DEATH OF THE SITCOM

This article lays out the grim (?) facts: 24 sitcoms on network schedules today versus 46 in 1993.

Outside the Beltway makes the key point:

How many times have we heard this? All our major movie and TV genres--Westerns, cop shows, medical dramas, sitcoms, game shows, etc.--ebb and flow. The entertainment industry loves to beat a dead horse and, eventually, the shows all become alike and interest fades. The sitcom had been pronounced dead many times, until the Cosby Show revitalized the format in the 1980s. Hospital shows were moribund for years until the E.R. revival. Eventually, someone comes up with a new take on the old formula and it seems "fresh" again.

One genre-mix that has seen very limited use is the marriage of the Western to the horror flick. I can't believe that no one has decided to combine "Buffy" and "Lonesome Dove". They've tried almost everything else.