Sitcom: A History in 24 Episodes from “I Love Lucy” to “Community” by Saul Austerlitz (review)

To paraphrase Robert Benchley, the study of humor is humorless. Yet it needn’t be devoid of entertainment value, as evidenced by Saul Austerlitz’s Sitcom: A History in 24 Episodes from “I Love Lucy” to “Community,” a lively and perceptive exploration of an overlooked history brimming with entertaining trivia and evocative cultural commentary. His explication of the evolution of the televised situation comedy—from inception as a domestic distraction, into coming of age as a vehicle for more complex modernist social commentary, through metamorphosing, postmodern incarnations—offers insight of academic as well as general interest in a format accessible to both. In what the author describes as “a carefully curated guided tour” (4), his primary focus on twenty-four representative episodes serves as a touchstone for illumination and illustration in the story of the sitcom’s unfolding development. His twofold mission to defend the sitcom as an art form while exploring its evolution is occasionally at cross-purposes, but provides a logical framework for analysis as he capably answers the call to deconstruct a cultural phenomenon “obsessively watched and critically ignored all at once” (1).

If, according to the oft-quoted aphorism, “television is chewing gum for the mind,” the question arises: is the sitcom merely a mindless confection or an authentic art form? Austerlitz’s observation that “television was ultimately in the business of providing eyeballs for commercials” (11) seems to support the chewing gum theory at first, but his evolutionary schema uncovers a far-reaching and overriding cultural contribution regarding “television’s newfound centrality in American life” (31). Austerlitz examines the rise of this newfound centrality, noting its power to displace the piano and fireplace as focal points of American home life, exemplified in early, yet prescient sitcoms like The Honeymooners (CBS, 1951–1955) with its comically self-aware vision of television’s impact crystallized in two episodes, “TV or Not TV” and “Better Living Through TV.” As he notes, the show is both “meta-textual and self-referential television four decades before The Larry Sanders Show” (36).

Anticipating his critics, Austerlitz predicts, “there will be grounds for complaint over what is left off as much as what is included” (5), and indeed, the omissions are more assailable than the inclusions, as the 24 featured episodes are iconic and illustrative choices. As an example, The Andy Griffith Show (CBS, 1960–1968) merits only a few paragraphs as a subset among more formulaic family sitcoms, but probably deserves greater attention as a significant changeling in the evolution of the genre. Austerlitz points to M*A*S*H (CBS, 1972–1983) as “the first sitcom to successfully merge comedy and drama” (137), yet The Andy Griffith Show was groundbreaking in its balance of poignancy and dramatic subplots in classic episodes like “Opie the Birdman” and “Man in a Hurry,” and unique in its approach to editing jokes out of scripts in deference to naturally arising situational humor. Similarly, The Brady Bunch (ABC, 1969–1974) is dispatched in a few sentences, and while its artistic merits may be questioned, its cultural impact has been notable; with stage shows, TV movies, feature films, and a huge cult following, it certainly deserves more than a mention.

Austerlitz shines in making cultural connections, meticulously illustrating how the sitcom has become woven into the fabric of everyday life, a place where sometimes “fact and fiction inextricably intertwine” (37). Moreover, an ongoing presentation of tantalizing trivia enlivens analytical discussion. What if Harry Shearer had been cast in the Eddie Haskell role in Leave It to Beaver (CBS, 1957–1958; ABC, 1958–1963) after appearing in the pilot, or if Elaine Stritch had survived her audition as Trixie on The Honeymooners? The reader is both informed and entertained by such speculation.

Amidst this trivia scavenger hunt, Honeymooners devotees may notice a misstep in the discussion of episode 37, “A Woman’s Work Is Never Done,” in which the...