LOS ANGELES—They say that the classic, three-camera, live-audience, traditional American network sitcom is fast becoming a dying art.
And they would be right. You can count the number of original, intelligent and witty existing sitcoms on the fingers of one hand. You can count the number of original, intelligent and witty new sitcoms on a single finger (a.k.a. Life With Bonnie).
For proof of this, one need look no further than our second item, on NBC's latest genre effort, A.U.S.A. (a laugh-riot sitcom title if ever there was one).
But first the good news. Comedy, creativity and commitment to quality are very much alive and well and living on a studio soundstage at the CBS Radford lot in Studio City, Calif.
And it isn't on the set of Still Standing, the first show logo you see coming through the gate, and one of the more egregious examples of cloned comedy to hit the air this sorry season.
Just a few buildings down the lot's Bob Newhart Blvd., überdirector James Burrows is presiding over a riotous table-reading with Debra Messing, Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally, Toronto's own Eric McCormack and this week's special guest, Minnie Driver, as they prepare yet another stellar instalment of Will & Grace (this particular episode, "Homojo," airs Thursday night at 9 on NBC and Global).
There is a reason this show is still a Top 20 hit in its fifth season on the air. The same reason that their Thursday-night net-mates, the Friends, are actually worth the million-dollar payoff each of them now earns every episode.
The shows are still funny. Consistently funny. Even in five-night-a-week rerun syndication, a notorious killer of lesser sitcoms — even Seinfeld and Frasier, those past bastions of smart and savvy scripting, do not often stand up to the scrutiny of having their off-nights strung together consecutively like so many burnt-out Christmas-tree bulbs.
Will & Grace, you would think, would suffer similarly. This is a show, after all, with a fairly high-concept, one-note premise, and without the luxury of a large and colourful cast of characters, à la Friends, to deflect some of that intrinsic sameness.
Just four people in an apartment, with occasional side-trips to Grace's loft office, Karen's swellegant boudoir, the gym, a disco, Banana Republic or some other gay hangout of the week.
Five people, given the estimable offstage influence of Jim Burrows, their much-respected director, whose impeccable pedigree stretches back from Taxi to Cheers to Frasier to Friends, and a total of 15 Director's Guild nominations (a record equalled only by the late George Schaefer).
Watching Burrows and his cast in action, in rehearsal as opposed to a more formalized show night, was a rare and significant experience.
Burrows is the calm in the centre of a creative tornado, which encompasses not only his hardworking actors, but also a vast contingent of staff writers, who descend onto the soundstage following the pre-lunch read-through to watch the cast block out their scenes, moving en masse from set to set, to laugh at their own jokes and/or offer alternates for those that for some reason just don't work.
Comedy can be a very serious business. Not that everyone wasn't laughing all the way through the day's rehearsal. But when problem spots do emerge — a punchline here, a bit of physical business there — everything grinds to a halt to concentrate on fixing it.
Thus, it takes a good half-hour to perfect the scene where an enraged Karen throws down and pins poor Jack to the floor — an improvisationally choreographed move that ends up requiring as much attention as a wire-work stunt from one of the Matrix sequels, but which nonetheless comes off looking effortless. Essentially, they just keep doing it over and over, finessing it to comedy Zen master Burrows' quiet, smiling satisfaction.
It's the same again later for a simple chip-flipping gag, as Will and Jack prepare for a party, though this time the solution (McCormack deftly grabbing the offending snack in mid-air) quickly presents itself. The next snag is more motivational, forcing McCormack and Burrows to take a time out to come up with an equitable answer.
You would think that dropping a random element into this well-oiled comedy machine could conceivably gum up the works. And well it could, were said element not fully prepared and equipped to go with the flow.
Yet another defining element of Will & Grace's success is the superior selection of celebrity cameos. Minnie Driver is this week's special guest, playing the new woman in Karen's ex-husband's life, and potentially in her little pal Jack's, as well — the timing between Driver and Sean Hayes, particularly, make it seem like they've been working together for years.
And the tradition continues, with Demi Moore and Madonna on deck for appearances later in the season. Not that they necessarily need them. Will & Grace, and Jack and Karen and Jim, are still doing just fine on their own, thank you.
Muy buen artículo! :aplausos: