Sitcom

Sitcom
Sitcom

Sitcom

A History in 24 Episodes from I Love Lucy to Community
By Saul Austerlitz

PERFORMING ARTS

416 Pages, 6 x 9

Formats: Trade Paper, EPUB, Mobipocket, PDF

Trade Paper, $22.99 (US $22.99) (CA $29.99)

ISBN 9781613743843

Rights: US & CA

Chicago Review Press (Mar 2014)

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Overview

Seminal moments in the evolution of TV’s comedic art form

A carefully curated tour through TV comedy series, this mixtape of fondly remembered shows surveys the genealogy of the form, the larger trends in its history, the best of what the genre has accomplished, and the most standard of its works. From I Love Lucy, The Phil Silvers Show, and M*A*S*H to Taxi, The Larry Sanders Show, and 30 Rock, this guide presents the sitcom as a capsule version of the 20th-century arts—realism giving way to modernism and then to postmodernism, all between the hours of 8 and 10pm on weeknights. Each chapter springs from an individual representative entity, including The Simpsons’ “22 Short Films About Springfield,” The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” Seinfeld’s “The Pitch,” and Freaks and Geeks’ “Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers,” where Martin Starr’s nerdy Bill takes comfort in—what else—the pleasures of laughing at TV.

Reviews

“Astute and bursting with information—an entertaining treat for sitcom fans and a valuable contribution to TV history.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An enthusiastic, well-observed, fresh look at old favorites that makes a compelling case for the genius of American film comedy.”  —Kirkus Reviews on Another Fine Mess

“A born completist, Saul Austerlitz has burrowed deeply into the neglected history of the TV sitcom and lived to tell the tale. And a great tale it is. Who would have thought that these shows, woven into the fabric of our common culture, would be such a delight to remember? Lively and evocative, in tune with its spirited subject, this book sparkles with richly informed insight.” —Morris Dickstein, author of Gates of Eden and Dancing in the Dark 



"A compulsively readable and often laugh-out-loud funny study of the American sitcom." —Starred review, Library Journal

“[...] Austerlitz ingeniously and persuasively uses the genre of situation comedy as an American Rosetta stone, showing it to be capable of decoding itself (thanks to its endless self-references) and of making intelligible an entire social archaeology, [...]  Bottomless in its depth of research but as light in touch as the best of its subjects, Sitcom belongs in any home that has a sofa and a TV set.” —Stuart Klawans, the Nation

"[Austerliz] is capable of delightfully mischievous prose." —The New Republic

"[A] smart new book" —The New Yorker


“Austerlitz writes with a direct and punchy style… that makes for compelling reading.” —Paste

Author Biography

Saul Austerlitz is a writer and the author of Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy and Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes. His work has been published in numerous publications, including the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and Slate. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.