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Dramedy is a portmanteau word formed from a combination of the words drama and comedy, to describe a new genre of movies and television in which the lines between these very different genres were blurred.
Although the first true dramedies on American television were shows like M*A*S*H and One Day at a Time, the term "dramedy" was not invented until a few years after those series had ended their respective runs. The term first came into vogue in the mid-1980s to describe a new wave of similarly genre-blurring series such as Moonlighting, The Wonder Years and Hooperman.
A dramedy may be either an hour-long dramatic series with very strong comedic elements, such as Moonlighting, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Ally McBeal, or a half-hour sitcom with more subtle humour, shot on film instead of tape, and without the usual laugh track, such as M*A*S*H, Hooperman or The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.
However, hour-long comedic dramas have usually proven more successful in the ratings than half-hour dramatic comedies.
See also: List of dramedies.
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