Fox bringing back the multi-camera sitcom in a big, convoluted way with The Short-Com Comedy Hour

By Sean O'Neal | July 25, 2012 | 10:56pm

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If the just-released news that Dan Harmon might be staging a multi-camera comeback at Fox seemed strange to you—not just for Harmon getting another job so quickly, but because Fox doesn't even do multi-camera comedies anymore—the network is out to prove you wrong on the latter point. In 2013, it plans to get back into multi-camera comedies in a big way, beginning with that summer's The Short-Com Comedy Hour. According to Deadline, Short-Com is being pitched as a throwback to the early years of TV, when multi-camera sitcoms debuted as part of larger variety showcases, with the idea that each episode will feature single acts from four separate, miniature comedies.

All of these "short-coms"—a word that is now in the pop culture lexicon, so start using it right now in conversation with your neighbors and loved ones—will be created and produced by and star a stand-up comedian, playing a character "informed by aspects" of their personal lives. For example, the way that they have trouble with dating or parenting or are always hitting people with their cars out of boredom, that sort of thing. The idea is to then grow those "short-coms" (Try saying it out loud!) into traditional standalone sitcoms, all of which will be in the old multi-camera format. So the backlash has truly begun against elitist single-camera comedies with all their snooty cinematic qualities and refusing to allow an audience of real Americans to guffaw all over everything. Tell the people.