{"id":526,"date":"2012-03-21T18:58:22","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T22:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/?p=526"},"modified":"2012-03-21T18:58:22","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T22:58:22","slug":"him-and-her-and-a-limited-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"Him and Her and a Limited Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hate to piggy-back on Erin’s discussion of the bottle episode-ness of Him and Her<\/em>, but it was also the first thing that came to mind as we watched the show, and fits in with the budget constraints for British television as a whole.<\/p>\n

Because it is on BBC, Him and Her<\/em> obviously is in a budget crunch like the entire corporation is. This would lead the thought to be that the higher-ups at the BBC enjoy the show because the relative bargain it receives by producing it.<\/p>\n

Also, like Erin, I had a flash-back to an American television episode having their own bottle episode. Instead of Friends<\/em>, I thought of Community<\/em> and their episode “Cooperative Calligraphy.” \u00a0Community<\/em> (despite godawful ratings) is extremely well-written, creative, and gains some critical acclaim. Dan Harmon is extremely self-aware in the production of the show, and in fact in the episode, there are several quips about the fact that it is a bottle episode (the entire show takes place in the community college’s study room).<\/p>\n

The thing that sticks out to me is that American sitcoms have to do a bottle episode almost once a season. Because they have 24 episodes to fill, even with the bigger budget, they often have to do so to save some money that the producers and writers can then use in another episode where they can be more creative and make more chances. However, Him and Her<\/em> has only aired 13 episodes, or roughly half of one SEASON of Community<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While the BBC obviously loves the money it can save on Him and Her<\/em>, I don’t think a show like this would work in America. Most Americans probably don’t notice the bottle episode (they aren’t all as obvious as Friends<\/em> and Community<\/em>) so they can get away with it in a long season. However, I don’t think an American audience would watch a show that takes place in only one location, consciously, over an entire season.<\/p>\n

Also, if you have the time, you should absolutely watch this episode if you have the time\/want a good laugh.\u00a0http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/watch\/191067\/community-cooperative-calligraphy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate to piggy-back on Erin’s discussion of the bottle episode-ness of Him and Her, but it was also the first thing that came to mind as we watched the show, and fits in with the budget constraints for British … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/592"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}