CNN's History of the Sitcom runs for eight episodes, but it could've easily gone for 80 episodes

Variety

Premiering Sunday, History of the Sitcom comes from Cream Productions, the same company responsible for the recent History of Late Night docuseries. But while the History of Late Night had a chronological story to tell, it was impossible to cover the 70-year history of sitcoms in the same way. So each episode focuses on a specific category. “It was pretty apparent that given the number of sitcoms that have been out there in history that you couldn’t do some sort of comprehensive, start-to-finish history, as though you were in a college course studying it from beginning to end,” says History of the Sitcom executive producer Bill Carter, who also produced the late-night docuseries. “There had to be a way to categorize them and follow them according to some grouping. We have eight episodes; we could have done at least 80.” Showrunner John Ealer adds: “In some ways, you need a bigger story than just the sitcom in order to link them up together and that has to be the story of America. That was kind of our approach, whether it be the American family, how friendships in America have evolved, how work in America has evolved, how race and gender have evolved and how escapism has evolved. That’s how we came up with these themes.”