This paper is to examine the characteristics and meaning of TV comedy series written by TV scriptwriter Yoo, Ho during the late 1960s and early 1970s when the conventions of Korean TV series were set in place. It is the period when the format of a once-a-week TV series was established and Yoo was a popular TV scriptwriter who got his own show under the name of 'Yoo, Ho Theater' on TBC during the Sunday prime time.
Around 1960, comedy series were introduced to the radio by novelist Cho, Heun-pa who took the lead in the field. He was the first popular writer of TV comedy series as well. However, in the mid 1960s, he lost the leadership to Yoo, Ho. This could be explained in a couple of accounts.
First, while the strength of Cho's works was found in the humor based on each character's idiosyncrasies and wordplays, Yoo's works were strong in the humor based on relationship between characters and their actions. Therefore, Yoo was more suitable for TV dramas than for novels or radio dramas.
Second, he was able to catch the new trends of comedy demanded by the public in the late 1960s. In the late 1950s, comic works(novels, movies, TV dramas) were mainly populated by American and sophisticated urban types, but in the early 1960s, the patriarchy and the propriety returned to the front. Meanwhile, the late 1960s, when the economic development plan was in progress, the rural exodus started and the youth culture arose, was the time when the comedy based on the urban life enjoyed the popularity among the city dwellers and gender, the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural and cultural differences among the generations emerged as new interests. Yoo, Ho successfully caught these contemporary issues and dramatized them based on conservative world view, therefore appealing to TV series viewers of the time.
In this regard, Yoo had to decline with the coming of the 1970s when he was alienated from the new young generation's world view and their senses and came under the criticism of the strict Park, Jung-hee regime which disapproved Yoo's un-exemplary characters.