You have questions. I have some answers.
I enjoy “The Bear.” However, I don’t understand its designation as a comedy. I don’t find it funny, but very sad at times. How did it end up with the comedy classification instead of drama?
Basically, the studio decided it is a comedy and submitted it accordingly for awards. Defining shows has viewers facing complicated descriptions: “dramedy,” for example, which has been applied to some series for decades, or “dramatic comedy,” as one source calls “The Bear.”
When it’s awards time — and the Emmy nominations are coming Wednesday — the Television Academy rules seem clear. Comedy and drama series “are defined as programs with multiple episodes (minimum of six), where the majority of the running time of at least six episodes are primarily comedic for comedy series entries, or primarily dramatic for dramatic series entries, in which the ongoing theme, storyline and main characters are presented under the same title and have continuity of production supervision. The Academy reserves the right to have the category placement reviewed by the Academy’s Industry Panel.”
But as Clayton Davis wrote in Variety recently, the division between comedy and drama at the Emmys “have become increasingly tenuous” as more and more shows straddle comedy and drama. And I haven’t even gotten into the gamesmanship that puts shows and performers into categories where they think they have the best chance of winning.
