Stuff You Should Know - Sitcoms Part I

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

Traditional multi-camera sitcoms have fallen out of style in recent years, but the golden age of the genre lives on with streaming services. Sitcom will never go away completely. Join us for part I.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to

believe. You can find in Major League Baseball, International Banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio. Stuff You Should Know is recorded in front of a live studio audience. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and this is Stuff You Should Know,

the Lamo-Bamo double episode about sitcoms, probably the most important thing in any of our lives. Yeah, this is sort of our homage to the, more specifically, the American multi-camera studio audience sitcom, even though we're going to talk a little bit about other forms of the genre. Yeah, the Brits come up here there, maybe a Kiwi appearance. And what we're going to try to do, everybody, is do this sitcom style and record two 30-minute episodes. I don't know if they're going to be 22 minutes, including the ads, but that would be a stroke of genius. But we're going to do our best, which means we're probably not going to do Listener Mail and let's get right to it, right? Yeah, let's. We're talking sitcoms and just right out of the

gate, we should explain what a sitcom is. Everybody knows what a sitcom is, but if you stop and think about the word, it's actually a portmanteau of situation and comedy, a sitcom. That's right. And it's a very, you know, Ed helped us put this together. It is definitely a portmanteau that some studio executive no doubt came up with. Right. Because it's kind of dumb sounding, like it's a comedy about a situation. You know what I'm saying? I do know what you're saying, but at the same time, I think it actually does aptly describe sitcoms because every sitcom, the basis of it is you have your main characters in some sort of dilemma situation. And then by the end of the episode, that dilemma situation is resolved. The situation is resolved, a sitcom.

Generally, yeah. And it looks like that people in the industry were using this term, maybe even back in the radio days of the 1950s, because it comes up in print kind of for the public's eyeballs in early 1964, for the best we can tell in Life Magazine and the Chicago Tribune, where they talk about what a sitcom is and kind of have to explain it to people. Right. But they do indicate that it's sort of been used as industry slang for a little while. Right. Exactly. So there are certain things that do make a sitcom a sitcom. And they started out as very basic and then kind of built along the way. And then as writers started to come of age, having grown up on sitcoms, they learned to kind of play with the format more and more and create all sorts of

different takes on sitcoms. But there are some basic structures to basically every sitcom that's ever existed. Yeah. And this is kind of fun, because like Ed nailed a lot of this and some stuff as a sitcom guy, I was like, not quite right. I'm so nervous now. I know. He did a great job, though. Well, first of all, he points out that it's a comedy, of course. It's sort of the obvious one. They are a half hour long, which is why these episodes will be a half hour long. Yeah, I chuck, I looked for a one hour sitcom and it just does not exist. The closest I saw was Love Boat. And I don't know if you could really call Love Boat a sitcom. I think Love Boat defied genre in some ways. It definitely did, for sure. From what I saw is the only one hour show that had a

laugh track. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, the laugh track, I think you can look forward to a shorty on Wednesday, right? Yep, definitely. All about the laugh track. So the situation, and again, these are generalizations. The form has been tweaked and subverted over the years, but it is almost always about a smallish group of people. Not always a family, but many, many times it's a family. Sometimes it's a group of friends. Obviously, the workplace comedy is going to be colleagues. But many, many sitcoms, especially in the Haiti of sitcoms, were about families. Yeah. And the basic structure from what I saw, the minimum, essentially, is four. You want to have four characters. And there's actually a set of types for those four characters. There's the hero,

the antihero, the love interest in the buddy. And this pops up everywhere from married with children to Seinfeld. But then obviously, of course, people have toyed with that because there were six friends. I think there were six characters on How I Met Your Mother. There's a bunch of them on Big Bang Theory. The Simpsons are far and away one of the best sitcoms ever. Oh, yeah. And they have myriad characters who can have their own episodes based on them. Still four in the family, though. That's true. Yeah. So that seems to be kind of the nucleus that everything else grows from as far as the number of characters. Yeah. I was looking back at the four thing. And it is interesting because you look at Seinfeld and All in the Family. I love Lucy. I had the two

