A Study On Narrative Art Of American Sitcom

The first Chinese sitcom I Love My Family was broadcasted in 1993.1 Love My Family is directed by the Director Ying Da who returns to China after studying in America. The sitcom referring to the pattern of American sitcoms and combining with the specific culture and system factors in China plays an important role in the development history of Chinese television programs. With the economic development in China, watching TV becomes a main activity for leisure and entertainment and the sitcoms characterized by fun and enjoyment get more and more popularity among people, such as My Own Swordsman, i Partment and so on. The expedite network and prevalent electronic equipment help the popularity of American sitcoms in China for a time, from Friends to 2 Broke Girls. More and more young people learn about American sitcoms on internet and get crazy about them.American sitcoms have gone through the development of 68 years since the time when its first sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny was broadcast in 1947 and become one of the most popular types of TV programs to the audience. According to the survey results of the magazine Teleplay on "Top 100 TV programs in American History" in 2007, the top 4 are Friends, I Love Lucy, Seinfeld and M*A*S*H, which are classic TV-series of American sitcoms and have supreme position in audience’s heart.American sitcoms were faced with difficulties and bottleneck caused by decreased audience rating in the development process. However, the sitcoms keep up with the era development, explore new themes and integrate with different cultural factors. With the help of excellent manufacture, they get out of troubles and smash the prediction of "sitcoms are going to die". Their mature narrative patterns are worthy of the study of scholars.The first part includes the former three chapters. In the first chapter, the author sorts out the concepts of sitcoms, makes a summary and definition about the concepts and lists the basic characteristics of American sitcoms. In the second chapter, the author reviews and summarizes the emergence and development history of American sitcoms. In the third chapter, the thesis states the synopses of every season of the case How I Met Your Mother and explains the closed narrative structure of multi-threads.The second part is composed of the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters and studies the narrative pattern of American sitcoms combining with the case. The fourth chapter introduces the figure narration method according to the case. The thesis reveals the characteristics of classification and the flattening of figures. The influence of modeling, personality and actions on the composition of figures and the image-building is also discussed. In the fifth chapter, the author explains the space-time narration method of American sitcoms from the angles of time and space. The thesis explains the concrete application of typical narration and flashback narration in the case as well as the features of spatial narration in closure and openness. The voice narration method is studied in the sixth chapter from the aspects of sound, music and language. The author talks about the narration arrangement and researches on how the voice affects the humor and plot of American sitcoms.The third part is the seventh chapter, which discusses the narration context of American sitcoms. As an artistic form, American sitcoms are affected by many aspects. The thesis explores the commercial features contained in the narration context of American sitcoms, analyzes the influence of the multiculturalism and individualism on narration context of the American sitcoms.The success of American sitcoms is not an accident. They are works congealing huge investment and great thoughts of creators based on the American commercial and recreational context. They are "imported goods" to China with strong comic flavor of American sitcoms. However, as the cultures and systems of China and America are different, Chinese sitcoms can’t copy the narration patterns of those in America. Chinese sitcoms should absorb the quintessence, increase the investment and elaborate planning and create the sitcoms with Chinese characteristics conforming to the taste of the audience so as to realize the sound development of Chinese sitcoms.