TV COMEDY: NBC is undisputed king, but shouldn't rest on their laurels

POSTED: Thursday, March 3, 2011, 8:00 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass | TV

NBC is facing an interesting moment in the history their perennially dominant Thursday night comedy lineup. They arguably have the 4 funniest sitcoms on TV. But here's the problem: Their two strongest brands--The Office and 30 Rock--are both creeping to the point of potential sitcom hospice. Through no fault of their own, they are starting to lose "it". It happens to every sitcom no matter how amazing, and these two have actually managed to stay transcendentally hilarious for an unrealistically long period of time. In fact, the only sitcoms (relevant in the past 20 years) which were consistently funny for longer are The Simpsons (which kept getting funnier up to it's ninth season, and plateaued for a solid few years) and Seinfeld (which was arguably less funny than the other shows in this discussion, but stayed relevant up until they "went out on top" in season 9).

Let's break it down.

The Office--whose heart and soul comes from the chemistry of the characters--is going to be losing its centerpiece, Steve Carell at the end of this seventh season. It could still be funny without him, but the fact remains that a lot of the characters and their relationships have gotten stale. When this happens, the four options are (1) hire new writers, and hope that new talent can squeze fresh ideas from the same characters, (2) keep things as they are and hope unrealistically that the show will come upon an upswing, (3) get new cast members--risky because you're messing with your sure-thing (although, their ensemble has managed well in doing this steadily over the years--and will certainly have to do this when Carrell leaves) or (4) pull the plug (noble, but unlikely while the ratings are still good). NBC is certainly going to pump in as much money as possible to keep The Office among America's most popular sitcoms, and it will likely get stuck on life support even when things get awkward (i.e. Scrubs).

30 Rock has a more optimistic future ahead of it. It's Tina Fey's baby and she will not want to see it suffer. Her writing staff will probably start kicking in some extra brainstorming hours to refuel the magic they once captured. If this doesn't get the show's freshness back on track, you can expect a Seinfeld-esque announcement that it will plan to go out strong after a year or so. 30 Rock's magic is intrinsically different than The Office's. Rather than being character-driven (and don't get me wrong, the characters are insanely hilarious--different characters wouldn't be nearly as funny), 30 Rock is essentially powered by good old fashioned writing chops. I can't even realistically call them "old fashioned" because they are amongst the highest quantity and quality of jokes per minute that the sitcom world has ever seen. 30 Rock has raised the bar on comedy writing, and is now struggling to stay in reach of their own high water mark.

Community is more of a cult-hit, and tends to demonstrate early-era Scrubs sensibility. That is to say, high risk, high reward. The result is more hit or miss than its Thursday night peers, but the hits are pretty powerful. In attaining a word-of-mouthy, semi-love-or-hate audience, Community is perpetually in danger of going the way of Arrested Development. However, times are slightly different than the early 2000's, and we are now officially in full swing comedy boom being fueled by the young and hip. The late 40's middle class is in many ways still the market's bread and butter, but liberal-minded 20/30-somethings are responsible for the surplus of comedy dollars going around. NBC learned a tough lesson from the Conan fiasco, and will probably be slower to alienate the outspoken comedy-savvy proletariat in the future as long as numbers are passable. While their opportunities for damage control with the next wave of 40-somethings is good news for Community, the show is unlikely to be able to carry the weight of Thursday night should 30 Rock and Office fall by the wayside. Especially if CBS attempts to usurp that throne by throwing How I Met Your Mother and *gulp* Two and a Half Men next to Big Bang Theory on Thursdays. Community a solid supporting player and good for hipster cred but it will probably never have the ability to generate huge numbers on its own.

Now we get to the alpha puppy, Parks and Recreation. In its third season, Parks and Rec is really coming into it's own as the strongest product in their flagship rotation. It manages to capture the essence of both The Office and 30 Rock with quirky, over-the-top absurd characters and their interactions--as well as straight-man balance armed to the teeth with flamethrower-caliber joke-writing. You can even see direct branches from the 30Rock/Office family tree, with Rashida Jones (Jim Halpert's former love interest) and Amy Poehler (Tina Fey's butt-buddy). With characters like Ron Swanson (think Dwight Shrute with different hobbies) and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe's take on Jack Doneghy's photo negative) they are capitalizing on the prototypes that work. Parks and Rec also captures Community's indie-cred with faces like Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza (and somehow, history has shown that Rob Lowe is perpetually lame-proof).

So, we're seeing that Parks and Rec is able to capitalize on the essence of the entire Thursday night lineup. The exception, of course, being Outsourced which, God-willing, will be gone by Spring--note to execs: taking out the laugh track does not AUTOMATICALLY make your show hip and hilarious. Also, I'm not really sure what the story is with Perfect Couples (I usually turn the tube on at 9 for Office and catch the earlier Community on Hulu), but it's gonna take a miracle for a new relationship comedy to distinguish itself in Modern Family's wake.

With Parks and Rec able to emulate the best qualities of it's elders while maintaining a unique voice, the time is right to start grooming it as heir to the Thursday night palace. I think they've already started working on this by snuggling it in the cozy spot between their two heavy hitters smack at 9:30, but I hope they're thinking realistically about exit-strategies for their mighty Clydesdales. The days of Cheers and M*a*s*h--that is, decade-long ratings busters--are over, and the cultural attention span plummets every year.

Think of how more valuable The Simpsons would be as a franchise if they had premiered The Simpsons Movie as a television grand-finale some ten years ago while the show was still unmissable. You would have had a true pop-culture event on your hands and the ratings of a Superbowl. DVD box-set prices would be worth an absolute premium, and fans would be celebrating the legacy of the series till the end of time (which right now, trust me, they don't). I know this doesn't seem as valuable as the immediate gratification of running it into the ground, but it's hard to calculate the long term dollar value of religious devotion to a brand.

Office and 30 Rock are GOING to slump (or, have started to... and at some point their numbers will follow). NBC has to decide whether they want to French-steak-sear the juices in while the titles are still valuable, cauterizing the deflation and cryogenically freezing them as perfect specimens of pop-culture done perfectly. Or, do they want to piss off a huge incoming generation of prime comedy viewers by maintaining their reputation for tossing Conan around like a rag-doll--which goes back to offering Seinfeld $5 million an episode (which would be worth, what, $20 million today) after the show had run its course to sully his accomplishments for the benefit of faceless greed?

The value of legacy aside, there's also precious real-estate to think about. Thursday night Comedy Done Right is a strong palace, but not impregnable. Protect your kingdom by putting your resources into smart new shows, and as you reap so shall you sow.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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