couples. The honeymooners had the two couples. I think Dick Van Dyke had two couples as well. Well, he had himself and Laura Petrie, his wife, Mary Tyler Moore, and then he had Rosemary. I can't remember what her character's name was. And then I can't remember what. So he worked with a woman and a man, and they formed the other two characters. Right, right, right. They weren't a couple, though, right? No, they weren't. They were just buddies. All right. It's been a while since I've seen that. But they all had sex with each other, right? Well, yeah. In every episode, they would end it. It got really graphic, especially for the 50s. They got very weird. As far as the format goes, there is, like, if you're a screenwriter or you're reading a script

of a sitcom, I mean, scripts are formulaic, no matter what. But sitcom scripts are really, really formulaic in that they are 22 minutes long. There's an A storyline, which is sort of the main plot of that episode. And then you have at least a B storyline. And sometimes that's it. But sometimes you'll have C storylines, maybe even a D storyline. But kind of traditionally, you've got an A and a B. And Ed points out that, and he's kind of right in some ways, that generally, the storylines are resolved in each episode. But over the years, that really sort of fluctuated as far as you had running plotlines that would last kind of a season, whether it's this character and that character are going to get together or one might get pregnant. And so that season sort of has a recurring

storyline about them having a baby. But generally, what you wanted in a sitcom was to be able to watch them in any order and still enjoy the show. Yeah. Like if you watch any episode of Gilligan's Island or Mr. Ed, or even the Adams family, like there's, you can watch them in any order. And every episode is going to make sense because they were generally designed to stand alone, featuring the same characters. And the way that they do that, I saw there's two TV tropes associated with this Chuck. One is the reset button, which is where that dilemma or situation that characters are put in becomes fully resolved by the end of the episode. And things go back to normal. That's the reset button. Then there's a snapback where things aren't necessarily resolved. But in the

next episode, everything's back to normal regardless as if nothing happened previously. Yeah. I mean, occasionally you might hear a reference, but sitcoms are famous. Like you never heard Arnold and Willis in subsequent season saying, Hey, remember that time we were almost molested? Right. That was crazy. Yeah. They don't reference that stuff. No. And then we'll get a little more into like those kind of serious episodes of sitcoms because those were landmark episodes for a reason. But the reset is a pretty funny trope, I think. Totally. And then there's really a big distinction in how they're shot. There's really two ways that they're shot. And they're kind of wrapped up or they're named, I should say, by the original ways that these sitcoms

were shot. And they're called one camera or three camera. And you would think that three camera would seem like the more innovative, expansive kind of sitcom. It's actually the opposite. The three camera one is what the traditional sitcom is filmed as, right? Yeah. And they kind of say multi-camera these days. But if you're talking about the old school, live in front of a studio audience, what you have is this. And I have to bring up the fact that I was on one. I was on Dear John. I was on one, two. Were you really? A little stuff you should know. Yeah. All right. I guess I was on two then. Yeah, you were. Yeah. Well, ours was, we'll talk about ours in a minute. But if you're talking the live in front of a studio audience thing, what you have is this very long,

wide stage with bleachers where people sit. And then in front of that, you have usually two or three permanent sets. And what's called a swing set, which they would bring in each week. So what's the swing set? Well, on like, let's say Cheers would have always, of course, the bar and then like Sam's office were probably permanent sets. Okay. And a swing set might be like, if that episode they dined out at a restaurant or something like that. Gotcha. So it's something that you could like, it's kind of generic. You could strip down and repurpose it in many different ways. Yeah. And they bring in these set walls and redress them. But like, let's say Seinfeld, obviously it would be Jerry's apartment and the diner would be the permanent sets. And if, like

