A big-laugh comedy? Yes, that seems nostalgic

Somehow, television has reached this point:
Making a network comedy seems like a bold adventure to unearth an artifact.
“There are so few made now,” said Ignacio Diaz-Silverio (shown here, middle), a young co-star of “Newlyweds,” debuting at 8:30 p.m. Friday (Oct. 23) on NBC. “It feels nostalgic in the most positive way.”
At the peak, one network had 18 situation comedies. And now? This fall, there will only be eight on all of broadcast TV. And only three will be done in the traditional way — taped live in front of a studio audience.
From “Lucy” to “Seinfeld” to “Big Bang,” that used to be TV’s core. “I grew up (watching) ‘Friends,’ ‘Will & Grace,’ ‘Reba,'” Diaz-Silverio said.
To which Tim Daly, now playing his step-dad, helpfully added: “‘Wings,'”
Ah, yes. Back in 1992, “Wings” was one of 13 sitcoms in the Nielsen top-20. It starred Daly, who said he savors doing this sort of show. “For me, it’s the live audience. I’m a theater kid and I love doing plays. (I love) performing in front of live people and the special energy that’s created.”
Daly stars in “Newlyweds” with his real-life wife, Tea Leoni — who was definitely not a theater kid. She’s done two previous studio-audience comedies, both reluctantly: “When I did ‘Flying Blind’ and ‘The Naked Truth,’ they used to hang air-sickness bags behind all the sets,” she said.
Then why do it now? “The world got darker and we wanted to get lighter,”
Leoni said.
Jamie Lee Curtis — the show’s producer and co-star — agreed: “It’s a terrible time in the world in every aspect,” she said. “There’s just nothing going on that isn’t hard.”
She had pushed the notion of a bright subject — a whirlwind, later-in-life courtship and marriage. Then that lingered.
“Jamie brought me this idea during the pandemic,” writer-producer Gail Lerner said. “So we’ve really been generating it for a very long time …. And then NBC called in November of 2025 and said, ‘Hey, let’s do that show.’ And we’re off to the races.”
Daly and Leoni played a married couple a decade ago in “Madam Secretary,” a dead-serious drama. They started dating then and finally married last year; now they’re playing the comic side of married life.
She plays a teacher with two adopted children, both young adults. He plays a professor who’s divorced. Her character is quick and instinctive; his isn’t. Now his one instinctive deed — the marriage — changes everything.
And “Newlyweds” revives one TV tradition — the goofy sidekick.
There’s his ex-wife, played with gusto by Curtis. And there’s his new assistant Arvid (shown here, leaning on the sofa), who seems to occupy a separate universe.
“Television has a history of fantastic, eccentric … characters who bring an innocence,” Curtis said.
That’s Arvid, played by newcomer Bill O’Neill. Some ciewers will see him in a world occupied by Jim on “Taxi” or Larry and the brothers Darryl on “Newhart.” He’s a nostalgic reminder of TV’s louder, funnier days.