The Interactive Sitcom of the Future

With the continued success of shows like Scrubs, The Office, 30 Rock, My Name Is Earl, and whichever ones I'm forgetting, a lot of people are acting like we're seeing the last of the traditional 3-camera, studio audience-having sitcom. (New 3-camera shows The Big Bang Theory and soon Cavemen don't make great counter-arguments.)

But the most innovative comedy on television the last two years has been an old-format one: How I Met Your Mother. For those who don't know the premise: in the year 2030, Ted tells his children the long, rambling title story. Pilot episode's last second twist: TV reporter Robin, who Ted meets, falls in love with, and pursues for the entire series, isn't your mother. (Last season ended with Ted and Robin breaking up, presumably for good -- we'll see.) The mood is lightened by Ted's friends: Willow from Buffy, the really tall guy from Freaks and Geeks, and Dr. Doogie Howser.

I appreciate that this sitcom, like Seinfeld before it, rewards loyal viewers with sly references to previous episodes, and doesn't feel the need to explain, for example, why one character suddenly slaps another for apparently no reason. But what really sets this show apart, I think, is its unprecedented use of the Internet to flesh out its characters. Yes, the Internet -- you're using it right now, friend.

Obvious example: Neil Patrick Harris's character, Barney, often makes reference in the show to his blog. Explaining his reflective silver disco shirt, Barney says: "One of the 24 similarities between women and fish are they're both attracted to shiny objects. Don't you ever read my blog?" Sure enough, he actually did write about that.

A lot of TV characters have blogs. That's de rigueur. Characters in Mother took it a step farther last year with the charmingly simplistic Swarley.com, after an episode in which they decided Barney's new nickname should be Swarley (with innumerable variations such as "Swarles Barkley"). Take a look at the thought that went into this website. The title, "Page 1," immediately indicates that this is not a polished, professional effort. A look at the source code reveals that it was made with an online web development tool -- an easy way to get a site up quick, just what a real Ted and Marshall would have used. You can even imagine the circumstances behind the site's lone photo.

Obviously the folks at NBC are capable of a much more sophistocated website, but Swarley.com looks like what it's supposed to be, which makes it that much stronger satire. The Mother crew imagined a fan's MySpace page to coincide with last season's revelation that Robin Scherbatsky used to be Robin Sparkles, a much more ridiculous, Canadian version of Tiffany. (If that doesn't sound hilarious, it's only because I'm not describing it right.) Just like Robin Sparkles, and just like a MySpace fan page, it is everything tacky crammed together at once -- garish colors, autoplay music, and don't forget the robot. (That's a line in the song. As Robin explains in the show, "The 80s didn't come to Canada until like '93.")

In fact, that episode's name was changed from "Robin Sparkles" to "Slap Bet", so that alert viewers wouldn't find the MySpace page before the show aired. In that episode, Barney and Marshall wage a "slap bet" on Robin's big secret (loser gets slapped, hard). Barney, seeing only the beginning of the Robin Sparkles video and convinced that he guessed right -- that Robin starred in Canadian pornography -- slaps Marshall. As punishment for "premature slapulation," Marshall is allowed to slap Barney five times -- but those slaps could come any time, any place. Two already happened, and both were hilariously unexpected. At the end of this week's episode, Marshall called Barney and told him to check out SlapCountDown.com. Just like in the show, it's nothing but a red countdown against a stark black background.