Word: sitcomming
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...encyclopedia to recognize that another show has joined that select category. NBC's The Cosby Show, starring Bill Cosby as an obstetrician coping with the small trials of family life, was the highest-rated network series to debut last fall, and its following has grown to blockbuster proportions. The sitcom now lands regularly in the No. 1 slot in the weekly ratings; a month ago it even beat the Academy Awards by more than two ratings points. Its success has boosted the ratings of NBC's entire Thursday night lineup and has helped the network to its best prime-time...
...week's season finale, with Lena Horne as guest star, may also be the springboard for a new series. Both CBS and ABC are developing their own comedies about black families, obviously inspired by Cosby's success, and the show is being credited with reviving network interest in the sitcom form in general...
Bored might be a better word. As a genre, the big network mini-series has become as predictable and formulaic as the half-hour sitcom. This season's multiparters were mostly sprawling family dramas or historical sagas, with hackneyed plots spiced up with vaguely exotic locales (1920s Paris in Mistral's Daughter, turn-of-the-century New York City in Ellis Island). A.D.'s meticulous evocation of the ancient Roman Empire could not redeem a ponderous extravaganza that looked as if it had been conceived and directed by computer...
...parts An excellent dialoguesmith, Hauptman distributes juicy one-liners with admirable magnanimity (a prostitute recalling her decision to hit the street says "I realized I was sitting on a gold mine"). Hauptman's generosity keep the laughs rolling, but at the cost of reducing his characters to sitcom personalities. Hauptman's attempts to add a few moments of drama completely collapse; characters who whip out quips at the pace of a Noel Coward cannot carry a dramatic scene...
...miles; a later one had to be aborted when his ship became trapped in the Antarctic ice. But few dramas have told a more inspiring tale of man against nature or better conveyed the excitement of a great period of exploration. Another winning import is Solo, a wry sitcom starring the delightful Felicity Kendal as a single woman who dumps her boyfriend, quits her job and tries to start a new life...