Unlike sketch comedy, which features different characters and settings in each skit, sitcoms typically maintain plot continuity across episodes.
These forms relied on running gags to generate humor, but the term sitcom emerged as radio and TV adapted these principles into a new medium.
[1] Early television sitcoms were often filmed in front of a live studio audience using a multiple-camera setup, the latter of which continues in some modern productions such as The Big Bang Theory and Fuller House.
[5] In 1981, Daily at Dawn was the first Australian comedy series to feature a regular gay character (Terry Bader as journalist Leslie).
[6] In 1987, Mother and Son won the Television Drama Award for portraying a woman suffering from senile dementia and her interaction with her family, presented by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
[9] This was the highest rating for a first episode in the history of Australian television,[9] until the series premiere of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities in 2009, which garnered 2.58 million viewers.
[10] In 2013, Please Like Me received an invitation to screen at the Series Mania Television Festival in Paris,[11] was praised by critics,[12] and earned numerous awards and nominations.
[21] Other noteworthy recent sitcoms have included: Call Me Fitz, Schitt's Creek,[22] Letterkenny, and Kim's Convenience,[23] all of which have been winners of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Series.
[27] Sitcoms started appearing on Indian television in the 1980s, with serials like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984), Nukkad (1986), and Wagle Ki Duniya (1988) on the state-run Doordarshan channel.
Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah is the longest-running sitcom of Indian television and is also known as the flagship show of SAB TV.
[29] On Tiptoes and Shabhaye Barareh were among the first and most important sitcoms that led to the growth of this type of comedy in Iran, both receiving wide critical and audience acclaim.
El Chavo del Ocho, which ran from 1971 to 1980, was the most-watched show on Mexican television and had a Latin-American audience of 350 million viewers per episode at its popularity peak during the mid-1970s.
British sitcoms, like their American counterparts, often revolve around a core group of characters who interact in a recurring setting, such as a family, workplace, or institution.
However, British sitcoms typically consist of shorter series, often six episodes, and are frequently developed by a smaller writing team.
The subsequent success of Amos 'n' Andy, also created by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, solidified the sitcom's place in American radio programming.