Because they don't film in front of a studio audience, their stories can maintain a quicker pace, with far more scenes. Single-camera sitcoms are filmed more like miniature movies most scenes are short, and many shows will leave their soundstages to film out in the world.
In contrast to the multi-camera sitcom is the "single-camera" sitcom, which is the most popular form of TV comedy right now. Most multi-camera sitcoms are also filmed in front of live studio audiences, who add laughter to the soundtrack. This allows the show to be filmed very, very quickly, because every take is being filmed four times. The action is filmed with four cameras at once (hence, multi-camera), and each camera focuses on different actors or parts of the set. Mom is a "multi-camera" sitcom, which means it's essentially produced like a stage play, with long scenes that each take place on one of a handful of major sets. To talk about Mom, we have to start with some TV terminology. On Mom, the stories never end Time for a bachelorette party on Mom. But here's what you don't know - Mom has solved the problem. The decrease in average sitcom running time almost singlehandedly explains the recent decline of TV comedy in the United States.
That's just not enough time to tell a cohesive story, not without a fast pace and flashy editing, both of which are anathema to the style of Mom producer Chuck Lorre (who's also responsible for The Big Bang Theory and the late Two and a Half Men, among others). And the episode of Mom I'm about to discuss clocks in at a little over 19 minutes - including both the "previously on Mom" segment from the start of the episode and the closing credits. Even Friends, the most '90s sitcom of them all, had 22 minutes.īut modern sitcoms are lucky to get 21 minutes. Episodes of the '80s standby Cheers, for instance, were roughly 24 minutes long. Sitcom episodes used to give writers space to tell actual stories. Talk to just about anybody who's worked in TV comedy long enough, and they'll lament one thing above all else: running time. The episode of the week for February 14 through 20, 2016, is "Diabetic Lesbians and a Blushing Bride," the 12th episode of the third season of CBS's Mom. Every Sunday, we pick a new episode of the week.