A-Z of Situation Comedy

Z - Zapped. 15 episodes in three seasons, 2016-18. About an office worker transported to a medieval land called Munty. James Buckley, Paul Kaye and Sharon Rooney. Never saw it.
 
Re : Up Pompei - the idea of a comedy based around a city senators's family goes back to about 200BC in Greece. It may have been the first sitcom format. Those plays were popular, but about 200 years later a Roman playwright made a slight change to the original version, which was a stroke of genius - the clever slave/servant became the focus of the story, commented on the action, and interacted with the audience. It proved to be a Roman theatrical blockbuster. (Yes missus, it did!) . As well as the senator's family, the other characters included a boastful cowardly centurion, a lecherous older bloke, a second dim slave (Bernardo Breslawium?), etc. The real Roman senators didn't mind a bit of light-hearted fun ias long as it distracted the plebs from organising a revolt. So if you thought that the jokes were a bit old, some were probably much older than you realised!

I found this information by accident, when reading an "Italian for Beginners" book that I bought on Rotherham's Wednesday bric-a--brac market for 50p. (y)
 
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mikemiller said:
Re : Up Pompei - the idea of a comedy based around a city senators's family goes back to about 200BC in Greece. It may have been the first sitcom format. Those plays were popular, but about 200 years later a Roman playwright made a slight change to the original version, which was a stroke of genius - the clever slave/servant became the focus of the story, commented on the action, and interacted with the audience. It proved to be a Roman theatrical blockbuster. (Yes missus, it did!) . As well as the senator's family, the other characters included a boastful cowardly centurion, a lecherous older bloke, a second dim slave (Bernardo Breslawium?), etc. The real Roman senators didn't mind a bit of light-hearted fun ias long as it distracted the plebs from organising a revolt. So if you thought that the jokes were a bit old, some were probably much older than you realised!

I found this information by accident, when reading an "Italian for Beginners" book that I bought on Rotherham's Wednesday bric-a--brac market for 50p. (y)
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You did very well to read that in Italian if you are only at the beginners stage!
 
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