A persistent ‘jewish invention’ myth is the idea that the jews invented the type of television show now called the Sitcom (short for a ‘Situational Comedy’) with Kathyrn Bernheimer at ‘Boulder Jewish News’ making such a claim. (1)
Unlike many ‘jewish invention’ myths Bernheimer can be forgiven for not knowing better since the ‘man who invented with the Sitcom’ is a title usually awarded – falsely as it happens – to Hollywood director William Asher – who was half jewish being the product of a marriage between his jewish father and non-jewish mother (so non-jewish halakhically speaking but jewish generally speaking) – (2) due his creation of the television series ‘Our Miss Brooks’ which ran from 1952 to 1956 on CBS and was based on a radio series of the same name which ran from 1948 to 1956. (3)
Asher also was key in directing the famous television sitcom ‘I Love Lucy’ from 1952 to 1957 which also ran on CBS.
The truth is that Asher didn’t create the television sitcom but rather that British director John Glyn-Jones who – together with writer Rodney Hobson – created a television sitcom called ‘Pinwright’s Progress’ that was broadcast on the BBC’s revived early television service between 1946 and 1947 with ten episodes eventually being aired. (5)
The reality is – given that the CBS was actively cribbing program ideas from the BBC at this time till the 1950s (often by the medium of British businessman Harry Alan Towers) – then John Glyn-Jones and Rodney Hobson’s concept of the Sitcom was simply filched by CBS who employed William Asher to produce it own American version of the concept and eventually John Glyn-Jones and Rodney Hobson’s role was forgotten resulting in Asher being given the false soubriquet of the ‘man who invented with the Sitcom’.
So no jews didn’t invent the Sitcom.
References
(1) https://boulderjewishnews.org/2009/an-informal-list-of-jewish-inventions-innovations-and-radical-ideas/
(2) https://www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/December-1999/The-Man-Who-Invented-the-Sitcom/
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Miss_Brooks
(4) https://www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/December-1999/The-Man-Who-Invented-the-Sitcom/
(5) https://web.archive.org/web/20100308142542/http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/pinwrights_progress/