• The Mandarin term “环境剧” is a paraphrase of the English term “local sitcom”.
• The content of local sitcoms usually reflects the lives and mentality of ordinary citizens.
• The actors in Singapore’s Mandarin local sitcoms would sometimes intersperse their speech with Chinese dialects, Malay or English to reflect the unique linguistic context of Singapore. By doing so, the plot would be close to real life.
• Every episode of a local sitcom would tell a standalone story with a short and concise plot.
• Since 1997, Channel 8’s local sitcoms began to reduce the use of dialects to discourage the use of “Singaporean Mandarin”.
• One attractive feature of local sitcoms is the constant addition of new characters as the plot unfolds, enriching the dramatic elements of the series.
• Local sitcoms before the 1990s (such as One House, Two Wives and Three Storeys) covered voices of ordinary citizens and thought-provoking topics, but local sitcoms after the 1990s (such as Don’t Worry, Be Happy) focused instead on entertaining audiences and were more commercialised.

处境剧 (Hong Kong)、情境喜剧 (Mainland China)

• In 2020, Singapore’s first English-language local sitcom Under One Roof and the classic Mandarin local sitcom Don’t Worry, Be Happy were shown on Netflix.