FROM THEATRE PLAY TO REALITY COMEDY

Abstract

This paper argues that genre analysis remains important to the study of television, but that it needs to give more attention to the cultural and historical specificities of genres. To illustrate this point, the evolution of Flemish comic fiction is sketched. It is possible to distinguish broad phases (proto‐comedy, classic sitcom and reality comedy), but there are equally many idiosyncrasies and breaches, which contradict the notion of a gradual, linear and culturally synchronised evolution. To understand the establishment of comic genres, it is necessary to link textual characteristics to the shifting power play between production and reception. The evolution of Flemish comedy is the product of a dynamic interplay between manifold factors, including institutional organisation, broadcasting policies, budgets, producer taste and creativity, changes in television culture, social discourses on the popular, audience ratings, press criticism, national culture (and its position in broadcasting) and international genre conventions. Cultural specificity has played a key role throughout the history of Flemish comedy, and it remains to do so, in spite of the increasing global circulation of genres and formats.