What's So Funny About That? Spring Semester 2017

This class seeks to answer the question posed by Dr. Jonathan Miller in a BBC video titled “What's So Funny About That?”

Televised comedy began in the United States in the late 1940's and featured mostly stars from the glory days of radio along with some vaudeville performers and a sprinkling of newcomers.

Initially variety shows featuring Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Red Skelton and Jimmy Durante were the top attractions. But viewing tastes quickly broadened to include situation comedies as diverse as I Remember Mama, The Goldbergs, Our Miss Brooks, Topper, My Little Margie and I Love Lucy.

We'll watch clips from some of the early days of television and complete episodes of some of the classic television comedies, shows that stand the test of time.

In the early days of television The Tonight Show introduced some of the great stand-up comedians along with introducing many radio performers to television audiences. We'll watch clips of Bob and Ray, Ernie Kovacs, Groucho Marx, Jonathan Winters, Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks and many others.

Among the great television shows we'll watch are:

Your Show of Shows  Video

Live, original comedy originally featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Carl Reiner and Howard Morris joined the show later. Two of the great skits on the show were "The Hickenloopers", a battling husband-and-wife team and the clock in the Bavarian town of Baverhoff which always broke when the hour was struck.

The Honeymooners  Video

328 Chauncey Street, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York is where the apartment residences of the Kramdens and the Nortons stand. These four people, fifteen years after the depression are still struggling to make ends meet. Ralph Kramden and Alice Gibson married following his acquiring employment as a bus driver with the Gotham Bus Company. Edward Lillywhite Norton, a sewer worker, and his wife, Thelma 'Trixie', live above the Kramdens. The stories depict the sincere attempts of two men attempting to better their lives, and the ensuing frustrations when their schemes to strike it rich inevitably backfire.

The Dick Van Dyke Show  Video

On this Series, Set in New Rochelle, NY at home. The Show focus on Robert "Rob" Petrie is the husband and Father of 1 Child and the Head Writer of the mythical "THE ALAN BRADY SHOW" where his co-writers Maurice "Buddy" Sorrell & Sally Rogers. Buddy Sorrell is a Married Man and he's unflappable and also he can insult Mel Cooley. Sally Rogers is a Single Woman as she's looking for a Husband. Melvin "Mel" Cooley is the Brother-In-Law of the Star of the Show and the unseen wife and The Star of the Show is Alan Brady is egomaniac, arrogant, selfish, obnoxious and stubborn Boss of Rob, Sally & Buddy in New York City. At Home, There's Laura Meeker Petrie is a Sensitive but Nervous and absolute Sexy Wife and Mother of 1 Child when she knows, sees and hears about goings-on of Rob's follies and non-sensible activities.

The Bob Newhart Show  Video

The show centers on Robert Hartley, Ph.D. (Newhart), a Chicago psychologist. It divides most of its action between the character's work and his home life, with Hartley's supportive, although occasionally sarcastic, wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), and their friendly but inept neighbor, airline navigator Howard Borden (Bill Daily). At the medical office where Hartley had his psychology practice are Jerry Robinson, D.D.S. (Peter Bonerz), an orthodontist who also has a practice on the floor, and their receptionist, Carol Kester (Marcia Wallace), as well as a number of other doctors who appear occasionally.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show  Video

Mary Richards, from small town Minnesota, has to navigate life - work and the pursuit of romance - as a young woman on her own as she moves to big city Minneapolis following the breakup with who was her fiancé. Planning on becoming a secretary, Mary ends up being hired at WJM-TV in the newsroom as the 6 o'clock news' associate producer, a role that starts off as a glorified secretary, under the direction of Lou Grant, the show's hard-nosed, career news man. Others in the newsroom include Murray Slaughter, the show's head writer who idolizes Mary despite being in a loving marriage already, and Ted Baxter, the show's self-absorbed anchor who is all beauty and no brains. As Mary progresses in her career, her newsroom associates become her friends. Other friends include those who she knows from her first living situation in Minneapolis: Phyllis Lindstrom, a friend from before her Minneapolis days who found the apartment for her; and Rhoda Morgenstern, a brash Jewish New Yorker with who an antagonistic first meeting blossomed into BFF status.

Taxi  Video

The show focuses on the employees of the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, and its principal setting is the company's fleet garage in Manhattan. Among the drivers, only Alex Reiger, who is disillusioned with life, considers cab driving his profession. The others view it as a temporary job. Elaine Nardo is a single mother working as a receptionist at an art gallery. Tony Banta is a boxer with a losing record. Bobby Wheeler is a struggling actor. John Burns (written out of the show after the first season) is working his way through college. All take pity on "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski, an aging hippie minister, who is burnt out from drugs, so they help him become a cabbie. The characters also included Latka Gravas, their innocent, wide-eyed mechanic from an unnamed foreign country, and Louie De Palma, the despotic dispatcher.

Barney Miller Video

Barney Miller takes place almost entirely within the confines of the detectives' squad room and Captain Barney Miller's adjoining office of New York City's fictional 12th Precinct, located in Greenwich Village.[1] A typical episode would feature the detectives of the 12th bringing in several complainants and/or suspects to the squad room. Usually, two or three separate subplots are in a given episode, with different officers dealing with different crimes. Once a year, an episode would feature one or more of the detectives outside of the walls of the precinct, either on a stakeout or at one of their homes.

Seinfeld  Video

Seinfeld is an American sitcom that originally ran for nine seasons on NBC, from 1989 to 1998. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself. Set predominantly in an apartment building in Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City (although taped entirely in Los Angeles), the show features a handful of Jerry's friends and acquaintances, particularly best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), former girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). It is often described as being "a show about nothing", as many of its episodes are about the minutiae of daily life.

All in the Family  Video

Produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin and starring Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, and Rob Reiner, All in the Family revolves around the life of a working-class bigot and his family. The show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, religion, miscarriage, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence. Through depicting these controversial issues, the series became arguably one of television's most influential comedic programs, as it injected the sitcom format with more dramatic moments and realistic, topical conflicts. The show is often regarded in the United States as one of the greatest television series of all time.

Fawlty Towers  Video

The show was created and written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, who both also starred in the show; they were married at the time of series 1 but divorced before recording series 2. One of the best loved shows in British popular culture, it was ranked number one in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000.

The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the "English Riviera". The plots centre on tense, rude and put-upon owner Basil Fawlty (Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), comparatively normal chambermaid Polly who is often the peacemaker and voice of reason (Booth), and hapless Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs), showing their attempts to run the hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests.

Waiting For God   Video

Waiting for God is a British sitcom that ran on BBC1 from 1990 to 1994 starring Graham Crowden as Tom and Stephanie Cole as Diana, two spirited residents of a retirement home who spend their time running rings around the home's oppressive management and their own families. It was written by Michael Aitkens. The show became very successful, running for five series.

Black Books  Video
Black Books is a British sitcom created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan that was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004. Starring Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig, the series is set in the eponymous London bookshop and follows the lives of its owner Bernard Black (Moran), his assistant Manny Bianco (Bailey) and their friend Fran Katzenjammer (Greig).  Black Books was a critical success, winning a number of awards, including two BAFTA awards for Best Situation Comedy in 2001 and 2005