Award Central News

Comedic dramas -- or dramatic comedies -- like "Boston Legal" are on the rise. And so far, kudofests like the SAG Awards haven't figured out an obvious place to honor them.

At the Emmys, "Desperate Housewives" has earned comedy nods, while "Grey's Anatomy" thrives in the drama column. Yet both shows contain virtually the same yuks-to-pathos ratio.

Newbies like "Ugly Betty" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" could also make a case for being in either column.

"Typically, your show tends to lean one way or another," said "Boston Legal" exec producer David E. Kelley. "What's unique about 'Boston Legal' is that we don't. We can be deeply dramatic one moment and deeply silly the next ... It's a tough tightrope to walk. It took us the better part of a year to get it right."

Last year, the TV Academy attempted to address the issue by asking shows to submit six episodes that contain a preponderance of comedy or drama, depending on which category the show's producers were submitting themselves in.

But the org didn't give an objective definition on how much comedy or drama was necessary, giving dramedies free reign to compete in whichever category they want.

"It's one of those situations where you try to give as much useful counsel as you can to the producers who are deciding how to enter," said TV Academy rules chief John Leverence. "We don't have a breakout dramedy category that would accommodate that kind of thing."

The org's rules committee won't finalize this year's Emmy guidelines until March, so it's too soon to tell whether the TV Acad will revisit its stance on how shows decide to enter the comedy or drama competish.

But it's unlikely that the group will add a new category to accommodate the growing number of dramedies; org has been looking to remove, not add, Emmy awards.

With audience tastes continuing to evolve, ABC Entertainment prexy Steve McPherson said it's no longer easy to simply classify shows in one of two ways. "We've traditionally said that hours are dramas and half-hours are comedy," he said. "But that's pretty limiting. It's great that shows these days are so versatile."

McPherson doesn't think that ABC pays a price for having shows that straddle the comedy-drama divide. " 'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives' wouldn't win on the same night if they were in the same category," he said. "So it probably helps us some."