the season where George worked for the Yankees, his office set would be a swing set that would be just sort of stored and wheeled off and preserved because you don't want to have to redo all that stuff every time. Right. But sometimes it was just like one week only that would be like an antique shop or something. Or in my case on Dear John, it was a restaurant that I played a bus boy in. And I was texting with my brother actually, Scott has a, you know, he worked on Dear John and had a lot of experience on some of these shows. And he said there were always at least two permanent sets. He said some shows had as many as four. I think he thought, what's the one with Charlie Sheen that I never watched? Two and a half men. Yeah. I think he said two and a half men had what

he thought was four permanent sets. Wow. And it all kind of depended on how big these, the stages were where they shot it. And also how well funded the show was too, right? Yeah, absolutely. And then like something like Seinfeld, they, all the street scenes and stuff like that, they shot those on the adjacent backlots. And when they shot the real shows in front of an audience, they would show those bits on the TV screen while they're like changing over just so the audience would sort of be able to follow along. Oh, got you. Okay. So we'll talk a little more about the different camera setups, right? That distinguish the two, basically the two types of sitcoms a little more in a minute. But do you want to talk about the origins of sitcoms? Yeah, should we take a break?

Like sitcom style? Okay, let's do it. We'll be right back after this word from Ben Gay. Who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road? Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this, I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids relationships life in general can get messy.

You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangeh Shtikler. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded

up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world can crash down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change, too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we're back and we're talking sitcoms. And everybody thinks TV when you think of sitcoms. But it turns out that sitcoms have their origin further back than that in radio. And actually,

it goes even further back than that to vaudeville. But the first even contours of a sitcom is found in a 1926 radio show called Sam and Henry, which became much more famous after it changed its name to Amos and Andy. And a lot of people say that was probably the first sitcom because it had recurring characters. There were situations that the characters were put in, catchphrases. That's another big kind of trademark of sitcoms. If you can get America saying one of your character sayings to one another, you've got a hit show on your hands. Get a load of him. It was always something dumb like that, I guess. Oh, yeah, definitely. Like Samford and Son had to be, Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you. Are you a big dummy? You big dummy. Oh, man. I love that show

so much. Yeah, it's a good show. I believe some, I mean, there's, you talk to different people about sort of what the first sitcoms were, and you're going to get some different answers. One is certainly going to be one called Fiber McGee and Molly. And it had again, all the ingredients that you might think of as like typically sitcom. Although that was a radio show that only had a brief appearance on television. And you had shows like The Honeymooners, of course, one called Mary Kay and Johnny that a lot of people say was the first sitcom. That's where I put my money. Yeah. But when you ask a lot of people what really broke it open, as far as the genre goes, I think most people will say I love Lucy. For sure, which I think debuted

in 1951 and it changed everything. We'll talk about in a second. But we have to shout out Pinwright's Progress, which was a BBC sitcom that aired in 1946. So it beat Mary Kay and Johnny by a year. But no one knows what it's about because no one, no one preserved any of the episodes. Yeah, it's funny. It seems like the UK and the United States are far and away the leaders in the genre because I did look up other countries. It's never been that big in Australia. I mean, there are examples, of course, but the UK and the US just ate it up for some reason. Yeah, it's like dueling banjos. Who's the guitar player and who's the banjo player? I think it changes from time to time, depending on the quality of the shows put out.

But I said something, Chuck, that I think is really important. Pinwright's Progress, it's probably a falsity to say that no one knows what it was about, but I don't believe there's anyone alive probably who's seen it. I hadn't heard of it either. The reason why no one's seen it is because in the early days of television, we're talking like the late 40s, even mid 40s, they would just broadcast the thing live and you sat down in front of your TV and you watched that thing and it never existed again. It's the kind of thing that, yeah, our friend Alex from Ephemeral has probably done an episode on this kind of thing. Yeah, great show, by the way. Everyone should check that out.

