COMEDIES -TV- COMPOSITE : MASTER GLOBAL ESSAY

 

TV COMEDIES in trouble. Looking for laughs? New gut-busting comedies are getting harder to find in today's television.

After an explosion of shows in the '' Peak TV ''  era,. Hollywood studios are reducing the number of series they release. Comedy has taken a bigger hit than drama, industry data show, and producers say a range of challenges has hindered bringing new comedies to the screen.

'' In comedy, the bar has never been higher to get things made,'' Mike Farah, former CEO of Funny Or Die and now an independent producer, said at a recent Producers Guild of America Conference.

Comedies have been a mainstay of TV since its inception. The Honeymoon and I Love Lucy entertained audiences in the 1950s. Viewers in the 1980s and '90s were glued to shows such as Seinfeld, Friends and Cheers.

Seinfeld attributed the change to ''the extreme left and PC crap and people worrying so much about offending other people.''

Hollywood writers, producers, agents and analysts pointed to other factors. Many cited the rise of social media app TikTok, where people can watch short videos for free to get their comedy fix.

Moreover, today's streaming services cater to global audiences, and its harder to turn a comedy into a worldwide hit.

'' There's a wider preference for dramas amongst cross-market audiences on the international level, as comedy tends to be more culturally specific to each region,'' said Mark Hoebich,  executive vice president and head of film and TV at Luminate.

'' Netflix expands comedic lineup '' : Despite the industry wide contraction, there are several comedy offerings on the TV schedule for this fall and next year.

Abbot Elementary, an Emmy nominee for best comedy, returns to ABC in October. NBC is touting St Denis Medical, coming in November,  CBS is promoting four comedies with the slogan You're Laughing at CBS.

Fox already has reviewed its new animated comedy. Universal Basic Cups, for a second season.

Netflix, meanwhile, is bringing new shows from comedy luminaries such as A Man on the Inside starring Ted Danson, No Good Deed with Lisa Kudrow and The Four Seasons featuring Tina Fey and Steve Carell.

The streaming platform also offers a wide range of standup comedy specials.

Jen Smat, who just won her third Emmy for playing an ambitious stand-up comic on Hacks, said she believed audiences today were seeking darker comedies rather than more light-hearted ones, a change since she starred on Designing Women three decades ago.

'' I do think people are craving comedy now more than ever,'' Smart said. ''I think people are feeling disheartened by the world a little bit,  and who doesn't want to laugh? It feels good.''      

The World Students Society thanks The Express Tribune.