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You can’t have a sit-com, in this age, about young people living in an apartment. You can try, but people won’t watch it. Whether its last season’s Four Kings, or the dreadful Happy Hour on FOX, there will always be sit-coms produced in this model, but for the foreseeable future they simply won’t stick. Instead, the newer three-camera comedies that are succeeding all seem to be fairly conceptual (they also seem to be on CBS, for some reason). If ‘degree of conceptuality’ is proportional to a shows success with the public, then no series will have a bigger audience this season than CBS’s [natch] new comedy The Class. Here’s the set-up:

A guy throws a party for his fiance. The two of them were in the same third grade class, but met years later and fell in love. His idea is to invite all of his classmates from third grade to the party. About a dozen show up. When his fiance arrives, she’s shocked by his effort, feels smothered, and dumps him in front of all these now-twenty-somethings. We’re left with eight characters who kind of know each other and all the hilarity that these connections can produce.

That’s the show, and dare I say I liked it? A lot*. Keep reading by clicking below…

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Programming note, before I get started: I missed Lovespring International last night (the new comedy series on Lifetime) as my DVR became confused by a few too many bookings. Who programs a new series for 11pm? That’s Daily Show/Adult Swim/reruns of Seinfeld territory. I mean, I’m a young male, the chosen demo, surely the “women’s network” wouldn’t want to squander our viewership, right?

Anyway.

CBS has been airing this sit-com starring Julia-Louis Dreyfus called, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and it seems to be mildly successful. By mildly successful I mean it’s attracting viewers, got renewed, and has garnered, if not favorable reviews, then non-negative reviews, which is about all you can ask out of a mainstream sit-com (wow, I just reread that sentence and feel kind of depressed).

Last night’s episode had to do with Old Christine going to her son’s something at school, and how the kid finally met New Christine, who he really liked. Honestly, I laughed a few times, and if the transitive property is to be believed, I guess this means I liked the show. It should be noted, however, that my continued watching hinges mostly on the fact that it is summer and there really isn’t a lot else on the dial (my TV has a dial, does yours?).

Months ago I declared laugh tracks obsolete. While I still feel this way, two track-infused shows has crept into my TV lineup, How I Met Your Mother and now The New Adventures of Old Christine. I guess we can focus this blame on CBS. HIMYM (which looks almost dirty when abbreviated) relies frequently on editing in its jokes making a live audience an impossibility, but there isn’t any reason TNAOOC (what?!) should rely on canned laughs.

While I’m not wholly enthusiastic about it, the biggest selling point for the new HBO comedy Lucky Louie (aside from Louis C.K.’s Pootie Tang connection) is its use of an actual LIVE studio audience. I don’t care if you want to put a three-camera show on the air, but at least respect you viewers enough to give them actual laughs.