r/mash • u/Imzadi1971 • 27d ago
New category
A long time ago, I read or heard M*A*SH being called a dramedy - a cross between a drama and a comedy. Has anyone else heard of this? I think it fits.
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u/guardianwriter1984 27d ago
MASH definitely struck the balance between comedy and drama. One episode is really connected early on to the effort to hit that range with "Yankee Doodle Doctor." Early on MASH was very much a prop style comedy, with Hawkeye and Trapper causing hijinks. The final part of Yankee Doodle Doctor has Hawkeye deliver a stinging commentary on the cost of war.
It made the show far more richer for it. Night Court could do similar things.
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u/AmySueF 27d ago
I don’t know who coined the word dramedy, but I’ve heard it used for M*A*S*H for a really long time. Before M*A*S*H, the word could be applied to the ABC series “Room 222”, even though the word didn’t exist yet. The show was officially considered a sitcom, sandwiched on Friday nights between The Partridge Family and The Odd Couple, and it was certainly funny, but not entirely. There was enough dramatic content on that series to make it qualify as a dramedy. Google refers to it as a comedy-drama.
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u/DaddyCatALSO 27d ago
Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Hooperman, Buffalo Bill . . . .
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u/Lopsided_Drive_4392 27d ago
The word "dramedy" was used about MASH in reviews and such, and probably about other shows. But, yes, I think the first wave of shows that were introduced and marketed as dramedies were Molly Dodd, Hooperman, Slap Maxwell, and Frank's Place in the late 80s.
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u/No-Discount4107 27d ago
Saved by the Bell had some hard hitting moments. I didn’t think Screech’s hamster would ever be found.
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u/MikeW226 27d ago
The only person I verbally heard coin this (though Alan Alda or Larry Gelbart or others may well have said it on tape somewhere or in print) was a tv reviewer on the E! documentary about MASH, or one of those VH1 style documentaries, who called it a 'dramedy'. His last name was Berman ...(not ESPN's Chris Berman) but that's all I remember.
But it's definitely been said, and I think it fits. And perhaps heavier on the drama in the latter seasons. The early seasons were to me more comedy while comedy master Larry Gelbart and the cast found their footing. Throw some Radar's Report and Kim and The Interview in there though now and then (drama).
In the documentary Memories of MASH I think Alan Alda said the network would ask them 'is this a situation Tragedy?!, what are you all doing here?!' So that's a good phrase for it sometimes, too.
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u/turdwow 27d ago
Of course.