Teen comedy

A teen situation comedy, or teen sitcom, is a subgenre of comedic television programs targeted towards preteens and teenagers. In general, these type of programs focus primarily on characters between 13 and 19 years of age and routinely feature characters involved in humorous situations (either realistic or fantasy in style, depending on the program's plotline), and often focus on the characters' family and social lives. The primary plot of each episode often involves the lead character(s) that the program centers on, while secondary plotlines often focus on the character(s') parents, siblings (assuming the main character has any and they are not one of the leads) or friends – although the secondary characters may also or instead be involved in the episode's main plot.

The most common episodic plot lines used in teen sitcoms involve the lead characters dealing with family and friends, ending up in a complicated situation (such as accepting two date invitations) that the characters must solve by episode's end, getting into moral conflicts with their parents (or sometimes, friends, relatives or siblings), and coming-of-age situations (such as a first date or learning how to drive); however plots that are more dramatic, centering on social issues (such as bullying, peer pressure, underage drinking or drug use), occasionally are used in the form of a "very special episode".

Although adolescents are the main audience focus for these programs, these programs are also popular with young adults as well as preteens. Older adults may enjoy them for nostalgic purposes. Like teen dramas, this genre was also generally non-existent during the first 30 years of television.

When sitcoms reached their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, these programs were supposed to be family-oriented. Sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s such as Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best and The Donna Reed Show were popular with teenagers, along with the entire family. The teen movie genre was popular during the 1960s and led the way towards the teen sitcom genre.

The earliest ancestor of the teen sitcom was Meet Corliss Archer, a TV adaptation of a popular radio show about a teenage girl which aired briefly in syndication in 1954. The first teen sitcom on a major network was The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, a 1959–1963 CBS sitcom based on collegiate short stories by humorist Max Shulman. Dobie Gillis followed the adventures of a teenage boy and his friends through high school, the military, and college, and was the first American network television program to feature teenagers (played by Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver, actors in their twenties at the time) as its lead characters.

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