in

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Speaker 1: that laughter that you can only get from a live audience.

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Speaker 1: So they combined that movie making, Um kind of format

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Speaker 1: with a live performance, and they did it by making

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Speaker 1: three static cameras, one wide, one medium and one for

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Speaker 1: close ups, that they had pointed at the set that

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Speaker 1: they would perform this episode on as if it were

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Speaker 1: like a live stage play. Yeah, and they got in

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Speaker 1: touch with a guy, an Oscar winning cinematographer and kind

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Speaker 1: of a genius, named Carl Freud, and he at first

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Speaker 1: was like this isn't possible, because he was an artist,

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Speaker 1: and he was like you, it's gonna look at least

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Speaker 1: one of the cameras is gonna look bad at all

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Speaker 1: times because you're not lighting for that camera. And they said,

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Speaker 1: you gotta work with this buddy, like you can't be

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Speaker 1: so precious, like it's a movie. UH, we're not shooting

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Speaker 1: the Maltese Falcon here. Um, we need to figure out

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Speaker 1: a way to do this. So they came up with

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Speaker 1: this grid lighting system when you're shooting a movie or

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Speaker 1: when you're shooting single camera TV shows, even though these

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Speaker 1: days these multi cameras on basically everything, ever since digital

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Speaker 1: came out, but they still call it single camera. You would,

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Speaker 1: and we've been on these shows where you have lights

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Speaker 1: on stands kind of right around what you're shooting. They

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Speaker 1: came up with this grid style system where everything was

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Speaker 1: lit from this lighting grid above the stage and it

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Speaker 1: didn't look as good. It was sort of flat, but

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Speaker 1: it it was all lit well enough to where it

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Speaker 1: looked okay, and Carl Freud kind of gave in and said,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is what we're gonna do with TV.

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Speaker 1: Then it makes sense. We can cover everything all at once,

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Speaker 1: and basically the sort of basis of the genre was born. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so like everything from Seinfeld to friends to frazier to cheers,

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Speaker 1: they were all filmed as three camera and now, like

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Speaker 1: you said, they call it multi camera sitcoms Um. That

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Speaker 1: is like the traditional Sitcom, and you can ultimately thank

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Speaker 1: Lucy and desi for that, whereas the one cameras Sitcom

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Speaker 1: is the one that you think of as more it's

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Speaker 1: made more like a film. There's more real world, there's

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Speaker 1: more Um you know, uh, like on location shooting, it

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Speaker 1: just seems a little more movie like, like arrested development

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Speaker 1: is a good example of a single camera Sitcom. But, Chuck,

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Speaker 1: I want to give a little shout out here because

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Speaker 1: everybody thanks Lucy and Desi for everything, for basically creating

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Speaker 1: the format. But, Mary Kay and Johnny, we're doing this

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Speaker 1: before Lucy and desire camera. They had two cameras. They

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Speaker 1: were doing it live and they had some poor Schmo

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Speaker 1: who was switching between cameras depending on what was happening

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Speaker 1: in the scene live. Can you imagine the stress? That's

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Speaker 1: pretty cool that the you know, just having been on

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Speaker 1: dear John, that they have it down so well in Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: even though that kind of show is sort of out

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Speaker 1: of fashion now. During the heyday, you know, they those

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Speaker 1: cameras were on these huge circular dollies and the cameras

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Speaker 1: were very big and they would just so fluidly sort

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Speaker 1: of move around to where they you know, they block

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Speaker 1: it all lot ahead of time so they knew exactly

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Speaker 1: where each camera was supposed to be, and the result

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Speaker 1: is you shoot a twenty two minute episode in about

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Speaker 1: an hour. Or less. Uh, you shoot it in order

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Speaker 1: so the audience can follow along like a play. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: just like a play. Yeah, and you would, Um, you

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Speaker 1: would go back generally at the end of each scene.

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Speaker 1: They would do like all right, uh, they would. There

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Speaker 1: would be a few minutes of conferring, like and then

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Speaker 1: they come out and say, all right, we're gonna do

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Speaker 1: a retake of the second part of that scene because

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Speaker 1: we didn't like the way Jennifer Aniston said this one line,

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Speaker 1: and they would all laugh and she would say sorry, everybody,

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Speaker 1: and it's a very personal, like engaging thing. Like if

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Speaker 1: you never, if you've never been to a live taping

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Speaker 1: of a TV show like that, even though they're more

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Speaker 1: few and far between, it's a lot of fun to

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Speaker 1: go to because they're right there, they're interacting with you.

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Speaker 1: If they goof up, they'll like say something to the

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Speaker 1: audience and it's just it's a really cool experience. But

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Speaker 1: the long and short is they'll they'll be done pretty quickly,

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Speaker 1: even with the retakes right. So the more the multi camera,

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Speaker 1: three camera setup is like a stage play. There's a

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Speaker 1: fixed set or a couple of fixed sets, there's a

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Speaker 1: live studio audience and they present it basically as if

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Speaker 1: they were putting on a play. There's just a bunch

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Speaker 1: of cameras filming them while they do that's right. Uh,

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Speaker 1: the clock tells me we need to take our second break. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's do it quick, quick, quick. The good folks have

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Speaker 1: been gay. Aren't gonna wait. I want to learn about al.