But that's how they made shows originally, right? And then finally, they're like, okay, we've got two coasts here. Most TV shows were broadcast in New York, filmed in New York live, but they were at like, say, 8 p.m. on a Friday and most Angelinos and San Franciscans didn't want to rush home from work to catch the latest Mary Kay and Johnny. Right. So they figured out that they needed to somehow preserve that show so that they could send it off to the West Coast and they came up with something called kinescope, the lowest hanging fruit they could have reached. Yeah. So some executive said, why don't we just show it on a TV and then film that television screen with a camera, with a 35 millimeter film camera.

And the frame rates are going to be weird and it's going to look terrible, but at least we can broadcast it on the West Coast. And they did that for a while. And that was sort of the first time that both coasts were able to watch the same show. Yeah. And Chuck, it sounds kluji. It gets even kluji-er. At first, there was no way to actually broadcast from the East Coast to the West Coast or vice versa for the first few years of television. So they would film that show off of TV onto film and then they would take that real and mail it out West for them to show. And then finally in 1951, AT&T came up with a coaxial cable that allowed for the first transcontinental broadcast. Amazing. But even still, they were using kinescope

and they used sometimes what was called hot kinescope because the film had just been developed within the three hours before they needed to broadcast it to the West Coast. That's how fast they were turning it around. Man, I bet there was a lot of tension to turn that stuff around. And they didn't even have cocaine in the industry yet. No, they were just taking it as medicine at the time. That's true. Yeah. So what really broke things open in what, as a landmark show, both as a comedy and technically, was I Love Lucy. And I looked a little bit more into this while they developed this three-camera setup. It was because of Philip Morris. They were the sponsor of the show.

And they didn't want, they thought that there were more smokers. Well, I think they had data that said that more people smoked east of Chicago, apparently out West. I mean, obviously people smoke back then, but not like they did in the Northeast and on the East Coast. Okay. So they didn't want the show to be shot and produced live in Hollywood. That's why they really wanted it in New York City. At the same time, Desi Arnais and Lucy, I think Lucy was pregnant. They also wanted to stay in LA. So there was a bit of a budding head situation of sponsor versus like a TV star. And they worked it out with this three-camera format. Yeah. So essentially what they did, so movies were already around at the

time. And there was a process for making a movie where you would shoot a scene, take a few takes of it, then you would move your camera, relight the scene, and then do the same scene from a different angle and so on and so forth until you had the scene and all those things could be edited together. But Lucy and Desi really wanted to have a live audience, to have that energy and that kind of feedback and that laughter that you can only get from a live audience. So they combined that movie making kind of format with a live performance. And they did it by making three static cameras, one wide, one medium, and one for close-ups that they had pointed at the set that they would perform this episode on as if it were like a live stage play.

Yeah. And they got in touch with a guy, an Oscar-winning cinematographer and kind of a genius named Carl Freund. And he at first was like, this isn't possible because he was an artist and he was like, it's going to look, at least one of the cameras is going to look bad at all times because you're not lighting for that camera. And they said, you got to work with this, buddy. You can't be so precious like it's a movie. We're not shooting the Maltese Falcon here. We need to figure out a way to do this. So they came up with this grid lighting system when you're shooting a movie or when you're shooting single-camera TV shows, even though these days, these multi-cameras on basically everything ever since digital came out. But they still call it

single-camera. And we've been on these shows where you have lights on stands kind of right around what you're shooting. They came up with this grid style system where everything was lit from this lighting grid above the stage. And it didn't look as good. It was sort of flat, but it was all lit well enough to where it looked okay. And Carl Freund kind of gave in and said, you know, if this is what we're going to do with TV, then it makes sense. We can cover everything all at once. And basically the sort of basis of the genre was born. Yeah. So like everything from Seinfeld to Friends to Frasier to Cheers, they were all filmed as three camera. And now, like you said, they call it multi-camera sitcoms. That is like the traditional sitcom. And you can

ultimately thank Lucy and Desi for that. Whereas the one-camera sitcom is the one that you think of as more, it's made more like a film. There's more real world. There's more, you know, like on location shooting. It just seems a little more movie-like. Like Arrested Development is a good example of a single-camera sitcom. But Chuck, I want to give a little shout out here because everybody thanks Lucy and Desi for everything for basically creating the format. But Mary Kay and Johnny were doing this before Lucy and Desi a couple of years before. They had two cameras. They were doing it live. And they had some poor Schmo who was switching between cameras depending on what was happening in the scene live. Can you imagine the stress? That's pretty cool.

