Saul Austerlitz

"Obsessively watched and critically ignored, sitcoms were a distraction, a gentle lullaby of a kinder, gentler America--until suddenly the artificial boundary between the world and television entertainment collapsed. In this book we track the growth of the sitcom, following the path that leads from I LOVE LUCY to THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW; from THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW to THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW; from M*A*S*H to TAXI; from CHEERS to ROSEANNE; from SEINFELD...

Looks at American film comedy from Charlie Chaplin to the work of Judd Apatow, covering such legends as W.C. Fields, Billy Wilder, and the Cohen brothers.