• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, December 15, 2023

From sitcoms with laugh tracks to a Christmas tree lighting ceremony from the White House, network TV continues to do it the old-fashioned way.

Two cases in point, among many: A White House Christmas tree lighting special tonight (Friday, December 15) on CBS, and a run-of-the-mill sitcom coming to NBC next week that could have been produced and aired 20 years ago.

With the generic title of “National Christmas Tree Lighting,” the CBS show centers on a tradition of presidential tree lightings going back to 1923, the year that fun-loving Calvin Coolidge inaugurated this annual rite of Christmas.

This year’s ceremony took place November 30, with President Joe Biden having the honor of turning an on-off switch into the “on” position.

Other entertainment at the tree lighting included rock guitarist Joe Walsh, Dionne Warwick and the United States Coast Guard’s Guardians Big Band.

For younger viewers, other performers were Darren Criss, Samara Joy, Ledisi, Reneé Rapp and St. Vincent (no relation to the real St. Vincent, the French Catholic priest canonized as a saint in 1737).

The show is a blast from the past that is still present. Also a blast from the past: The new NBC comedy series called “Extended Family,” premiering next weekend.

This show has all the unctuous characteristics of network sitcoms from decades past -- a style that seemed to have gone by the wayside years ago. But instead, it is still with us. (More on this show Monday in the TV Blog.) 

This time of year is particularly crowded with network TV shows of the old school. “Barry Manilow: A Very Barry Christmas” was seen this past Monday on NBC.

NBC has already had “Christmas At Graceland,” “Christmas At The Opry” and “Christmas In Rockefeller Center,” which is as much a rite of the holiday season as the New York Thanksgiving parade and on July Fourth, Macy’s fireworks.

Coming up on CBS: the "25th Annual 'A Home for the Holidays’ " entertainment special December 22.

And tonight -- Friday, following President Biden turning on the Christmas tree -- CBS has the un-Christmas-y (but still festive) telecast of “The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” a throwback TV awards show if there ever was one.

On Christmas Day, ABC celebrates the parent company with the 40th annual “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade.” Let it snow? Well, no -- this one comes from Florida.

In their way, these corny Christmas specials represent what network TV is all about, Charlie Brown. 

At holiday time, network television can be relied upon for content that some people still look for, and expect, every year.

But at the same time, the networks’ continued reliance on the traditional ways of doing things underscores their position between a rock and hard place.

If they begin to jettison the old-style comedies, dramas and feel-good specials (especially this time of year), then they risk losing millions who still watch them. 

If they then try to make shows that look and feel more like the majority of the content on the streaming services -- edgier in the areas of violence, sex, language and antisocial behaviors -- then they risk alienating their core audience even more.

But as everybody knows, viewing habits, preferences and tastes are undergoing a seismic shift, and have been for a long time now. Network TV audiences decline every year, as everybody also knows.

For now, the legacy networks have the year-end holidays all to themselves, since there is no evidence that the streaming services -- many of them co-owned with the networks -- are poised to take the lead on TV’s annual deluge of Christmas shows.

As for old-style sitcoms that the networks still produce, Netflix has made a few of its own in the last few years, but seems to have abandoned the idea. When will the networks do the same thing?