Talk:The Last Man on Earth (TV series)

Relationship with other Stories
No connection to the graphic novel series "Y: The Last Man"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.204.162.201 (talk) 13:03, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

No there is at least one other man in the show. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.174.246.216 (talk) 11:27, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

The show is set in Tucson AZ, but I wonder where the desert scenes are filmed. I live in Tucson, and the cactus look more like So Cal desert plants, not the Saguaros of Tucson. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.1.231.240 (talk) 04:07, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Casting
Why is Jason Sudekis in the recurring section while WIll Ferrell appears in the guest section. They're both credited in the special guest star bill. I'm hoping this confusion gets cleared up.S hannon434 (talk) 02:58, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Sudekis is a recurring character, so he belongs in that section. Will Ferrell was only in a single episode. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 04:50, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Classification as Comedy
Why is this TV Series classified as Comedy rather than Sitcom? Is there some sort of system in place for how we differentiate between the two titles? Hopefully someone can point me at the right guidelines. Harlequence (talk) 16:09, 18 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Because it's not a sitcom. A sitcom is "a genre of comedy centred on characters who share a common environment, such as a home or workplace". In a sitcom, events generally take place in one or only a very few places. The events of this series have occurred in multiple environments: in houses, in a culdesac, dirt roads, shopping centres, the ocean, different states, even space. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 21:23, 18 August 2016 (UTC)
 * they share the post-apocalyptic universe. it is most definitely a sitcom.  NON-sitcom comedy would be things like sketch shows (SNL), or their "variety show" equivalents (carol burnett).  209.172.23.132 (talk) 04:10, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
 * It's not a sitcom based on the definition that I quoted above. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 13:18, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
 * it most certainly does, quite LITERALLY!


 * or pretty much any OTHER definition of sitcom.


 * do u seriously not know what a sitcom is?! 209.172.23.142 (talk) 02:02, 6 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Of course I know what a sitcom is. I've even read the definition. Have you? -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 07:05, 6 November 2016 (UTC)
 * just the one up there that u posted, which FITS THE SERIES TO A T!
 * i have no qualms with leaving it as "comedy", but "sitcom" would be more specific. others wanna weigh in here?  209.172.23.136 (talk) 04:17, 8 November 2016 (UTC)
 * The definition says "such as a home or workplace", not the whole world, and space above it. So far we've seen people in Tucson, Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean, and even orbiting the planet. That goes well beyond the definition of a sitcom. Sitcoms have expanded beyond the single room sitcoms like The Honeymooners, but they haven't expanded that far. The filmed environments are still generally limited to the same town or city, with the occasional foray outside permitted, but when locations change permanently, "sitcom" no longer applies. This is why it's defined only as a comedy, not a sitcom. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 06:05, 8 November 2016 (UTC)
 * nice link. it also lists pretty much every OTHER sitcom as "comedy".  sitcom is -- once again -- a SUBSET of "comedy".  any comedy with a "situation", i.e., not stand-up, not a sketch show, not the tonight show.  basically, if the actors are portraying the SAME CHARACTERS from ep to ep, you are in a "situation".
 * google "last man on earth - sitcom", you will get more than enough proof. plenty of industry sites, newspapers, reviews, etc. etc. calling it a sitcom.  as is self-evident anyways, but you seem to be missing something.
 * oh, and honeymooners had a few eps set downtown, at work, in a bus station, etc. as well. so you're not even consistent with your OWN screwy logic! 209.172.23.51 (talk) 02:08, 10 November 2016 (UTC)


 * I still don't at all understand how we here at Wikipedia differentiate between a comedy and a sitcom - unless The Last Man On Earth is a sitcom, in which case I understand - I am asking for actual guidance on policy/guidelines, such as an internal link or emotionless explanation, please. Thank you Harlequence (talk) 05:58, 14 September 2017 (UTC)