Just having been on Dear John, they have it down so well in Hollywood, even though that kind of show is sort of out of fashion now. During the heyday, those cameras were on these huge circular dollies and the cameras were very big. And they would just so fluidly sort of move around to where they block it all out ahead of time. So they knew exactly where each camera was supposed to be. And the result is you shoot a 22-minute episode in about an hour or less. You shoot it in order so the audience can follow along like a play. Yeah, just like a play. Yeah. And you would go back generally at the end of each scene. They would do like, all right, there would be a few minutes of conferring. And then they'd come out and say, all right, we're going to do a retake

of the second part of that scene because we didn't like the way Jennifer Aniston said this one line. And they would all laugh. And she would say, sorry, everybody. And it's a very personal, like engaging thing. Like if you've never been to a live taping of a TV show like that, even though they're more few and far between, it's a lot of fun to go to. Because they're right there. They're interacting with you. If they goof up, they'll like say something to the audience. And it's a really cool experience. But the long and short is they'll be done pretty quickly, even with the retakes. Right. So the multi-camera, three-camera setup is like a stage play. There's a fixed set or a couple of fixed sets. There's a live studio audience and they

present it basically as if they were putting on a play. There's just a bunch of cameras filming them while they do. That's right. The clock tells me we need to take our second break. Okay, let's do it. Quick, quick, quick. The good folks have been gay, aren't gonna wait. Okay, I see what you're doing. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

I'm Mangesh Atikular. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get second hand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop? But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father.

And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, I guess we should wrap up this episode with a little bit about what is the gold standard for actors and crew members in the film business. And always has been. I know they love to work on their super cool streaming shows that are like movies. Prestige TV is great. But you ask any actor what they would rather be doing. And they would say, I want to be on a multi-camera live studio audience show because I work about 40 hours a week.

I show up to work at about eight o'clock every morning. I leave at five o'clock every day. And we work Monday through Friday and we shoot at least 22 episodes. And if we get to 100, it has a good chance of going in syndication. And then I'm set for life. Yeah, that seems to be like the sweet spot for syndication. 85 to 100 previous episodes produced an error. And I guess my guess is that that means that the syndicating buyer feels like they have enough reruns to really make some hay out of or make their money back from. Is that what this why it's a sweet spot? I think so. It's like four to five seasons. Dear John Scott said that that hit 80 episodes and did have a brief syndication run.

But he said at the time 100 was really what they kind of shot for. It's still in syndication. I don't remember what channel has it. But I watched an episode or two of it not too long ago. It was looking for you, but didn't see you yet. You didn't see a handsome young bus boy. But no, not yet. But it is like a surprisingly good unsung show. Like it was very hard. It had really good writing. The characters were really tight. It was a good good show for sure. Agreed. So should we go over kind of the weekly schedule? Absolutely. So Ed ignores Monday and Tuesday for some reason. But as someone who who worked on a show and had talked to Scott about it too, Mondays is generally when you get a table read.

And you know what that is because we were lucky enough to go to a Simpsons table read. Man, thank you again to our friend Jesse who got us in there. One of the nicest things anyone's ever done. Yeah. And coolest experiences in my life like easily. So cool. So this is when the actors and the director and the writers all sit down at a big long table and they just read through the script. They make little notes and make little changes. And that's just sort of the first read through of the week. While this is going on on Monday and Tuesday, they're doing costume fittings and stuff during the day. They're off to the side, the art department and the props, building the swing sets and sort of getting all that ready. And then we hit Wednesday. So yeah, Wednesday is

where everything kind of picks up as far as Ed is concerned. And that's when they really start you know, trying out the script. There's no lighting, there's no cameras, but the director's taking mad notes all over it. And just basically putting this initial lump of script into you know, actual order and then getting ready for Thursday when they do bring in like the lights and the cameras and start setting up and trying technical rehearsals. Yeah. And just to be clear on Wednesday, they're not at the table. They're they're moving through the sets at this point, which is the real differentiator. That is a big differentiator. And then one other thing I want to point out when they bring in the cameras and the lighting and all that, if you think back to

