I just noticed when thinking of the popular modern sitcoms vs the popular sitcoms of the early/pre 2000s, many of the older ones used to be more centered around friends just hanging while modern are workplace set. Why do you think this is?

Submitted by 3kool5you t3_11ohvyo in television

It just occurred to me that “new girl” is one of the only modern popular sitcoms that’s just centered around friends hanging out. A lot of the big ones like the office, parks and Rec, superstore, brooklyn99, 30 rock, etc are centered around places of work.

You could argue always Sunny and how I met your mother are “friend” set sitcoms, but even those started ‘way’ back in 2005 and just carried into the modern era. They were kind of in that cut off period.

Compare this to the 90s /early 2000s where you had seinfeld, friends, king of queens, fresh prince of bel air, arguably frasier (I know his job was a part of the show but arguably wasn’t the setting)

That’s not to say that there wasn’t workplace set sitcoms back then and there aren’t friend setting sitcoms now, but it’s clear the ratios switched.

Do you think this is mainly “the office” Effect, where every popular modern show is trying to build off the office formula, or do you think it could also be indicative of a culture where people are working more so workplace sitcoms reflect that?

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ThatTallAwkwardGuy t1_jbslnpo wrote

There is just far far less community now and sitcoms tend to reflect situations that are relatable to people.

The sad fact is since the 80s the copper wire has been stripped out of the walls with regular people having to do more to keep the dysfunctional economy going. More people will be able to relate to workplace situations than having a group of friends at this point.

Hell look at the front page of reddit where there normally is a thread on how to make friends as an adult. We're just a desocialised society

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thecastingforecast t1_jbsn0m6 wrote

I'd also argue it's the exact opposite. It's so much easier to meet people now than anytime in the past. Before you had people you went to school with, people you lived next to you, friends of the family, or colleagues. You had to be close to get to know people and keep in contact. Now people can have much more diverse friend groups through hobbies, by meeting online, have long distance friendships through texting or FaceTiming. Its easier to have a lot more acquaintances and keep in casual contact through social media than a handful of constant companions. You can fade in and out of people's lives and still keep track of them without spending all that time face to face. And if you don't like them, there are always hundreds, thousands, millions more people at your digital fingertips ready to meet and socialize with... like here on reddit, discord, etc. Before people kept hanging out with crappy friends that caused conflict because getting new ones was hard, and a shared history was enough to hold the group together. Now people have more discerning standards and a workplace is a much more convenient place to have chaos through forced proximity, which suits a sitcom situation.

So many comedies back in the day were about toxic families that stayed together..... because??? That's just what they did, even when they were miserable. That was the whole joke of the show. Nowadays that dynamic would be considered borderline emotional and verbal abuse. Same with a lot of the shows with friend groups. They're practically bullies who constantly insult and undermine each other, or act as sponges who use each other.

In a workplace you're under no obligation to like each other and can have zero in common with those around you. Dynamics that wouldn't be tolerated in most friend groups. But because the characters work together they're forced to bear it and at least act polite, hence creating the situation for comedy.

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bravetailor t1_jc344gh wrote

I think it's like the internet. Just because you have all this access and connection at your fingertips doesn't mean everyone is getting closer together. Quite the contrary in fact.

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thecastingforecast t1_jc3s9vy wrote

Sure but it's also how you use the internet. Introverted, shy, or awkward people were always going to have a hard time forming relationships, and shallow self centred people would have a hard time keeping them. But I've amassed friends in dozens of countries with relationships the have lasted more than a decade because we could keep in touch online. People that I met for a week when travelling have become lifelong friends because I can keep up to date with them, see photos of their lives, chat or message them multiple times a week on social media. Before that a couple random long distance calls or post cards would have never been possible to keep up that kind of connection. Through the pandemic I made more friends than ever on random discord servers for various creators and hobbies. I saw people fall in love and move across the country to be with the partners they met there, who they spent months talking to each other daily, or sharing late night watch parties, posting pics of their meals, sharing stories of their hardship, venting about work etc. I built connections with people who shared my interests and random obsessions. People that I never would have met before. Or never could have kept in contact with had we been relying on old school telephone calls or letters. These are all friends I could message day or night and who would be there for me whenever I needed. We've had multiple meetups irl, in multiple countries. Getting together to go to events or just so we could all hang out for real.

People who feel a lack of connection 'because of the internet' were never going to put in the work to get to know or care about other people. They would only hang around people who were convenient and in close proximity. Which is exactly what I said in my last post. The internet is full of opportunities, but not everyone wants to take advantage of them. And that's their loss.