 * I feel that perhaps "sitcom" is taken as a degrading term because of a general perception that sitcoms are not good comedy. If that may have been true, it is now antiquated. The source given to keep this series listed as a "comedy" and not "sitcom" lists most sitcoms as "comedy" even if the word "sitcom" appears multiple times in the description. Unless there is a challenge I will change the classification from comedy to sitcom. Thank you. Harlequence (talk) 04:58, 16 September 2017 (UTC)
 * No, that's not it at all. It all comes down to where and how the comedy plays out, as I earlier explained, in my very first post 11 months ago. I really don't understand why it's so hard to understand.
 * lists most sitcoms as "comedy" - All sitcoms are comedy, not all comedies are sitcoms. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 09:08, 16 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I am able to follow that all sitcoms are comedies but not all comedies are sitcoms. The nomadic lifestyle forced upon the characters does not strike me as grounds for removal from the classification of sitcom; while all sitcoms do revolve around constant characters, the environment can be subject to change for aesthetic or plot-driven reasons. Perhaps a case example will help to illustrate my confusion - Would we agree that Community (TV Series) is a sitcom? If so, let us note that there is little difference between the study room and the wasteland for all intents and purposes relevant to the analysis of medium format classification. The same is true of many animated sitcoms including South Park's eponymous town and The Simpsons' home city of Springfield. I want to note that The Last Man On Earth follows a much more serial format than South Park or even Rick and Morty, which uses an entire-universe as a base location for almost all A-stories (but does feature a "home" location in which most of the B-stories take place). Again, I want to strongly emphasize that I am not taking a stand in favor of position x or y; rather I am interested in a productive discussion on classification of a rapidly-changing media format so that we may better our work. Would we agree that all of the works I've mentioned in this entry are in fact sitcoms? Do we think that a steadfast serial canon contributes to the perception that The Last Man On Earth is not a sitcom, and if so, is there potential truth to that? Could it be appropriate to list this show as both comedy and sitcom, i.e. having elements of the latter but not able to be fully defined by it? Harlequence (talk) 18:33, 16 September 2017 (UTC)
 * if the comedy "plays out" in ANY manner, u are in a sitcom!
 * non-sitcom "comedy" means guy on a stage telling a story, improv actors, various "live" things -- no chars, no story, nothing "playing out" beyond some disjointed sketches. 2601:19C:527F:A680:595:8072:F1F3:428 (talk) 04:55, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

After receiving no response for a few months I added "Sitcom" to the classification list under "Comedy" - This was reverted by User:AussieLegend within a day or so with no explanation aside from "no consensus" - I'm not as familiar with policy as I used to be but I think this user's action is much closer to ignoring The Assumption of Good Faith than to Being Bold. Here is the edit reversion: I, in the spirit of Good Faith, will not be reverting without discussion as I have no interest in being led into a petty editing war. However, I will certainly not allow a perfectly-justified edit to be undone at the whims of a user who seems simply to find their own opinion as justification for undoing someone else's work. If we were in fact keeping score for consensus, one would note that so far two individuals have called the show a Sitcom and only the user in question has said otherwise. Please do either explain or undo the reversion, User:AussieLegend. Thanking you. Harlequence (talk) 06:39, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
 * [Revision of my latest change]
 * and here are several pages relevant to obtaining an accurate classification of the program:
 * Sitcoms#2010s a subsection of our own article on sitcoms detailing how they have changed (into - I assert - things like The Last Man On Earth)
 * [Recap at Vulture] which calls the show "the most existential sitcom on television"
 * [AV Club "Sterility and Sitcom Hijinks on a Loose Funny Last Man] which points out the "low-key, sitcom-standard plots" of the episode
 * [NYFA Evolution of Sitcoms] further reading for citation on how Sitcoms have changed pertinent to my first (internal) link.


 * It wasn't "a few months", it was 1 month and 21 days. We have discussed this at length and clearly haven't come to a consensus to add "sitcom". Consensus doesn't suddenly happen just because the discussion is stale. Nothing you've added supports the inclusion in that category based on the discussion that we've had to date. Sitcom doesn't mention the program, The Vulture is just one person's opinion, The AV Club doesn't explicitly call the program a sitcom, ("sitcom hijinks" and "sitcom-standard plots" is not the same) and the nyfa link doesn't mention it either. To be blunt, I don't think a lot of people understand what a sitcom really is any more. They seem to assume that any comedy is a sitcom and that's not the case.
 * This was reverted by User:AussieLegend within a day or so with no explanation aside from "no consensus" - I actually wrote "No consensus for this.", which is pretty self explanatory. What else was needed?
 * I'm not as familiar with policy as I used to be - Regarding your edit summary here, "request for unexplained reversion of minor edit by user AussieLegend", there is more than one issue here. The edit was not marked minor, nor does it fall into the category of minor edits and the reversion was certainly not unexplained. Please don't make things up. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 10:34, 6 November 2017 (UTC)


