Joseph Wood Krutch once called the detective story “the one clearly defined modern genre of prose fiction impeccably classical in form.” Much the same might be said of the situation comedy. The rules of the game were established early on with The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy, the two shows in which the familiar sitcom formula was first polished to a high commercial gloss. Each episode, which dealt with a single situation in the life of a small group of repeating characters, was filmed in front of a studio audience whose laughter was heard on the soundtrack. The broadcasts ran for thirty minutes and often made modest nods in the direction of the unities. Nearly four decades later, these simple but durable conventions continue to dominate TV comedy.
If the form works, why tamper with it? The question is raised by the recent debut of four half-hour comedies that deviate in varying degrees from the classic sitcom recipe. Television critics have hailed them as daring and innovative, which is almost always a sure cue for a quick snooze. But ABC’s Hooperman and The ‘‘Slap” Maxwell Story, CBS’s Frank’s Place, and NBC’s The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd really are different. None of them is filmed in front of an audience. None uses a laugh track. None is written in the customary boff-a-minute sitcom style. Hence the ugly new term “dramedies” currently being used to describe them.
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