Family Guy and aspects of the Sitcom

Comedic sitcoms have different qualities compared to other genres of television shows. First off, comedies almost always have unrealistic or exaggerated dilemmas. The comedic sitcom has its own structure that also differs from other shows. Unlike dramas, comedies are half an hour long and are usually in episode form. These sitcoms also have a condensed three act structure, each episode with a beginning, middle, and end. We always know the outcome of the episode as well the central theme of the plot.

The perfect example of a comedic sitcom would be Family Guy. It lasts half an hour like any comedy and has the three act structure. Of course most of the lessons learned are bizarre but the plots are predictable. The characters in Family Guy remain constant and don’t go through extreme change. For example, Stewie stays a baby for the entire life of the show and Meg forever stays a nerd in high school. There are also redundant patterns in the show, Peter always gets himself in trouble and has to save himself, or someone in the family has to come to his rescue. Every episode also picks up where the last left off; the show never begins in a place other than their home or with an altered storyline.

 An example of Family Guy's strange comedic storylines.

Shots, Progressions &Angles in Donnie Darko

Film shots and progressions add to films by showing how characters are connected to others, their surroundings and their personal moods and feelings towards others. In the film Donnie Darko, the director uses a variety of shots and angles to show how Donnie interacts with other characters and his internal notions.
In the opening scene, the long shot or “orientation shot” pans the scenery and introduces the main character, Donnie, alone on a dirt road looking confused and portrays his isolation from the world. It also uses a “general to specific” approach by going from a long to a medium shot and finally a close up.



In another scene, the director uses a couple of ongoing medium shots to show interactions of Donnie and fellow schoolmates. It informs the audience of surroundings and introduces us to the other characters and relationships they have with one another.



There are many close ups of the main character Donnie, displaying his attitudes and feelings towards the outside world. These close ups show a variety of thoughts and emotions from madness to loneliness and insane curiosity.





Also, this extreme close up explains the key element of the film which helps us to understand the point of the plot. It displays Donnie Darko’s arm marked with the days, hours, seconds and minutes until the destruction of the universe.

Judy Garland and the Star System

The Star system had a major impact on the movie industry. It basically meant that different stars represented their own studios and were famous for a specific genre. Stars were also used for advertising or promoting a specific brand or item and even other stars in their studio, being that they also were paid to advertise the studio they belonged to.
The beauty of the Star System was that every star had a genre; some stars would only appear in gangster films, while others belonged to romances or musicals. Stars often played the same role or characters with the same traits as the previous. If you knew who was starring in an upcoming film, you would be able to tell what the movie was about and if you would enjoy it.

Judy Garland, for example, was a musical genre star. If you knew she was starring in a film, you knew she was going to sing and dance a number or two. From Andy Hardy to the Wizard of Oz, she kept the persona of a hopeful and sweet musical performer for MGM.

All in the Family/The Simpsons

All in the Family is very different from the contemporary family oriented comedy, the Simpsons. To start off, All in the Family is not animated like the Simpsons. Both shows also display different dilemmas, for example, during the screening, All in the Family’s Archie was having trouble dealing people’s sexual identities, while in The Simpsons, you might find Homer having trouble taking care of his kids without strangling his son Bart. There are also major differences in characters. Archie Bunker is obviously more intelligent than Homer Simpson, who is extremely gullible like Archie’s wife, Edith. However, Homer’s wife, Marge, seems to always have get Homer out of trouble. The witty, cunning and sly children of Homer and Marge Simpson also contrast the ditzy daughter of Archie and Edith, Gloria, and her hippie husband, Michael.


The families in All in the Family and The Simpsons are both working and middle class. I think it’s funny how in both shows, one spouse plays the wide-eyed and naïve role and the other plays the sarcastic role. Both shows are definitely comedic and all have characters and issues we can all identify with whether they be political, cultural or social. All in the Family and the Simpsons also feed off of what issues are going on in our world and in pop culture.

I feel as if All in the Family issues revolve around Archie’s views towards other cultures, and politics. Just as discussed in the lecture, the show seems as if it is making a transition to the post-war perspectives, but Archie is stuck in the conservative, pre-war frame of mind. To make the show comedic, they stick him with his hippy son-in-law to stir him up. I noticed that All in the Family also covers more controversial issues and focuses on Archie’s political and social views, whereas The Simpsons has often bizarre and not to realistic plots, considering it is a cartoon, but still ties in with everyday life and it’s hilarious situations. However, The Simpsons deals with more contemporary issues revolving around pop culture or strange situations that don’t seem to deal with any issues similar to All in the Family.

Both are exceptionally hilarious sitcoms with similar aspects but different views and tastes.