‘Widow’s Bay’ Complicates Emmy’s Comedy Conundrum

You’re probably as tired of the “what’s a comedy?” debate as I am, particularly when it comes to awards shows like the Emmys. FX’s “The Bear” reignited that conversation a few years ago, even though it’s hardly the only show to be nominated or even win an Emmy despite it often feeling more like a drama.

This year, the attention turned to Apple TV’s “Widow’s Bay,” one of the hottest new shows of the season. The acclaim for “Widow’s Bay” seems nearly universal, and the show’s 19 Emmy nominations prove that the buzz surrounding the show wasn’t a fluke. But again, we have to ask: Is it a comedy?

“Widow’s Bay” comes from a comedy writer, “Parks and Recreation” alum Katie Dippold. And it absolutely sprinkles laugh into the horror format, particularly through the town’s quirky characters. As the misfits who make up Widow’s Bay react matter-of-factly to some of the creepy and strange goings-on around them, at the center of it all is Matthew Rhys as Mayor Tom Loftis. He bumbles his way through a secret that threatens the well-being of his small, New England-set island community.

There’s creepy clowns, scary apparitions, undead serial killers, a wild sea hag and a terrible curse that haunts the show’s characters throughout the season — and while the laughs cut the tension, you’re still on the edge of your seat for all 10 episodes. And by the way, on its own service, Apple TV classifies “Widow’s Bay” a “mystery,” while “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking” are labeled “comedy.”

But in fairness to “Widow’s Bay,” are any of this year’s comedy nominees actually comedies? Most of this year’s contenders (which also include “Abbott Elementary,” “The Bear,” “Hacks,” “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” “Nobody Wants This,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “Shrinking”) feature some heart-tugging moments that have made me tear up. I’ve said it before — the best dramas on TV are our Emmy-nominated comedies.

When did comedy get so dramatic? You’ll have to go back to 1988, the year that Emmy voters nominated two single-camera shows in the outstanding comedy series category for the first time: “The Wonder Years” and “Frank’s Place.” The fact that both shows came out at the same time represented a bit of a “dramedy” revolution in primetime; previously, the genre was pretty much only devoted to multi-camera shows filmed in front of a live studio audience, like the other nominees that year: “Cheers,” “The Golden Girls” and “Night Court.”

But “The Wonder Years” was still a half-hour show, and contained enough humorous beats that no one seriously challenged its comedy bona fides. The bigger change came in 1999, when the hourlong Fox legal dramedy “Ally McBeal” won the comedy Emmy. Sure, it had quirky moments with that dancing baby, but it could have just as easily been put in the drama bucket. (“Ally” creator David E. Kelley has the same thing this year with the quite dramatic comedy nominee “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.”)

When “Desperate Housewives” was nominated as a comedy in 2005, it also raised eyebrows: Did a show that opened with a death, adultery and focused so much on a dark mystery belong in the comedy path?

Around the 2010s, the dramedy lines had blurred enough that we started to see shows hop Emmy categories: Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black” started in comedy, then moved to drama. Showtime’s “Shameless” was in the drama race, then moved to comedy.

In 2015, the Academy shifted the rules: All half hours would be classified as comedies and all hourlong shows would have to submit as dramas. But shows could petition to switch fields, and so many did that the confusion led the org to raise the white flag and get rid of those classifications by 2022. Now, a show can enter whatever it feels like. That’s why you have so many comedic drama entrants and dramatic comedy contenders.

Maybe we should go back to how things were handled in 1957: For one year there was no “comedy” or “drama race” — just “best series, half-hour or less” and “best series, one hour or more.” But even that didn’t work: In the hourlong field, comedy “Caesar’s Hour” was pitted against “Ed Sullivan” and the arts show “Omnibus,” while in half hour, the comedy “Phil Silvers Show” was up against thriller “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and the news show “Person to Person.”

What’s a comedy?