I Love Lucy or Mary Kay and Johnny, if you want to go even further back for my money, you're talking about static cameras that are in one place. And so it's the actors that have to move into exactly the right positions at exactly the right time and look in exactly the right direction to get that close up or that medium shot or the wide shot exactly how it's supposed to be. That is mind bogglingly difficult. And they did this every week. Yeah, I mean, we had to do that. It's called blocking. And you can't stand six inches away from where you're supposed to stand or it'll look goofy. So they have the camera department, they put tape on the floor, and every actor generally has their own color tape so you know

where to go. And the trick as an actor is to be able to go and hit your mark without looking like you're trying to hit your mark. And some people are great at it. George Clooney has this great story about, I think it was Spencer Tracy, who would be obvious about it. And he said if you go back and look at Spencer Tracy movies, he would walk in and right before he got to his mark, he would just look straight down at the floor and kind of go and take a deep breath and look up where he's supposed to. But he played it off like that was just something the character would do. Well, plus he's just that likable too. I think so, yeah. But it's pretty fun hitting your marks is not easy. And we screwed it up all the time because we didn't know what we were doing.

Oh, yeah, I considered it a form of ad-libbing until you finally were like, dude, you have to be, it's really important that you be in the spot they tell you to be. Yeah, it's pretty funny. So are we at Friday yet? I think Thursday, did you mention Thursday is when they actually light it? Yeah. And they're blocking with the camera and everything? Yeah. And then I think that night there was a dress rehearsal. Yeah, they would do a full dress without the cameras. And then Friday is basically like game time because you're going to shoot it that night. They shoot it in prime time in the evening.

But they go through like the full dress, full lighting, full camera and all that stuff during the day. Right. Okay. So then Friday afternoon, there's tons of rehearsals. And then Friday night, apparently at 8 p.m. And Chuck, was this just, I love Lucy or is this a standard for the industry? I seem to remember it being more like seven-ish, but it may have differed for each show because, you know, you got to fill up the audience. There's a warm-up comedian that comes out and gets everyone in the laughing mood. So it may have been eight. And then also, don't some sitcoms now film multiple episodes in a single day if they can?

Well, not shows like this, not live in front of studio audience. It's just one and done. So Friday night at 7 or 8, they would actually film the episode. And then they would take the film from the three different cameras. I love Lucywood. And they'd edit it together. And there you go. You'd have an episode that was filmed live in front of a studio audience, but was filmed to tape so that it could be rerun in perpetuity forever and ever. That's right. And the cast comes out at the end and takes a big bow. And it really is like seeing a play. It's a lot of fun. I highly encourage anyone, you know, it's a, I guess, sort of a touristy thing to do. But if you ever go to LA, see if you can get in and see a sitcom being shot.

It's really, really fun. Very nice. So I guess here ends episode one of our very special two-part episode on sitcoms, don't you think? I think so. Okay. Well, everybody will see you on Thursday. And in the meantime, don't forget to listen out for the short stuff on laugh tracks coming out tomorrow. All right. And true sitcom form. We're not too happy with the beginning of that last section. Everyone in the audience. So I think we should just go ahead and retake that. Yeah. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, it was my fault. So Ed helped us put this together again. And of course, he goes through the weekly schedule of how to do a sitcom. But for some reason, he kind of left out Monday and Tuesday.

Ed don't like Mondays or Tuesdays. Thanks everyone. On behalf of Chuck, Jerry and I, you've been a wonderful studio audience. We'll see you next week. Stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Life. Tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology

is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find in major league baseball, international banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.