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Speaker 1: Had to take a perfect but with all about fractal

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Speaker 1: Kiscon that the hunt the lizzie border murders and they

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Speaker 1: kind of all run on the plane everything. This time

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Speaker 1: we should know. Word up, Jerry stry George. All right,

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00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:27,639
Speaker 1: I guess we should wrap up this episode with a

425
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:33,119
Speaker 1: little bit about what is the gold standard for actors

426
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:37,800
Speaker 1: and crew members in the film business and always has been.

427
00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 1: I know they love to work on their super cool

428
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:44,639
Speaker 1: streaming shows that are like movies. Prestige TV is great,

429
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 1: but you ask any actor what they would rather be

430
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,080
Speaker 1: doing and they would say, I want to be on

431
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,400
Speaker 1: a multi camera live studio audience show. Because I work

432
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:55,800
Speaker 1: about forty hours a week. I show up to work

433
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,200
Speaker 1: at about eight o'clock every morning, I leave at five

434
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: o'clock every day and we work Monday through Friday, and

435
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,840
Speaker 1: it's uh, we shoot twenty two, at least twenty two

436
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 1: episodes and if we get to a hundred it has

437
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:09,720
Speaker 1: a good chance of going in syndication and then I'm

438
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,919
Speaker 1: set for life. Yeah, that seems to be like the

439
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,440
Speaker 1: sweet spot for syndication. Eighty five to a hundred previous

440
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 1: episodes produced and aired, and I guess, my guess is

441
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: that that that means that the syndicating buyer feels like

442
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,160
Speaker 1: they have enough reruns to really make some hay out

443
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 1: of or make their money back from. Is that what

444
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 1: this why is the sweet spot? I think so. It's

445
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: like four to five seasons. Dear John Scott said that

446
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,760
Speaker 1: that hit eighty episodes and did have a brief syndication run.

447
00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 1: That he said at the time one hundred was really

448
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 1: what they kind of shot for. It's still in syndication.

449
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,920
Speaker 1: I don't remember what channel happened, but I watched an

450
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 1: episode or two of it not too long ago. was

451
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 1: looking for you but didn't see you. You didn't see

452
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,679
Speaker 1: a handsome young buss boy. But no, not yet. But

453
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: it it is like a surprisingly good unsung show. Like

454
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:01,200
Speaker 1: it was. It had really good writing, the characters were

455
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: really tight. It was a good, good show, for sure. Agreed. Uh.

456
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,920
Speaker 1: So should we go over kind of the weekly schedule. Absolutely.

457
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,800
Speaker 1: So Ed uh ignores Monday and Tuesday for some reason.

458
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:15,440
Speaker 1: But uh, as someone who who worked on a show

459
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 1: and I had talked to Scott about it too. Um,

460
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,439
Speaker 1: Monday's is generally when you get a table read Um,

461
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 1: and you know what that is, because we were luckily

462
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 1: enough to go to a Simpson's table read man. Thank

463
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 1: you again to our friend Jesse, who got us in there.

464
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: One of the nicest things anyone's ever done and and

465
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:34,960
Speaker 1: coolest experiences in my life. Like easily. Uh. So this

466
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,440
Speaker 1: is when the actors and the director and the writers

467
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 1: all sit down at a big long table and they

468
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,399
Speaker 1: just read through the script. They make little notes and

469
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: make little changes and that's just sort of the first

470
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: read through of the week. Um, while this is going

471
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 1: on on Monday and Tuesday, they're doing, uh, costume fittings

472
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,879
Speaker 1: and stuff during the day. UH, they're off to the

473
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:58,720
Speaker 1: side the art department in the props, building the swing

474
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,080
Speaker 1: sets and sort of get all that ready and then

475
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:04,200
Speaker 1: we hit Wednesday. So, yeah, Wednesday is where everything kind

476
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: of picks up as far as ED is concerned. Um,

477
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 1: and that's when they really start, Um, you know, trying

478
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,920
Speaker 1: out the script. There's no lighting, there's no cameras, but

479
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: the directors taking mad notes all over it, Um, and

480
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:22,479
Speaker 1: just basically putting this initial lump of script into, you know,

481
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,159
Speaker 1: actual order and then getting ready for Thursday when they

482
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 1: do bring in like the lights and the cameras and

483
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: start setting up and trying technical rehearsals. Yeah, and just

484
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 1: to be clear, on Wednesday they're not at the table,

485
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: they're they're moving through the sets at this point, which

486
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: is the real differentiator. That is a big differentiator. And

487
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:41,880
Speaker 1: then one other thing I want to point out. When

488
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,120
Speaker 1: they bring in the cameras and the lighting and all that,

489
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 1: if you think back to I love Lucy um or

490
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:50,359
Speaker 1: Mary Kay and Johnny, if you want to go even

491
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 1: further back, for my money, Um, you're talking about static

492
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: cameras that are in one place, and so it's the

493
00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 1: actors that have to move into exactly the right positions

494
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: exactly the right time and look in exactly the right

495
00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:04,920
Speaker 1: direction to get that close up or that medium shot

496
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: or the wide shot exactly how it's supposed to be.