 * When you say that you don't think a lot of people understand what a sitcom really is anymore, I'm reminded of the difference between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics. I'm sure information on the two can be found easily. Basically prescriptive involves telling people how they should use words, grammar. Descriptive is the job of someone at e.g. a dictionary. The dictionary's job is to document the way words are being used regardless of what their opinions are. Is it possible you're being a bit prescriptive here? The section to which I pointed in our Sitcom article points at how the definition &or manifestation of the format has changed. A few entries up I listed several shows that are classified as Sitcom; I'm still interested to know whether you agree that they are indeed all appropriately listed regarding genre. Please understand - I simply very much love audiovisual art i.e. film/television and am very interested in how various formats and genres are evolving. I do not wish to argue with you or have an unpleasant confrontation of any sort - rather, I am interested in your opinion because it is different from mine and I don't understand it. I want to understand it. Harlequence (talk) 14:03, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Please note, AussieLegend, that the person being extremely rude (near the beginning of this exchange) was not me. I fear that that person (the one logged in with an IP address) began a very uncivilized and disrespectful tone. I have no interest in that and can see that you are an intelligent human being deserving of respect and courtesy. I hope we can leave behind the negative tone that person brought into this thread moving forward. Harlequence (talk) 14:15, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid that I can't really comment on the programs that you listed. I've never watched Community and know absolutely nothing about it, I did watch The Simpsons in the past but Foxtel used to have The Simpsons marathons - after watching several episodes in a row I realised how offensive a character Homer is and stopped watching about 10 years ago. I have no idea where the program has headed since then. South Park seems to have lost its way too, although it's still mildly amusing. In recent episodes there has been more action in a much smaller area than in previous seasons so I'd say it's closer to a sitcom than it used to be, but comparing animated and live action programs is not really a good comparison. Tell me, what do you think is the difference between a comedy and a sitcom? -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 13:40, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I've been thinking about this while doing my normal consumption of various currently-running programs over the past week or so. I think a sitcom has these characteristics: An ensemble cast of characters around whom various stories center. Teleplays that are broken into three (and sometimes four) acts. A main story and a side story cut together; these may parallel each other aesthetically, thematically or both, and they may also come together in the third act as a intended side-effect of sharing theme or aesthetic. A serial nature to some degree i.e. not anthology ... I don't think it could be possible to do an anthology sitcom; I think you can move the same characters to different locations, but you can not put completely new characters into the same location each week (for example). I'm still trying to figure it out & will have a more coherent definition to propose after some more research and reflection. In the meantime, I wonder, what are some currently-running shows that you would consider to be both sitcoms and good shows? (not necessarily your favorite shows, but not bad shows; or are there any? Is there a relationship between the medium 'sitcom' and whether a show can be good?) I might mention: I think The Last Man On Earth is a very good show. I'm not sure if it's a sitcom. I could say the same about a lot of shows I watch right now including Ghosted_(TV_series) and Brooklyn Nine Nine. If these are sitcoms then they represent the next step for the sitcom medium, specifically something like post-The Office (US TV Series) and post-Parks & Recreation. There is certainly something more specific to call these good-comedies-with-repeating-cast-but-no-studio-audience-or-confined-set than simply 'comedy' I think, but I do not necessarily know what the best thing to call them is. Harlequence (talk) 05:38, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * After the last episode, and considering the show's pattern of occasional vignette episodes that are ostensibly not necessarily attached to the story of the default main character ensemble, I definitely think that this series should be classified as 1) Comedy 2) Sitcom 3) Post-Apocalyptic ... There is indeed a Sitcom happening, revolving around a group of consistent people with classic A/B storylines in each script. Tangential or experimental episodes do not change that this comprises the bulk of the show. However, that the series occasionally does something other than its "normal" episodes definitely earns it a variety/comedy component. I don't think we represent the series correctly if we do not indicate that it frequently conforms to some sort of monomyth-derived circular storytelling - i.e. that the characters have a somewhat contained adventure or segment thereof then end up back in a relative zone of comfort at the episode end - which is the true hallmark of a modern sitcom. User:AussieLegend if you agree, please make the change or let me know so that I can make it. If you disagree, please instead simply remove the superfluous (I think we can agree it is so) citation for Comedy. I believe that citation is poor and unnecessary and was added as something of a preemptive strike against an editing war. Thank you for your time, insight and cooperative communication regarding this show's classification - I come away from our interaction having learned a lot. Thank you again. Harlequence (talk) 20:24, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The latest, tangential episode doesn't make the program into a sitcom. The previous arguments that I've made still apply. As for the citation, I refer you to the infobox instructions and MOS:TVGENRE which state that genres "must be reliably sourced", and WP:V which says "any material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, must include an inline citation that directly supports the material". The very existence of this discussion indicates that the citation is required per WP:V. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 00:16, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I believe you misread my previous statement. It reads that the vignette episodes contribute to its classification as comedy, not - as you seem to have read - as sitcom. It is everything else outside of those occasional episodes that classify it as a sitcom. I propose we add Sitcom with https://tv.avclub.com/sterility-and-sitcom-hijinks-on-a-loose-funny-last-man-1798187262 as the citation. Whether or not you agree is not relevant, as the citation does classify a portion of the show as being sitcom. The citation next to Comedy needs to be improved still, and we will need to find one for its classification as Post-Apocalyptic as per MOS:TVGENRE. Harlequence (talk) 02:55, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The source that we have in the article specifically states the genre to be "comedy". The avclub source doesn't mention "genre" at all. Instead it refers to "sterility and sitcom hijinks", "sitcom-standard plots" and "sitcom premise". That's not the same thing as stating the genre to be "sitcom". To assume that it is, is classic WP:SYNTH. Or perhaps you also believe that "sterility" is a genre? -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 13:06, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I am new to this sitcom as I just started watching. And, yes I used the term sitcom intentionally. I am not sure where you found your definition, but it is not consistent with the term "situation comedy", nor definitions in any major dictionary. Thus, I would concur with the other comments from individuals insofar as this is a "sitcom". Let's not forget that in your definition, "such as", is used as an example, not an all exhaustive list of all encompassing places a sitcom can take place. However, maybe my use of common, generally accepted, existing definitions of "sitcom" is inappropriate. 2600:8800:4281:2700:937:10C7:B198:61B1 (talk) 03:39, 3 April 2018 (UTC) (talk)
 * perhaps sitcom has some alternate/nonstandard definition in australia? to any american/brit, this is standard sitcom fare.
 * as others mentioned above, "comedy" is the wider term which includes stand-up/improv, sketch shows, variety shows, etc., where people are not in a "situation". once u have CHARACTERS and an ongoing STORY, u are in a sitcom.
 * it ain't rocket science. 2601:19C:527F:A680:595:8072:F1F3:428 (talk) 04:41, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

