Interesting pair of items in the New York Times yesterday.

1. The TV industry is wondering if the sitcom is a dying genre. “A burial plot is being readied for the traditional sitcom—with the formula of setup, joke, setup, joke—that families watched together in large numbers throughout most of television’s history. Despite dozens of attempts, the networks have failed to come up with a new hit comedy since the late 1990’s.”

2. NBC’s fall 2003 lineup includes “Whoopi,” a show starring Whoopi Goldberg as “a one-hit-wonder singer who now runs a small New York hotel. Her attempt at hilarity will be aided by a television brother who dates a white woman trying to act black, and an Iraqi concierge who makes a lot of references to weapons of mass destruction.”