7-440: Beverly Hills Buntz is an American comedy-drama television series and a spin-off of the acclaimed police drama Hill Street Blues . Beverly Hills Buntz aired on NBC from November 5, 1987, to May 20, 1988. The show was a half-hour dramedy, a hybrid between light private eye fare and a sitcom . The main character, Norman Buntz, was previously seen as a morally and ethically questionable cop on Hill Street Blues , which
14-439: A fifth season with an improved performance having moved from 9pm back to 10pm. Three pilots of Buntz were filmed including one by director Hal Ashby . Thirteen episodes were filmed, of which only nine were broadcast. The first episode was broadcast November 5, 1987 and the last on May 20, 1988. The series starred Dennis Franz as Norman Buntz, and Peter Jurasik as Sid "The Snitch" Thurston. Dana Wheeler-Nicholson joined
21-626: A month following Cheers and Night Court . The other two "designated hitters" that season were the Bruce Weitz and Nancy Walker sitcom, Mama's Boy , and the second season of the Edward Asner drama The Bronx Zoo (incidentally, each show would be canceled the following year). Eventually, Buntz was scheduled Fridays at 9:30pm between Night Court and Miami Vice in March 1988. Night Court and Buntz were unsuccessful, but Miami Vice gained
28-693: The Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards segregate several award categories into these two classifications. The 20th century saw a rise in film and television works that could be described as comedy-dramas. The term is a translation from the French "comédie dramatique". The portmanteau "dramedy" came to be in the 1980s. In January 2022, Rafael Abreu, writing for the StudioBinder filmmaking blog, defined this genre as follows: A dramedy
35-596: The comic relief common in drama series but usually contain a lower joke rate than sitcoms . In the very influential Greek theatre , plays were considered comedies or tragedies. This concept even influenced Roman theatre and theatre of the Hellenistic period . Theatre of that era is thought to have long-lasting influence, even in modern narrative works. Even today, works are often classified into two broad buckets, dramas and comedies. For instance, many awards that recognize achievements in film and television today, such as
42-411: The cast. Comedy-drama Comedy drama , also known by the portmanteau dramedy , is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and drama . In films, serious dramatic themes (such as death, illness, etc.) are dealt with realism and subtlety, while preserving a humorous tenor. In television, modern scripted comedy dramas tend to have more humour integrated into the story than
49-430: Was a dramatic series (this series is one of a handful of examples of a series in one genre, drama, spinning off a series in another: comedy). The series has the character quitting the police force, moving to Beverly Hills , and becoming a private investigator. In a programming experiment, NBC president Brandon Tartikoff announced that this show would be a "designated hitter" and was originally given prize time slots once
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