With ‘Fuller House’ Leaving Netflix, The Traditional Multi-cam Sitcom Once Again Seems In Danger of Extinction

The most-watched Netflix show that no one will admit to actually watching, the critic-proof Fuller House, bids farewell to its undercover audience this week with a fifth and final season of basic life lessons, unadulterated schmaltz, and jokes you can see coming all the way from the Golden Gate Bridge.

The decision to bring back the Tanner family, well its younger members, was initially seen as off-brand for a company seemingly more concerned with usurping HBO in the prestige TV stakes than drawing millions away from the bread-and-butter programming of CBS.

Netflix’s early comedy output felt fresh and forward-thinking. Think Aziz Ansari’s astute explorations of millennial life in Master of None or the rapid-fire unadulterated chaos of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, for example. In contrast, a Full House revival was an exercise in pure nostalgia. And yet, ironically, it ended up making a far bigger impact on the sitcom world.

Since DJ, Stefanie and the hapless Kimmy Gibbler returned to our screens, the multi-cam comedy has enjoyed an unexpected renaissance. In the network pilot season of 2017, less than a year after Fuller House premiered, the format was represented just seven times. Just 12 months later that number had grown to 16, remarkably surpassing that of the single-camera sitcom.

Netflix has continued to embrace the bright lights and canned laughter, too, scoring hits with The Ranch and Family Reunion. It’s even managed to bag some critical acclaim for its revival of One Day at a Time, the classic Norman Lear creation which proved the traditional sitcom could also have a social conscience.

And yet their unexpected cancelation of the latter, which, thankfully for fans, was later picked up by Pop TV, and Fuller House and The Ranch‘s natural ends now leave Netflix without a flagship multi-cam. Premiered last month, The Big Show Show is more watchable than most but, like so many of the streaming giant’s cheaper-to-produce originals, has come and gone without much fanfare. And even the star power of Dennis Quaid couldn’t save Merry Happy Whatever from joining All About the Washingtons, No Good Nick and Disjointed on the one-season scrapheap.

But it’s not just Netflix where new multi-cam blood is struggling to break through. The annual cull of the schedules may not have been as brutal in a pandemic-hit 2020. But recent arrivals Carol’s Second Act, Outmatched and Broke have still all been dropped, the fate of Indebted is precariously hanging in the balance, while Matt Le Blanc’s disappointingly regressive Man with a Plan has also been put out of its misery. Throw in last year’s axings of Murphy Brown, The Cool Kids, Happy Together and Abby’s and the picture looks even bleaker.

Of course, both averaging more than eight million viewers, Mom and Last Man Standing – two of the last decade’s most enduring multi-cams – are still pulling in impressive numbers. But it’s unlikely they’ll be on air in three years’ time. Attracting similar ratings, newcomers Bob Hearts Abishola and The Neighborhood, as well as the much-troubled Roseanne-less The Conners, may well enjoy similar shelf lives. But none yet show signs of picking up the mantle from The Big Bang Theory, the closest that the digital age has got to the phenomena of a Cheers, Seinfeld or Friends.

The longest-running multi-cam of all time pulled in an astonishing 23.4 million viewers for its 12th season finale, making it the highest-rated scripted series of 2019. It also featured 13 times in the top 100 most-watched shows of the same year and remains the last of its kind to pick up a Best Comedy Series Emmy nomination (way back in 2014).

The only other scripted show to make anywhere near the same impact in 2019 was Young Sheldon (12 most-watched appearances), the spin-off which opted for the single-camera approach. Yes, even the one-man multi-cam machine Chuck Lorre appears to have realized that comedy needn’t always adhere to the set-up/punchline: his first Netflix venture, The Kominsky Method, also abandons his well-worn formula.

Lorre isn’t the only new single-cam convert, either. Saved by the Bell, the ‘90s teen favorite with its finger permanently on the laugh track button, is going more au naturel for its impending reboot. Likewise Hogan’s Heroes, the prisoner of war comedy apparently being revived a half-century after its underwhelming finale.

But can any of the disrupted ’20-21 season’s multi-cam debuts dislodge Young Sheldon as the nation’s number one comedy? Well, probably not. B Positive‘s premise – divorced dad forms bond with his kidney donor – doesn’t sound like the most comedically fertile and its teaser trailer suggests it’s yet another Lorre-by-numbers affair.

Executive produced by Jim Parsons and starring Mayim Bialik, Call Me Kat – a remake of the UK’s hugely successful Miranda – will undoubtedly spark the interest of those suffering TBBT withdrawal symptoms. But America’s recent track record of adapting British sitcoms has been dismal. And although we’re interested to see how the typically menacing Guillermo Diaz handles broad comedy, you wouldn’t bet on ABC’s United We Fall progressing to season two. In fact, the year’s funniest attempt at the multi-cam is likely to be the one entirely skewering it, Adult Swim’s brilliantly surreal Beef House.

However the new slate fares, the multi-cam will, of course, still survive. It’s far less expensive, for one thing, and its general approachability will always connect quicker than the idiosyncrasies of the single-cam. But in stark contrast to the general TV landscape, it hasn’t yet entered a new and oft-promised golden age.

Jon O’Brien (@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D, The Guardian, Vinyl Me Please and Allmusic.