nycdilettante: I love a good comedy

I watch a lot of television and my favorite shows are sitcoms. To me reality gives me enough drama...so when I look at TV I want to laugh. There are not a whole lot of sitcoms on national TV...just 30 ROCK, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, THE BIG BANG THEORY, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE, BETTER OFF TED...which when I list them sounds like a lot...but it's just not so.

Some nights I find myself watching reruns of WILL AND GRACE or WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU...but what really provides me with laughs are the sitcoms on Nick and the Disney channel.

That's So Raven was one of my favorites. I really liked Raven-Symoné...who was the center of the show.

What I find most interesting is how many sitcoms on Nick and Disney go back to the classic comedy couple of Lucy and Ethel. But instead of the coupling of Lucy and Rickey and Ethel and Fred...we have 2 strong female best friends with a male friend.

In THAT'S SO RAVEN we have Raven, her best friend Chelsea and Eddie. Near the end of the series, the potential of a romantic relationship was hinted at between Eddie and Raven...but for the majority of the series it was the wacky adventures of Raven, a girl who had psychic powers. Like Lucy...she also ended up not only in bizarre situations, but also dressed up as other characters. She had several catch phrases...like OH SNAP! Also important is that her family and her friends Chelsea and Eddie are the only ones that know about her powers. Most of the bizarre situations are a result of trying to keep her powers secret.

THAT'S SO RAVEN was very successful for Disney and lead to HANNAH MONTANA...which was fashioned similarly.

We have Miley...who by day is a regular student and in her off hours is the famous Hannah Montana. Her two best friends are Lily and Oliver...who also are the only people other than her family that know her secret. They also end up in odd situations and Miley ends up in strange costumes. Her singing is also worked into the show. Over the seasons...the acting has improved and the show has had many big name stars come in and do cameos...Dolly Parton, Vicki Lawrence, The Rock.

Over on Nickelodeon we have iCARLY and TRUE JACKSON, VP. Miranda Cosgrove was on the popular Nick show Drake and Josh as their evil little sister who always got the best of them. Her abilities shone in that show and so a show was created just to showcase her.

Carly is a high school student who runs a web show with her friend Freddie (who has a HUGE crush on Carly that she doesn't share) and Sam (a delinquent who bullies everyone but Carly...and she hates Freddie and is always fighting with him). Carly lives with her brother Spencer, who is played by another Drake and Josh alum, Jerry Trainor. No mention is made of her mother...but her Dad is in the Air Force and stationed elsewhere.

In the progression, Raven had a complete family until the actress that played her mother left the show. On HANNAH MONTANA, her mother has passed away...and played in flashbacks by Brooke Shields. On icarly we also have a wacky brother and absent parents. Each show has the 3 Musketeers...two best girl friends and one male friend.

My new favorite show also works on that same premise. We have True Jackson who is discovered selling sandwiches in the lobby of MAD STYLE. Because of True's modifications to her clothes, she is hired by the head of MAD STYLE as the Vice President of their youth line. With her comes her friends Lulu and Ryan. Lulu becomes her assistant and Ryan is her skateboarding friend who breaks everything. True has a family that she discusses but is never seen on-screen. In this show she is mentored in how to live life by her boss Max and her nemesis is Amanda the VP of Women's Wear. Part of the premise is that Amanda, the adult learns more about life from True, the child.

Disney also has two other shows, THE WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE and SUNNY WITH A CHANCE. THE WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE is about a family of wizards...which is building on the popularity of Harry Potter. The main character is the middle daughter, Alex Russo and her brother Justin, who is the over-achiever of the family. The youngest brother Max is the dim bulb, who is never sure what's going on. The premise is that in a wizarding family, only 1 wizard can keep their powers into adulthood and so Alex, Justin and Max have weekly wizarding lessons with their father to learn new things. These new spells always lead the kids into trouble. Alex has a best friend Harper who is distinctly odd and provides the Ethel to Alex's Lucy.

SUNNY WITH A CHANCE is a new starring vehicle for Demi Lovato. She plays Sunny, a fan of a comedy show SO RANDOM...which is a comedy sketch show on a network. What I think is interesting is that SO RANDOM reminds me of a comedy sketch show on Nick called ALL THAT which launched the careers of Amanda Bynes, as well as Kenan and Kel. The premise is that Sunny is the outsider, who has to fit into an ensemble cast made up of Tawni (the cute, funny star of SO RANDOM), Zora (the offbeat youngest member of the cast) and then Nico and Grady (who are basically the goofy male comedy team like Kenan and Kel). They share a sound stage with the cast of MACKENZIE FALLS, which is a teen drama along the lines of GOSSIP GIRL or 90210. The heartthrob on that series Chad Dylan Cooper is one of Sunny's crushes...who turns out in real life to be a huge jerk. The rivalry between the cast of MACKENZIE FALLS and SO RANDOM is the main conflict. As well as the developing relationship between Sunny and Chad Dylan Cooper...which you know is going to happen.

It will be interesting to see the career of these kids. Amanda Bynes has done several movies. Kenan is now a regular cast member on SNL. Hilary Duff has recorded albums and has been insulted by Faye Dunaway as unable to fill her shoes in a new BONNIE AND CLYDE film. Miley Cyrus will have a career in country music. Raven has an amazing voice and has been trying to launch a career in music.

These other kids in these new shows all have back up careers. The girls always try their hand at singing...the boys always try movies. Some of them do very well...we can watch Zac Efron to see where he ends up. Remember Johnny Depp...he did 21 JUMP STREET and then challenged himself as an actor and a human being and is not a very accomplished actor. Same is true of Sean Penn...who started out as Spicoli.

Disney decided that the Jonas Brothers could go from "dreamy singers" to the star of their own show. In this show the boys live in a firehouse with their parents. They have a female family friend who is their "wacky" best friend. The premise here is that wacky adventures ensue because they are rock stars at a regular school and they have to try and have a "normal" life within the chaos of being a hot rock stars. It's sort of a spin on the old MONKEES show. Except the boys aren't great actors. And the songs in the show are trite...like I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE PIZZA GIRL. That song makes Hannah Montana's hits look like the work of a genius.

Sometimes Disney hits it out of the park...and sometimes you can tell...it's all about the money.