Eight Characters of Comedy

This weekend, I read a book called Eight Characters of Comedy: A Guide to Sitcom Acting and Writing, by Scott Sedita. He identifies eight sitcom archetypes:

The Logical Smart One, The Lovable Loser, The Neurotic, The Dumb One, The Bitch/Bastard, The Materialistic One, The Womanizer/Manizer,and the One in His Own Universe.

I found his points were interesting but more geared to the actor than the writer. Nevertheless, he also has some good stuff on developing character from archetypes.

Just for grins, I applied his archetypes to my novels, and here's what I've come up with:

In NINJAS, PIRANHAS, AND GALILEO:

Shohei is a combination of The Dumb One and In his Own Universe;
Elias is The Neurotic;
Honoria is The Logical Smart One, but with some Lovable Loser and some of The Neurotic;
Mr. Eden is The Bastard;
Goliath Reed is The Materialistic One.

In TOFU AND T.REX:

Hans-Peter is the Lovable Loser with some leanings to the Neurotic;
Freddie is In Her Own Universe;
Opa is The Logical Smart One.

Cyn and I have also been watching the first season of Frasier on DVD, and came to the conclusion that they just don't write them like that any more. Smart, occasionally esoteric (but funny nonetheless), charming, and absolutely hilarious. Then today, I came across this article in Entertainment Weekly while waiting for Cyn at the opthamologist, which stated that the networks are planning to air only about a third as many sitcoms this fall as they did in fall 1996 (probably thanks to the plague of so-called reality TV). So, I guess they're not writing them at all...

So, in defiance of this ghastly trend, herewith is my list of favorite sitcoms:

The Dick Van Dyke Show: Perhaps the best of all time.
Cheers: They had some spotty seasons after Diane left, but picked up when Rebecca got her stride and Lilith had a more prominent role.
Frasier: A masterful pairing of two Neurotics. Need to get the rest on DVD -- they kept changing time slots and them put it opposite Buffy...
MASH: But really, only after they brought in Col. Potter (which provided heart), and Major Winchester (which provided a foil for Hawkeye), developed Margaret into more than the "Hot Lips" caricature, and got rid of Frank Burns.
Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister: An English series about a loopy and craven politician and his struggles with the entrenched bureaucracy at the Ministry of Administrative Affairs.

Runners-Up:
Friends: The first series about folks of my generation, but I never cared about Ross and Rachel.
The Bob Newhart Show: The one set in Chicago :-).
Newhart: Not bad, but Mary Frann is no Suzanne Pleshette
The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Funny, original, too bad she divorced Rob Petrie...:-)

I'm sure there are a couple I've forgotten...

Shows I don't get:

Seinfeld: I know this show was enormously popular and I thought some of the episodes were funny, but overall, I found the characters to be shallow and mean. Also, I just never saw the appeal of Kramer.
Roseanne: I watched the first episode, didn't like it, gave it more chances later, but never really cared for Roseanne Barr. The supporting cast was excellent, though.

Happy Independence Day!

We've been having a nice, relaxing Fourth of July weekend. Cyn blogs about the Blanton Museum here; and seeing Superman Returns here.

I was somewhat disappointed in the Blanton. The building seems to lack a grand entrance and the entry atrium seemed stark and unfinished, rather like bare plasterboard.

The collection does has some interesting pieces (the America/Americas exhibit is quite good and the Prints and Drawings Collection is extensive).

I did fnd it a little odd that the cards next to the "modern" art went to great lengths explaining why the pieces were important and worth hanging in the museum ("The black and white video of the man screaming evokes the essential hopelessness of..." [paraphrase]), whereas the older stuff didn't. (There were a lot of Madonnas with Child and it might have been helpful if there had been more on what distinguished one from another - technique, style, era, etc.). Also, I'm a little puzzled about why they displayed so many plaster reproductions of famous sculpture that are in the collections of other museums.

We saw Superman Returns at the Alamo Drafthouse (the best place in Austin to see a movie). I was favorably impressed -- I thought it was very good. I'd been expecting it to be horrible, especially since I'd heard it was supposed to be a "sequel" of sorts to the Christopher Reeve movies (even the "good" ones weren't very). It was definitely better than those, but I'm ready to see, for example, Brainiac or any villain other than Lex Luthor.

Tonight, we're doing a traditional good old-fashioned Fourth of July: Chicago-style hot dogs with corn on the cob, followed by fireworks at Zilker Park.