By Cathryn Lien, Features Editor
Asbury University’s Emmy Award-winning sitcom “Friends Like You,” directed by professor Doug Smart, will produce its last episode the first weekend in October. As the only college in the country to offer an original live-audience sitcom production class, the end of the series is more of a bitter than sweet farewell.
For ten years, “Friends Like You” and the sitcom production class have given media communication students the opportunity to use their skills in a hands-on environment under the professional tutelage of Smart, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience as a professional TV director and broadcaster at the network level in Hollywood. The series and class come to an end due to Smart’s retirement from teaching.
In college, Smart mentored under Desi Arnaz, known for starring as Ricky Ricardo in the sitcom “I Love Lucy,” for his work in multi-camera production. Smart’s production credits include “Golden Girls,” “Benson” and “Newhart,” to name a few.
“I treat the sitcom like I would a professional set,” Smart said. “What the student actors and crew do is exactly what they’d do on a Hollywood sounds stage.”
Sitcom production was first introduced to Asbury’s curriculum in 2006 with the student-led production of “Post-Grade,” recorded in front of a live audience in the now demolished Doddrige-Holland building. A year later, Jim Owens, the dean of the School of Communication Arts, approached Smart with the idea of creating a sitcom course that would operate in conjunction with a live studio recording.
Since 2007, “Friends Like You” has been written and directed by Smart and produced by Asbury students. Footage from the October live recording will be edited during class time during this fall semester. In the spring, the episode will air on Channel 21 WBNA Louisville.
Smart said he drew inspiration for the show’s title from the unique situation he was in as a writer. The name encompasses all the different characters that star in the series’ episodes.
“The show is essentially a series of pilot episodes,” Smart said. “An episode’s characters and plot can’t continue into the next year’s show because as students move up in classes and graduate, the cast and crew change.” Smart also said he was playing on the phrase, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” which refers to the dramatic situations the characters enter in with each other.
The set has always been either a school broadcast newsroom or the “Undergrounds” coffee shop. Smart said the below ground settings allow for a windowless set, making production much simpler to manage.
The stories revolve around these two work environments, and, while the show stars college-age kids, the plots never focus on campus life or specifically Asbury community. The episodes are relatable to people of all ages and backgrounds.
“We maintain appropriate humor that falls within Asbury’s standards. This teaches students how to make a comedy show that doesn’t rely on crass jokes but can get a laugh from something wholesome and intelligent,” Smart said.
Students in both the cast and crew will take away valuable skills they can put into practice in the real world of television.
Smart said, “One of my previous students called me up to thank me for everything I’d taught him in sitcom production class. He’d been studying in L.A. and had attended a live recording of the Big Bang Theory, and said the professional crew operated the same way I had taught the class.”
Having trained his students to work as professionals, Smart said he trusts them like he would a Hollywood crew. “You’ll see them on the recording nights. They are a well-oiled machine,” he said. “It’s been a joy to watch students grow in their careers from being part of this series.”
The 30-minute sitcom will be recorded in front of a live studio audience on Oct. 4, 5 and 6. Tickets can be purchased in the Miller Building.