Things used to be so simple: If a TV show was a half-hour long, it was a comedy. If it took up a full hour, it was a drama. But recently, those lines have been blurring, with hourlong shows like Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty branding themselves as comedies and half-hour shows like Weeds taking on subject matter that's more dark than funny.

A new article claims that the half-hour drama is a full-on TV format. The story cites Hung and Nurse Jackie as half-hour shows that are decidedly more dramatic than comedic. An executive at ABC Family — which is trying the half-hour format with 10 Things I Hate About You — says in the story:

Doing it in the half-hour allows you to take a completely different look at things that could be interpreted as serious — and viewers are comfortable with it being funny because it's a half hour.

Would you like to see more networks experiment with half-hour dramas? Or do you like things as they are, with dramas getting longer time slots and comedies running shorter?

Photos courtesy of Showtime and HBO