497
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: That is mind bogglingly difficult. And they did this every week. Yeah,

498
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: I mean we had to do that. It's called blocking. Uh,

499
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,280
Speaker 1: and you can't stand six inches away from where you're

500
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 1: supposed to stand or it'll look goofy. So they have

501
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: the camera department. UH, they put tape on the floor

502
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: and every actor generally has their own color tape so

503
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:28,719
Speaker 1: you know where to go. And the trick as an

504
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 1: actor is to be able to go and hit your

505
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:32,920
Speaker 1: mark without looking like you're trying to hit your mark.

506
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:35,880
Speaker 1: And some people are great at it. George Clooney has

507
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 1: this great story about I think it was Spencer Tracy

508
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:42,919
Speaker 1: who would be obvious about it, and he said if

509
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: you go back and look at Spencer Tracy movies, he

510
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 1: would walk in and right before he got to his mark,

511
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: he would just look straight down at the floor and

512
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,199
Speaker 1: kind of go huh and take a deep breath and

513
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: look up where he's supposed to but he played it

514
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: off like that was just a something the character would do. Well,

515
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: plus he's just that likable too. I think, Oh yeah,

516
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: but it's pretty fun. Hitting your marks is not easy and, uh,

517
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 1: we screwed it up all the time because we didn't

518
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 1: know what we were doing. Oh yeah, I considered it

519
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: a form of ad living until you finally were like, Dude,

520
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 1: you have to be. It's really important that you be

521
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: in the spot they tell you to be. Yeah, it's

522
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: pretty funny. Um. So are we at Friday yet? Um,

523
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: I think Thursday. Did you mention Thursdays when they actually

524
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 1: light it and they're blocking with the camera and everything. Yeah,

525
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 1: and then I think that night there was a dress rehearsal. Yeah,

526
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 1: they would do a full dress without the cameras. And

527
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: then Friday is basically like game time because you're gonna

528
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: shoot it that night. UH, they shoot it in prime

529
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:40,479
Speaker 1: time in the evening, but they go through like the

530
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 1: full dress, full lighting, full camera and all that stuff

531
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: during the day. Right, okay. So then, Um, Friday afternoon

532
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: there's tons of rehearsals. Um, and then Friday night, apparently

533
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: at eight PM. And Chuck, was this just I love Lucy,

534
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 1: or is this a standard for the industry? I seem

535
00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 1: to remember it being more like seven ish, but Um,

536
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 1: it may have differed for each show because, you know,

537
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 1: you got to fill up the audience. There's a warm

538
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: up comedian that comes out and gets everyone in the

539
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 1: laughing mood. So it may have been eight. And then also,

540
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,280
Speaker 1: don't some sitcoms now film multiple episodes in a single

541
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,719
Speaker 1: day if they can. Well not. Not shows like this,

542
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,760
Speaker 1: not live in front of studio audience. Just want it done.

543
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: So Friday night at seven or eight they would actually

544
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 1: film the episode and then they would take the film

545
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 1: from the three different cameras, I love Lucy Wood, and

546
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: they'd edit it together and there you go. You'd have

547
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: an episode that was filmed live in front of a

548
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: studio audience, but was filmed to tape so that it

549
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: could be rerun in perpetuity forever and ever. That's right,

550
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 1: and the cast comes out at the end and takes

551
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: a big bow and it really is like seeing a play.

552
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun. Highly encourage anyone. You know

553
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:51,160
Speaker 1: it's a, I guess, sort of a touristy thing to do,

554
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 1: but if you ever go to l a UH, see

555
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 1: if you can get in and see a Sitcom being shot.

556
00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 1: It's really, really fun, very nice. So I guess here

557
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: in episode one of our very special two part episode

558
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 1: on Sitcom. So don't you think? I think so. Okay, well, everybody,

559
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: we'll see you on Thursday and in the meantime, don't

560
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: forget to listen out for the short stuff on laugh

561
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: tracks coming out tomorrow. Alright, intrusive comform. We're not too

562
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: happy with the beginning of that last section. Uh, everyone

563
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 1: in the audience, so I think we should just go

564
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 1: ahead and retake that. Yeah, sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, was

565
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: my fault. So Ed helped us put this together again

566
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: and of course he goes through the weekly schedule of

567
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 1: how to do a Sitcom, but for some reason he

568
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,240
Speaker 1: kind of left out Monday and Tuesday. Ed Don't like

569
00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 1: Mondays or Tuesday's. Thanks everyone, on behalf of Chuck, Jerry

570
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 1: and I. You've been a wonderful studio audience. We'll see

571
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: you next week. Stuff you should know is a production

572
00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: of I heart radio. For more podcasts my heart radio,

573
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: visit the I heart radio APP, apple podcasts or wherever

574
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. M HM