The Television Critics Association is currently in the midst of their winter press tour, and on the subject of comedy, some smart young whippersnapper pointed something out: there are a lot of female-driven sitcoms on the teevee right now! Not only that, some of them are actually catching on! (Some of them like a virus, right Whitney?) But the people in charge of these shows had a response to this observation: Yes indeed! Because women have always been funny. But thanks for finally noticing!
Way, way back in May, we found out that a lot of pilots greenlit for the fall featured women in the lead roles as well as women running the shows. This was great news, but there was always the chance that those shows wouldn’t be the hit the networks expected, and all that rejoicing would be followed by disappointment. And then someone would (be ignorant enough to) raise the question: Do audiences think women are funny?
As it turns out, audiences love women! Actually, they just love funny TV shows in general, as long as they are, you know, funny! Is it a bonus — for women in comedy — that women are responsible for making these shows funny? Sure! But as Eileen Heisler, one of the showrunners of ABC‘s The Middle, points out, this is not exactly a burgeoning phenomenon:
“It’s exciting, but we always thought women had funny things to say,” said Heisler. “I think Tina Fey — and us — poked a little hole that allowed for this. We’ve been doing it for a while, and we’re glad to have company.”
Heisler runs The Middle alongside DeAnn Heline. Yup — two female showrunners. Other successful shows with female creators are Fox‘s The New Girl (created by Liz Meriwether and starring Zooey Deschenel) and NBC‘s Up All Night, which was created by Emily Spivey (and stars Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, and Maya Rudolph in the cast). And while NBC‘s Whitney has been mostly the butt of jokes (and the source of derision for Community fans) rather than a critical darling, it’s still on the air after getting a full season order. Whitney Cummings‘ other show, on which she is a producer, 2 Broke Girls (starring Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs), was also picked up for a full season by CBS.
So, yes. The answer to a much-asked question is obvious, and we always knew it: women are good at producing comedy. No need to be so darn surprised about it!
(via Deadline)
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