Communications Major

The way “Abbott” deploys comic mix-ups is a technique the show shares with traditional sitcoms, the 20th-century kind with their multicamera setups, stagelike sets and audience laughter (real or simulated). But “Abbott” exists in a world that has been slowly shedding that style. Many examples still exist, but by the end of the aughts, multicamera shows were already seen as quaint compared with their critically acclaimed new counterparts — single-camera comedies like “Arrested Development,” “The Bernie Mac Show” or “Modern Family.” These shows could borrow techniques from film, documentary and reality TV — cutaways, confessional interviews, voice-over — to access jokes unavailable in the old studio-audience setup. The most obvious predecessors of “Abbott” were among them: the American adaptation of “The Office” and, later, “Parks and Recreation,” both long-running NBC mockumentary sitcoms about close-knit workplace colleagues.

Replacing costly cable service with Internet TV seems like an easy way to reduce the family budget. But with more choices comes more confusion.

Did you watch the election coverage Tuesday night? Did you notice Diane Sawyer slurring? Many people accused the legendary TV anchor of being drunk last night while covering the election while others insist that Sawyer was just exhausted. Read the tweets, watch the video. And you decide. 

In case you missed right-wing Twitter rants by Donald Trump, you can stop before driving "well past the last exit to relevance" and read them here. The Donald, as the world's greatest combover is still called, was about to end his latest "15 minutes" of fame, until NBC anchor Brian Williams came along and gave him another 41 seconds. This stopped Trump from tweeting about the Obama reelection as the end of the world and diverted him (for the time being) into tweeting about Brian Williams' TV ratings.

London, the host of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, capped a fortnight of athletic achievements with a jukebox collection of songs and a marathon display of endearingly wacky stagecraft. 

American writer Gore Vidal passed away this week at the age of 86. In many ways, Vidal epitomizes the old school phrase "man of letters". Over seven decades, he penned numerous novels, essays, plays and screenplays. But another contribution Vidal made to mass communication was his frequent appearances on television talk shows.