I don’t have many fans or followers these days; if you’ve picked up on my tone in recent days you likely already know how that affects me. So I’m grateful for those who still pay enough attention and when not one but two of those followers actually take the time to share the identical opinion piece which one Jay Martel authored for THE NEW YORK TIMES on Monday to ask for my take you’d best believe I heed that as a call to action. On a proportionate basis, you’d be hard-pressed to find a political candidate with such a plurality these days.
In his guest essay which was given the kitchy headline What’s Happening to TV Comedies Is Not Funny Martel does his best to make a case for what he considers to be “trad com”–a format that he’s developed some degree of expertise in over a career that’s approaching four full decades. He piously pined for ABBOTT ELEMENTARY to emerge victorious with this year’s Oustanding Comedy Series honors using the defense it’s the only undiluted comedy. He then goes on to wax nostalgic about golden era shows–from SEINFELD and FRIENDS to references clearly showing his age like THE ODD COUPLE and ALL IN THE FAMILY– that still prop up the overall share of several streamers he specifically calls out for reinventing the working definiton of what’s funny. He’s particularly bitter about streamers who seem not to share his POV as evidenced in this not-so-thinly veiled rant:
Streamers have a different agenda: They want you to watch 10 episodes of that same show back-to-back… The comedies of streamers, then, need to hypnotize their viewers and keep them clicking on the “next episode” button with the effectiveness of a true-crime thriller…As a comedy writer for TV and movies, I find this climate daunting. After recently pitching a workplace comedy to a streamer — they passed — part of the feedback I received was “not propulsive enough.” “Propulsive” turns out to be a hot buzzword in development, and the current comedies are slick with propulsion (propulsivity? propulsiveness?).
Mr. Martel’s lament is not unique–I’ve heard much the same from veteran creatives I’ve known over the years, and his overall dismissive tone is uncomfortably familiar to a fellow Boomer whose ability to earn a living comparable to history and expectations has been forever compromised by similarly half-assed buzzwords. I’m right there with you, Jay.
But judging by his CV–which he underscores was defined by (t)he peak of my professional TV writing career.. showrunning “Key & Peele”, I’m inclined to believe that he likely hasn’t been exposed to as many examples of what people outside his walled garden find funny–or chose to heed their counsel if he was. And it would also appear that my followers either forgot or weren’t aware that I’ve mused about the topic on several prior occasions.
Two years ago when FX took advantage of loose Emmy category definitions–driven in large part by parochial lobbying by its president who happened to serve on the committee responsible for them–to rack up a deskful of hardware for THE BEAR I took them to task in a similar manner that Martel did. A few months later I took DEADLINE’s intrepid Nellie Andreeva to school once again for giving HBO an infomercial for its own development slate while basking in what she considered be the glowing success of THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES–like Key and Peele, a show that had a lot of industry fans but few that belonged to measurement panels. And a few months after that I observed that in a world where polarization grows exponentially by the month the very definition of what’s even funny is more subjective and open to debate than ever. I had been tipped off to that reality a decade earlier when Sony was revisiting its commitment to the genre–roughly around the same time that by his own definition Martel’s career hit its peak. And that was looking at the track record of shows that attracted a lot more viewers than any of Martel’s ever did.
As for those bad bad streamers in today’s climate, one need look no further than Netflix for evidence that there’s an even bigger disconnect between seasoned writers and emerging talent for what is deemed successful. Witness the outsized success that one example which PEOPLE’s Caroline Blair enthusiastically wrote about earlier this month:
Tires fans have another season to look forward to. The hit Netflix comedy was officially renewed for a fourth season just a few weeks after the third season hit the streamer in early August 2026. The renewal news came after Tires reached the series’ highest ranked position on the Global Top 10 English TV list. Shane Gillis and Steve Gerben, who co-created the series, star as employee Shane and manager Will, respectively, of the struggling auto-repair chain, Valley Forge Automotive Center…
Meanwhile, John McKeever, who also co-created the show and occasionally guest stars, added, “I love this show and everyone who works on it. Excited to make more.” “Tires continues to deliver the unapologetic comedy and authentic point of view Shane, John and Steve’s fans know and love, and Season 3 hitting its highest-ever Top 10 ranking proves this fandom just keeps growing,” Tracey Pakosta, Netflix VP of US Comedy, said in a statement at the time.
At just about the same time a trad com with a slightly more auspicious pedigree was also re-merging from mothballs-and let’s just say the results aren’t quite as cut-and-dry. MXDWN.COM’s Emily Eigenbrode took the high road:
Leanne has returned to Netflix with a strong start for its second season, quickly landing among the streamer’s most-watched television shows in the United States. According to ScreenRant, the Chuck Lorre (The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Mom) comedy ranked number four on Netflix’s U.S. TV chart on September.
But its future fate is still not determined, and what NETFLIX’ LIFE’s Reed Gaudens observed pulls back the curtain a bit as to why:
As a multi-cam sitcom with a much shorter runtime, the barometer for success is a bit different for Leanne compared to other Netflix originals like, say, Outer Banks or The Gentlemen, both of which rank higher than the comedy this week…Leanne season 2 contains only 10 episodes, a six-episode decrease from its debut season, giving the follow-up season a meager runtime of 3 hours and 40 minutes.
What’s dusted under the rug is that Lorre and his cast of familiar faces are a lot more costly than Gillis and his cost-effective mates: To wit: Kristen Johnston (3rd Rock from the Sun, Mom, The Exes), Celia Weston (Dead Man Walking, The Village, Junebug), Blake Clark (50 First Dates, The Waterboy, Toy Story 3), Ryan Stiles (Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The Drew Carey Show, Two and a Half Men) and Graham Rogers (Quantico, Atypical, The Kominsky Method). One can admire Lorre’s loyalty–especially to his own alumni–but in an era where the ability to unite any two fiefdoms in comedic agreement is more pipe dream than desire–the Gillis model simply makes more sense.
Yeah, I know there’s a contingent of creatives that abhor the ground Gillis walks on given his political leanings. I suspect they are many of the same folks that are whining about what they see as the premature cancellation of Mindy Kaling’s NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK by Hulu after a single nine-episode season. Kaling’s ideologies are also well known.
Ah, Jay, didja notice that NOT SUITABLE was considered a workplace comedy? Maybe you were being gently let down by the word propulsive rather than the fact your timing for such a pitch was probably more tone-deaf than not?
I know plenty more people who attend Academy screenings are wanting someone like Kaling to succeed than they are someone like Gillis. I believe given the choice they’d even be more likely to run a renewal campaign for LEANNE. To them I’d offer the following observation: GEORGIE AND MANDY’S FIRST MARRIAGE is also set in a tire store, and just happens to be from Chuck Lorre. So maybe Gillis was simply astute enough to hit upon something that translated to enough people–let alone found a more efficient way to make shows that using a host of not cheap writers to throw ideas up against the wall in the manner that sketch comedy does–than those who get to write opinion pieces for THE NEW YORK TIMES?
I really do wish Mr. Martel better luck than he seems to be having. I’m ashamed to admit I identify with a lot of it. But I do at least try to read a room before I pitch it–and especially when I’m sitting behind a glass gleaning feednack from those I selectively and strategically choose to sit in one. I’m gonna assume a showrunner for even some of Viacom’s lesser-viewed cable networks had a couple of chances to do that–or at least was cced on an executive summary. Before Mr. Martel delivers another Hail Mary to find its way back to embracing comedy, and bring us characters who never learn as he expressed in his closing graf, it might to high time to at least dredge them up and read at least read them.
Until next time…