How I Met Your Mother

[Guest]

How I Met Your Mother

Oh look, first Alexis Denysof and now the gorgeous Amy Acker. nice

[Ginger Yellow]

How I Met Your Mother

It seems like all the Buffy/Angel actors are turning up in HIMYM, while all the Galactica actors are turning up in Dollhouse. We had Tigh last week.

[Ginger Yellow]

How I Met Your Mother

Oh, and Zoe's turned up in Flash Forward.

[Guest]

How I Met Your Mother

I have still got Flashforward saved up. It sounds like ridiculous fun. I am 2 eps behind with Dollhouse. There is just too much telly.

[Ginger Yellow]

How I Met Your Mother

Flash Forward is very silly indeed. It reminds me a lot of the first season of Heroes. Utter tosh, but very slick and great fun. It's got the cliffhanger thing nailed down pretty well too.

[Guest]

How I Met Your Mother

That's why Alias was always so great. Cliffhangers.

[Guest]

How I Met Your Mother

I just watched the one with Inara in it. She is so pretty and so slender it made me cry.

[Guest]

How I Met Your Mother

I kind of kept watching this because the third & fourth series got pretty good, but the recent ones have been woeful. They need to sort it out sharpish.

[Ray de Galles]

How I Met Your Mother

I lost about 30 episodes in The Great Sky+ HD Box Changeover of 2009 which means I am behind the times as ever with the show which doesn't help.

[G-Man]

How I Met Your Mother

This, from How I met Your Mother, may well be the greatest musical interlude in a sitcom ever.

[Ray de Galles]

How I Met Your Mother

I think The Simpsons may have quite a few contenders for that title.

[erwin]

How I Met Your Mother

Not to mention South Park.

[Guest]

How I Met Your Mother

Is that the suit thing? I thought that was one of the worst things I have ever seen on a TV show. HIMYM has been getting worse and worse.

[G-Man]

How I Met Your Mother

The Simpsons is not really a sitcom, so that doesn't count.

You have no soul, lyra.

[Heliotrope]

How I Met Your Mother

I'm not a regular watcher of HIMYM at all, but the "Let's Go to the Mall" video surely beats the pants off this.

[G-Man]

How I Met Your Mother

Oh yeah, the Robin videos. Fair point.

[Ray de Galles]

How I Met Your Mother

What is The Simpsons if it's not a sitcom?

[G-Man]

How I Met Your Mother

It's a cartoon series and a satire with sitcom qualities. In sitcoms the characters grow older, and their actions have an effect on the narrative of subsequent episodes.

Of course it's not always easy to classify TV shows. Take Desperate Housewives, which used to be nominated in the Comedy TV series category at the Golden Globes because it is (supposedly) satirical. I think it's a drama series.

[Hofzinser]

How I Met Your Mother

In sitcoms the characters grow older, and their actions have an effect on the narrative of subsequent episodes.

Is this true of, say, Fawlty Towers?

I instinctively agree that it doesn't feel quite right somehow to call the Simpsons a sitcom, but I can't think of any reason why it isn't except that it's animated.

[Ray de Galles]

How I Met Your Mother

I don't buy any of the objections above to 'The Simpsons' being called a sitcom.

Did the characters grow older in , say, 'Are You Being Served?'?

Did the characters in 'Spaced's " actions have an effect on the narrative of subsequent episodes" to any greater or lesser extent than happens in The Simpsons anyway?

Can't a sitcom be satirical? 'Soap' was.

[Hofzinser]

How I Met Your Mother

No, I agree with you. None of the objections raised so far hold any water at all. Calling an animation a sitcom somehow just doesn't feel right to me but i'm not sure I can find a decent argument to back up that feeling.

[G-Man]

How I Met Your Mother

Well, just as some acts in popular music are difficult to categorise in genres, so it is with The Simpsons (whereas SOAP certainly was not a sitcom. It was a satire of a soap opera). My feeling is that The Simpsons created a whole new, separate genre. Though I have no idea whether it has a name.

But, Harry, why do you insist so strongly that The Simpsons must be a sitcom?

[Ray de Galles]

How I Met Your Mother

Because it follows the definitions of a sitcom that I can see. From the most basic to the more detailed. and because , since the issue was raised, I've seen no compelling argument that it isn't a sitcom or other reasonable desription of the show.

[G-Man]

How I Met Your Mother

Interesting that the wikipedia article lists The Jetsons and The Flinstones as sitcoms.

I really don't care much either way. Though I somehow flinch at the idea that The Simpsons is classified in the genre it seeks to satirise (among other targets).