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
DSquared
The only reason why these half hour dramas work is that they are on networks w/ no commercials so you actually get 30 minutes of show.
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