The Big Sitcom Theory

A lot of my family and friends are fans of "The Big Bang Theory" but I really have never favored many of the CBS sitcoms, especially the rat-a-tat, joke-joke-joke Chuck Lorre style ones.

This is a few weeks old now, but I did catch Bob Newhart's guest starring spot on the aforementioned show, and the respected comedy icon had a nice way of slowing down the pace with his performance, holding everything a beat or two longer than normal for the show, and thus making the episode funnier than it might otherwise have been.

Newhart's performance reinforced my point -- a sitcom needs something more than just hammering away with jokes to really be interesting. He injected something else into the proceedings, even on a multi-camera, largely studio-bound show.