The team behind the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother have been given the green light by CBS to go ahead and make a pilot for a new show based around Skype long distance relationships called My Time/Your Time. According to Entertainment News the pilot is based on the 2014 five part web series called 7P/10E by Avital Ash.Our question today is, will this show work and be successful?

Will My Time/Your Time be as successful as HIMYM?

Over there years there has been many television shows and films based around the long distance relationships, some have been successful, others haven’t; this is because it is a very difficult topic to get right to relate to the audience. Some past shows that have focused on this include MTVs 2014 show Times Up and NY-LON which was a drama on Channel 4.

NY-LON (2004)starring Rashida Jones and Stephen Moyer, was the first British Drama to be filmed in both the United Kingdom and USA. It was based around a transatlantic relationship and only ran for one season. In 2008, CBS announced it  was also making a re-make of NY-LON but it was cancelled before the pilot even aired.

It’s quite funny when you think that the channel have tried it before and now want to try it again. The fact that it is also a show being planned to be filmed over Skype also begs the question as to whether the new sitcom will work. Skype has been used in a variety of shows before but usually as a snippet and not the whole show. Reality shows like Catfish work because it is about social media and being deceived and is used as a balance factor / to interview the victims of the catfish.

MTV Catfish – where Skype works

Skype or similar programmes have been used in sitcoms before as well, the most recent show i can think of is an episode in Season 6 of Modern Family. The mother is away at a conference and the whole show is filmed through Skype as she communicates with the rest of the family. Now, whilst it came across as a clever way to film an episode, i think if it was a whole series i would of switched off after maybe two as its quite a hard format to get used to visually. However, I said that about Peep show when I first saw it and ended up becoming a real fan.

A clip of the Modern Family that was filmed around similar to Skype

So whether or not My Time/Your Time will be as big as HIMYM only time will tell, but i think its going to have to be filmed really well and have strong storylinse for it to become a success.