Dramatic comedy occasionally known as dramedy. It is a subgenre in contemporary forms of tragicomedy, especially on television, which combines elements of comedy and drama.The advent of radio drama, film and, in particular, television created greater pressure on marketing to clearly define a product as comedy or drama. While in live theater the difference became less and less significant, in the comedy and drama of the media were clearly divided. The comedies were expected to maintain a consistent light tone and would not challenge the viewer by introducing more serious content.
In the early 1960s, television companies often featured half-hour "comedy" series or one-hour drama. The half-hour series were mostly restricted to sitcoms (comedy comedies) or family comedy and were often broadcast with a live or overdriven laughing track. The one-hour dramas included shows such as detective and police series, westerns, science fiction, and prime-time soap operas.
Arguably one of the first American television programs to combine elements of comedy and drama was Jackie Cooper's Hitchcock series of military themes. Although the program featured a laughing track, it also contains many character drama elements that occurred between re-occurring characters and guest stars. The clue of laughter was not used excessively in each episode; For the third season, he was eliminated completely from the series.
While talk comedies would occasionally balance their moods with more dramatic and humanistic moments, they remained the exception to the rule as the sixties progressed. Starting around 1969 in the USA. There was a brief demonstration of half-hour demonstrations that deliberately alternated between comedy and drama and was broadcast without a laugh, as well as some one-hour shows like CHiPs in the late 1970s to early 1980s. These were known as "Comedy -dramas ".
A notable early example (1969-1974) of this genre was the award-winning Room 222, one of the first fully racially integrated television series. The episodes mixed comedy with weighty themes such as race relations, integrity, smoking and student mortality as well as topical issues like the Vietnam War and the plight of returning war veterans.
The formula for Norman Lear's groundbreaking sitcom in the 1970s in which a half-hour multi-camera comedy camera addressed serious problems in a dramatic format on videotape before a live studio audience is considered another type Of comedy-drama hero. Examples of this genre include Everyone in the Family and One Day at a Time.
Another example was "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd," which aired from 1987 to 1991. In fact, the term "dramedy" was coined to describe the wave of shows of the late 1980s, including Hooperman, Frank's Place And Doogie Howser, MD
These early programs influenced the way in which comedies and television series in general were developed (especially family-themed comedies). They often included brief dramatic interludes and more serious subjects. An example of a successful comedy-drama series that distinguished this genre on television was the Moonlighting series. It generated critical acclaim and was a highly rated series around the world. Another example of a successful comedy drama was the television series Eight Is Enough. The show was different, because it was not a comedy drama in the traditional sense. It was an hour-long series that used a laugh track, which was very unusual, but was considered a comedy-drama for the fact that it alternated between drama and comedy.
In the UK, the format first appeared successfully in 1979 with the long series Minder, along with other notable dramatic comedies like Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Big Deal. In addition, the series of comedy and drama have been associated with the production format of a single camera.