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Maninhartsford t1_jbsq2f3 wrote

Friends was a big hit. Later, The Office was a big hit.

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SoulingMyself t1_jbti5vz wrote

Taxi, Cheers, MASH, Murphy Brown, Alice, Welcome Back Kotter, Night Court.

The workplace sitcom has been a staple for decades.

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peacefulwarrior75 t1_jbvixfn wrote

Car 54 where are you

Gomer Pyle usmc

Andy Griffith Show is more workplace than family

Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Phil Silvers Show

and the nineties were full of them:

John Larroquette Show

Newsradio

Just Shoot Me

many others

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cmmosher t1_jbsrxjz wrote

Interesting that you mentioned Brooklyn 99 since it always felt like an updated version of Barney Miller to me. I think its more of a cyclical thing. The work place sitcom is not a new thing, there's been things like Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore, Mash, Sports Night, News Radio, Taxi, Night Court, Murphy Brown etc there may be more of a concentration of them now. I have to admit i don't really keep up with modern comedies so i can't say for sure

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Latter_Feeling2656 t1_jbt1wal wrote

WKRP, Wings. Before these, the military shows were also "workplace" shows.

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cmmosher t1_jbt2my2 wrote

I didn't watch much of Wings, it may have played against something else. I remember watching WKRP with my dad as a kid. Both great shows.

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Automatic_Randomizer t1_jbt34ge wrote

It's got to be cyclical. How many places have you got a group of people who are routinely together? Work, family or friends. And if they are friends, it's a little easier if some of them are roommates.

Seinfeld stands out because it's a friends show, without them being roommates.

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cmmosher t1_jbt41s6 wrote

I hadn't thought about that but it is different.

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bluecheesemoon- t1_jbwpf3u wrote

>Barney Miller

Yeah, I think they were directly inspired from that. At least I kinda remember that from the BTS of B99 video on youtube.

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Latter_Feeling2656 t1_jbt0xt1 wrote

The dominant sitcom up to about five years ago was The Big Bang Theory, which was a Friends knockoff. There was also How I Met Your Mother, which copied a lot from Friends. The dominant single camera show was Modern Family, which was certainly on the "hanging out" tree. And then there's Curb, where all Larry does is wander around.

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CoolIceCreamCone t1_jbstobb wrote

No I think the opposite is true. Before Seinfeld, I can't think of any sitcom that was just friends hanging out. As far as popular older shows like that, just that and Friends and the Friends clones like Caroline in the City, Two Guys and a Girl etc. Pretty much every old sitcom was work or family based.

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BoringAccount4Work t1_jbt18cz wrote

How dare you forget about the Pizza Place. That's like talking about Zoe and forgetting about Duncan, Jack and Jane

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BLAGTIER t1_jbw2u0p wrote

There are broadly three types of sitcom. Family, friends and workplace. Every few years one those types gets into fashion usually pushed by a big hit.

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bravetailor t1_jc33xfq wrote

Not even entirely joking here: people have less friends today. Most of their relationships outside of family now are workplace related.

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cosi_bloggs t1_jbt0kvh wrote

I don't know, but sitcoms moved from "just hanging" to a more aggressive approach to comedy in the mid to late '90s - Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends. Shows naturally sped up as they went along even if they only briefly touched this period -- like Cheers. Arrested Development was one of the first to truly capitalise on this by moving at a quick clip, jam-packed with self-referential stuff. I far preferred the lazier early seasons of sitcoms pre-mid/late '90s.

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RayPingHeaux t1_jbu85lb wrote

bc all we do is work nowadays (when not busy side hustling)

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meatball77 t1_jbwt7ak wrote

Grand Crew is a sitcom about a group of friends. Very much Friends except none of the Friends are white and they hang out in a wine bar instead of a coffee shop. It's really good.

Ghosts is about a group of friends, they're just mostly dead.

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youarockandnothing t1_jc0z8sa wrote

"Sitcoms about friends hanging out" died in the 2010s because any show like that other than New Girl wasn't able to rake in multiple millions of viewers consistently. Pretty much all the big ones that premiered after New Girl failed. So Hollywood got scared out of making them. They'll come back eventually.

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JimTheSaint t1_jc3bobf wrote

New girl is just friends hanging out. It's from 2011.

Big bang theory, how I met your father, that 90s show, fresh of the boat, derry girls.

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Oh_hey_a_TAA t1_jbxdmjm wrote

This thread is you bring outed by your selective viewing choices

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