By Michael Schneider
"Very Special Episodes": "Vulture's Secret History of Television" Episode 6
General editor of the variety
There's a lot of debate these days about what happened to the comedy category at the Primetime Emmys, and whether shows like "The Bear," "Barry" and "Palm Royale" should be classified as such.
Does it matter? The genie is long out of the bottle: “Ally McBeal,” which won the 1999 Emmy for best comedy, was an hour-long series with plenty of comedic elements. But I never considered it a comedy (certainly not in 1999, when comedy still meant a multi-camera sitcom). The first season of “Desperate Housewives” was nominated for an Emmy for comedy, but it was definitely more of a campy drama.
