Thanks so much for keeping up ...
Question: Thanks so much for keeping up with everything going on this summer — from the new shows to the TCAs, you're helping me impress my friends with my TV knowledge! As for the Emmys, you may have addressed this previously, but how is a show submitted in the best-drama or the best-comedy category? I assume the voters don't watch entire seasons. Is it a representative episode or a synopsis of some kind? I ask because
Boston Legal, which is nominated in the drama category, seems to be more of a comedy. ABC tends to promote the humorous angle, but still.
Tony Shalhoub is consistently nominated in the Best Actor in a Comedy Series category, but what I've seen of
Monk isn't all that funny. In fact, sometimes it makes me sad for him. Any insights?
Answer: Matt Roush: It's up to the show (and/or the actors) to submit itself in whatever category the producers, the studio, the network or whoever deems fit.
Boston Legal has muddied the waters, because it has submitted itself as a comedy to some organizations in the past and as a drama to others. At the Emmys, it has always done well in the drama arena (having spun off from the much darker
The Practice), even though
David E. Kelley has publicly said he considers the show a comedy.
Monk has always fancied itself a comedy-mystery hybrid, and that strategy has paid off handsomely for its star, with several Emmys already.
Ugly Betty and
Desperate Housewives also straddle the line between comedy and drama but opt to stay in the comedy category, in part because the competition is less brutal, and also because they are more satirical or comedic than truly dramatic. I understand the confusion, but all I can say is that I don't see a lot of laughing among my fellow critics or in my mailbag over
Boston Legal right about now.
And now, just to show there is more to the world of TV than the Emmys, a few final questions.
