Comedy Camera Style
TV Comedy and Drama: How We Decide What’s What
What kind of show is Netflix’s Orange is the New Black? If someone asked you to describe it in one sentence, what would you call it? A drama? A comedy? A dramedy? A waste of time? A lot of people wondered why the show was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 2014 Emmys, and the show itself has flip-flopped on the issue. (It was submitted as a drama for the Writer’s Guild and Golden Globe Awards.)
There are accepted conventions for both types of shows, but those conventions aren’t static. One of the most obvious distinctions is camera style.
Multicamera vs. Single-Camera Style
What are the styles?
In TV production, there are two basic styles: Single-cam and multi-cam. The easiest way to determine if you’re watching a single- or multi-cam show is to think of the show’s main set. The living room, the coffee house, or some setting that appears in every episode. Do you see all four walls or is it as if you’re looking through one of the walls? If one of the walls doesn’t exist, then you’re watching a multi-cam show.
Multi-Cam’s Rise and Fall
The multi-cam style is almost never used for dramas (except for soap operas). It is closely associated with comedies because comedies are often shot in front of a live studio audience.
The first sitcoms weren’t taped at all. They were presented live. So to get multiple angles, they set up multiple cameras and a producer or director would control the view live as the show was being broadcast.
Even after sitcoms began taping (and reselling tapes for reruns), shows like I Love Lucy continued to use the multi-cam style. A few shows, however, switched to single-camera. The earliest single-camera show I can find is The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which transitioned from radio. Some of the most popular sitcoms from the 50s and 60s were single-camera comedies: Hennesey, Leave It to Beaver, The Stu Erwin Show, The Addams Family, The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Get Smart, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie, Green Acres, Mister Ed, The Munsters, and My Three Sons.
The 70s, 80s, and 90s were the decades of the multi-cam show. The tide really started to turn to multi-cam around the time when All in the Family began on ABC. Many of the sitcoms we consider classics are from this period, helping cement multi-cam style as the dominant style for three decades: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barney Miller (switched to single during run), The Odd Couple, Sanford and Son, The Bob Newhart Show (M*A*S*H stands out as a major exception to the multi-cam trend.)
There are a few popular shows here and there that adopted single-camera style, but for the most part multi-cam shows ruled. It wasn’t until 2004 that more single-camera shows than multi-camera shows were nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, and a multi-cam show hasn’t won the top prize since Everybody Loves Raymond in 2005. In 2009, no multi-camera comedies were nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series.
So What?
The recent change in style could help account for some of the comedy/drama confusion. Our comedies now look more like dramas than they have in a long time. It is easier to look at a show like Nurse Jackie and interpret it as a drama than it would be if Nurse Jackie was shot in a traditional sitcom style.
What do you think? Does multi-cam style seem passé or less sophisticated to you? Does camera style affect your viewing habits at all? Or is it a non-factor?