Melissa
In season 2, episode 2, Phil/Tandy picked up a note that clearly spelled Melissa's last name as "Chartres", but I just found that the press releases spell her last name as "Shart". This has been consistent since season 1. Upon checking the official website, this spelling is supported by the cast list. It appears that "Chartres" may have been a one-off. -- Aussie Legend  ( ✉ ) 19:46, 2 April 2018 (UTC)


 * shart is us slang for "shit-infused fart". i can imagine they were playing around with that by naming her "chartres" to begin with.


 * not clear why they would have dropped the pretense and respelled it the literal way later on. 2601:19C:527F:A680:595:8072:F1F3:428 (talk) 05:03, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

The virus
The description should mention that the virus has killed off almost all animals too. -31.81.185.67 (talk) 14:32, 22 June 2018 (UTC)

This Quiet Earth
has no one ever accused the show of plagiarizing this 1985 new zealand movie? the pilot ep is almost identical for the first 90% or so.

(said movie itself accused of being a ripoff of 1959's The World, the Flesh and the Devil. is Last Man thus a 2nd generation copy?)  2601:19C:527F:A680:595:8072:F1F3:428 (talk) 04:48, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

Adding About template
I added an extensive About template because I discovered that the TV show was dominating any searches for The Last Man on Earth. Merry medievalist (talk) 23:08, 23 August 2023 (UTC)