Update: In answer to my question; Sports Night is the closest thing I’ve found to a multi camera show that became a single camera show.
> Quicktime H264
(2.3mb)
> iPod Compatible
(1.3mb)
> RealPlayer Media
(559kb)
I’ve been watching How I Met Your Mother lately, and for some of its lameness, it is kind of a cool show. But where does the lameness come from? It’s the four cameras filming it, and the studio audience watching and laughing at it.
Which got me thinking, why has a traditional multi camera sitcom, like How I Met Your Mother, never built a “fourth wall”, lost the studio audience and just matured into a single camera sitcom.
I know Scrubs did an episode that parodied the traditional sitcom by filming part of the show in front a studio audience, I would just love to see it done the other way round, I think it would be a fascinating evolution for a show to change that dramatically, and a chance for a show like How I Met Your Mother to grow a little, and give the writers and directors a chance to expore different aspects of the story.
