The Funny Thing Is…

With dark hair and a slightly rumpled appearance, Bob Daily has the low-key delivery you’d expect from a man whose job is not to seem overly amused by the jokes he writes for a living. Daily is a 1982 graduate of Carleton College, and a writer (and current co-executive producer) for Frasier. One day in late January, he left the balmy climes of Hollywood for an auditorium in Northfield, where he gave a talk called “Writing and Producing the Television Situation Comedy.” The live studio audience, as it were, was a capacity crowd of students. They asked the tough questions: How does one break into Hollywood? What is David Hyde Pierce really like?

Being a network sitcom writer is not easy these days. Reality shows are hogging prime-time real estate, while cable TV is snagging high-profile awards and thumbing its nose at the banality of network shows whose characters can’t swear or discuss their sexual exploits.

What’s a network comedy writer to do? For Daily, the situation isn’t as dire as it first appears. Good comedy, he notes, relies on more than shock value. One of the things common to most long-running comedies is writing that appeals to both the head and the heart, with jokes that work on more than one level. In other words, you can write a dumb joke about a smart subject, or vice versa, thereby appealing to both sensibilities. As an example, Daily offered what he thinks of as the perfect joke about highbrow post-modern composer Philip Glass.

In the scene, Frasier, Roz, and scriptwriters B.K. and Ed are working on a documentary about space travel. As they discuss the possibilities for the show’s accompanying music, B.K. suggests the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The recommendation is vetoed by Frasier, who finds it trite., B.K. tries again. “What about Philip Glass? You know, go completely minimalist,” he says. “It’s like space,” Frasier chimes in eagerly. “Now we’re cooking!” The scene continues with the characters ticking off obscure composers while Roz grows increasingly agitated.

“If we do a reference like that, we write it in such a way that even if people don’t know who Philip Glass is, they get it in the context and the attitude of the actor,” Daily said. “We don’t try to be snobbish, but if it’s constructed in the right way, you can do a smart joke without alienating your audience.”

However smart, can comedy really compete against, say, a bikini’d babe eating live minnows? Well, sure. Daily regards intelligent humor as both the past and the future of the network sitcom. Television executives habitually underestimate their viewers. The longevity of the witty, classy Frasier has proven that a show need not pander to achieve mainstream success. Classic sitcom formulas can spell success, as long as the writing sparkles and the acting is superb—take Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends as two beloved examples.

Despite their current dominance, reality shows probably won’t stay hot forever, Daily said. He cited a truism he learned from a friend: “Hollywood is a place where people run to wherever lightning has recently struck. As soon as people heard about reality shows, everyone ran to that spot, but I think most will disappear eventually.” Then, too, clever writers may begin to crib from reality TV’s playbook. Daily said he knows of at least two pilots being created presently that are ripping off Survivor—shows set on a desert island.

Daily will put his theories to the test this May, when Frasier takes its final bow. He recently inked a deal with Paramount that gives him two years to formulate ideas for series and pitching them to networks, in hopes that one will make it on air. “The odds are always against you in something like that. But there’s a great tradition of comedy at Paramount—Taxi, then Cheers, then Frasier,” he said. “I want to keep that going if I can.” He hesitated. “Got any ideas?”—Erin Peterson


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