What makes Sitcoms tick?

We tend to think of sitcoms as nothing more than eye candy. They're something to put on for a night in, the perfect side to your TV dinner, or even a comfort show. However, as an avid watcher of sitcoms spanning the last five decades. There's a reason shows like The Golden Girls and Full House have had so much cultural staying power – and it's more than just some canned laughter.

Premise

Premise can be an important aspect when writing any story, but it is especially important when writing a sitcom. "Sitcom" is an abbreviation for "situational comedy," and each episode is formulated around new and different situations. However, the shows still have consistent overarching premises, settings, and casts that remain relatively consistent throughout a season or many seasons.

For example, in the show Sister, Sister, "Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell are twins separated at birth who learn of each other's existence as teenagers and reunite," and the premise for The Jeffersons is "Wealthy African American dry cleaner George Jefferson, his wife Louise, and son Lionel move into a luxury apartment building."

The premise of a sitcom should be easily identifiable by the average audience member, often found in the words of the theme song. This is the case for both Sister, Sister and The Jeffersons, as well as shows like Hannah Montana.

Both overall premise and individual situations in a sitcom is important because of their format and production; sitcoms are usually shot on pre-built sets with limited locations. This is what gives sitcoms their iconic multi-cam look.

While at a workshop during my university's Career Weekend, I got to learn about pitching shows to executives from the show runner of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, Scott Thomas. He shared the importance of making sure that pitches keep longevity in mind. Executives (and audience members) should be able to imagine that this premise could last alongside the evolution of the characters.

Characters

If the premise is the foundation of the sitcom, the characters are the glue that holds the show together. Unlike formats which look for complexity in their characters, sitcoms appear to look for the opposite: simplicity.

Characters in a sitcom should be easily summed up in a few words. Alex (Michael J. Fox) in Family Ties is money-hungry. Janine (Quinta Brunson) in Abbott Elementary is a ray of sunshine. Blanche (Rue McClanahan) in The Golden Girls is the biggest flirt in town.

This simplicity allows the writers to easily know how each character would act and react during each episode. You can always count on Blanche to flirt with every man in the room and Alex to try to make money anywhere he can.

Simplicity, however, should not be mistaken for flat character writing. The simple concept of each character should act as a mask that hides their inner selves. Janine's happiness and Blanche's flirtiness each hide a deep insecurity. Alex's ego hides a softer side.

Characters also need the room to grow. While sitcoms rely on characters to be consistent from episode to episode, there should be some change in their ideals over the course of a season or series.

Jay (Ed O'Neill) in Modern Family is a stubborn older man who must learn to accept his son, Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), over the course of the series. Uncle Phil and Will (James Avery and Will Smith respectively) must learn to reconcile their differences in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Their demeanors never change, but their beliefs do.

Story

Story is the final, often forgotten piece that can make or break a sitcom. Many people think sitcoms just repeat actions over and over again, but the best sitcoms are able to evolve with time.

Many introduce new child characters like Nicky (Ross Bagley) in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Andy (Brian Bonsall) in Family Ties, and Toby (Luke Baird) in Good Luck Charlie. However, this can be seen as a cheap gimmick.

The better option, of course, is to use the elements of premise and characters to create an interesting, evolving story. Mockumentaries like Parks and Recreation use each season to open and close different plot-lines like Ben and Leslie's (Adam Scott and Amy Poehler) enemies-to-lovers romance or Leslie's political campaign.

Other sitcoms use their characters' deep bonds to create dramatic and meaningful stories.

The two-part episode of The Golden Girls, "Sick and Tired," primarily follows Dorothy (Bea Arthur) as she struggles to be diagnosed with an unknown chronic illness. The girls help Dorothy through the sexism she faces from doctors while searching for an answer to her fatigue. The Golden Girls has been known to cover deep topics that primarily affect women.

Another example is the very special episode of Family Ties "A, My Name Is Alex" in which Alex struggles to accept the death of his friend and must seek therapy. Alex, who normally is unemotional to a fault, is wracked with survivor's guilt in the first half, and the second half mimics the stage play Our Town, being shot in what appears to be a black-box theater, and represents the thread of thoughts that Alex follows during therapy.

These episodes show that sitcoms can tell deep, meaningful stories with their simple characters and locations.

It's also important to remember that most sitcom episodes will not and should not be like these. Not every episode can be a "very special" one. These episodes could not stand alone without all the prior seasons of shenanigans. Their simpler episodes also tell important stories and lessons that stay with audience members long past their runtimes.

Sitcoms aren't as simple as they may look at first glance. Even if you're not writing a sitcom, you can still learn a lot from how their writers create stories that can span several seasons and be remembered for decades.