Make 'Em Laugh

When Robb and Mark Cullen decided to change their NBC pilot Mr. Robinson from a single-camera comedy to multi-camera, they knew it was an unconventional choice.

But it was also the best way to spotlight the talents of their longtime friend and star Craig Robinson, who plays a musician and substitute teacher.

“We love the form,” Mark Cullen says. “Craig comes alive in front of any audience, so we’re thrilled to do it this way. As producers and writers, you’re looking to find, ‘How is my show going to punch through?’”

Although a handful of series — like Chuck Lorre’s Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory — have defied the odds as highly rated multi-cam comedies, single-camera shows like ABC’s Modern Family and NBC’s Parks and Recreation have dominated network schedules for more than a decade.

Even TV Land — which built an entire schedule on classic multi-cam comedies — announced this summer that it would begin producing single-cam series.

Yet fans of the multi-cam comedy say rumors of its demise are exaggerated, because some shows are better served by the three-camera setup and live audience pioneered by CBS’s I Love Lucy.

“They are completely different mediums,” says Bill Lawrence, whose successes include the multi-cam Spin City and the single-cam Scrubs; he is currently executive-producing NBC’s multi-cam Undateable. “Single-camera comedy is slightly more of a visual medium. You create jokes with cut-tos and camera slots, and you find a way to do narrative storytelling.

"My favorite thing about multi-cam is the immediate feedback of knowing whether something is working for an audience.”

Robb Cullen agrees: “A lot of times in single camera, you’re playing in a vacuum. You’re shooting it, you think it’s funny, but you’re not getting an immediate reaction.”

Multi-cams started falling out of favor in the 1990s, with viewers perceiving the cinematic feel of single-cams as fresh and modern. Instead of telling viewers where to laugh, single-cams left it up to the audience to decide where the jokes were, making it easier to straddle drama and comedy.

“There was a pervasive opinion that single-camera is what all the young people liked,” Lawrence explains. “But my kids were growing up watching Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place, multi-camera sitcoms. Audiences have never rejected a well-made multi-cam.”

And there are definite signs of a multi-cams resurgence. While NBC’s 2014–15 slate featured only single-camera comedies — a far cry from the Must-See lineup of the 1980s and ’90s — by midseason, NBC Entertainment president Bob Greenblatt said the network would start focusing again on multi-cams, ordering several pilots.

Television is big business, of course, and the highest-rated comedy remains CBS’s The Big Bang Theory.

Aside from the wildly successful Modern Family, most single-cam comedies have been modest successes like NBC’s The Office and 30 Rock. Not only are multi-cams less costly to produce, they perform well in repeats because they aren’t serialized like most single-cams. When well done, they’re the TV equivalent of comfort food.

“You can sit somebody down in front of an episode of Friends, Seinfeld or Cheers — having never seen the first 20 or 30 episodes — and they enjoy everything,” Lawrence says. “It’s pure entertainment.”

Though a few new multi-cams didn’t survive this season — like Fox’s Mulaney and CBS’s The McCarthys — the format might just be here to stay.

“Any well-written, well-produced and well-cast show is going to find a way to survive,” Lawrence concludes. “I’ve got to cling to that for both mediums.”