A Defining Dramedy In My Life
Hey.
Yes, "dramedy", a fusion of drama and comedy, or a drama infused with enough comic relief/satire that it flirts with self-parody. I am a child of the Dramedy Age. The word itself was coined circa the end of the Seventies to describe a happened fact by then--shows that either used comedy to tackle serious issues, or otherwise serious programs that embraced a lighter side and got a laugh or two thrown in the mix.
The reason I bring this definition to the fore is some news I came across today...and the memories that sprang from it. You see, one of the main TV shows that influenced my thinking as a prospective writer and creator is being released to DVD starting the end of this month: The Black Sheep Squadron. The first set will include the two-hour pilot TV movie (a.k.a. The Flying Misfits in syndication) and the first ten one-hour episodes. The show aired from 1976 to 1978 on NBC.
I was ten when the show appeared. Sure, Robert Conrad had top billing, and there was a fairly competant supporting cast--but the real stars were the five F4U Corsairs and the other WW2 combat planes in the action sequences. Of course, they also used a load of wartime footage too. I remember they almost always opened the show with a newsreel pastiche for necessary exposition.
Yes, the basic premise was taken from the autobiography of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, the founder of the real VMF-214 who served as a technical advisor to Stephen Cannell, the producer and frequent scriptwriter on the show. Yet even at the time, the show suffered criticism for being loose with historical events, making the squadron's pilots look like bigger goofballs than they really were in the war, the snarky attitude toward the military brass characters (especially Dana Elcar's antagonistic Colonel Lard, one of the more thankless jobs in TV acting) and so on. The gun camera footage use got repetitive and thus as cliche as the Indian charges of old Western movies. The second season, with the field hospital nurses brought in to do Nielsen Ratings combat with Charlie's Angels, got downright ludicrous. At least the show lasted longer than Pappy's actual tour of duty. All the while, Black Sheep Squadron the series walked the tightrope between being a serious action war story and a service comedy, of which there were many in that decade.
The show should have ended seriously, but I don't remember for sure. In real life, Pappy was shot down in a dogfight, trying to save a buddy who was killed in front of him. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of the Japanese. Several of the other men in the Black Sheep Squadron were killed in the Okinawa Campaign, when an enemy dive bomber struck their carrier when they were to be launched for an air strike. I know this would have been anathema to the tone of the second season, but at least it would have fitting for a farewell episode to at least honor the real losses of the war.
I'm saving my pennies. Maybe I'll catch a break from Columbia House Club and ditch a couple items from the existing wish list. I've got a month or so to think it over. Why not?--I've waited nearly thirty years already!
FP
Yes, "dramedy", a fusion of drama and comedy, or a drama infused with enough comic relief/satire that it flirts with self-parody. I am a child of the Dramedy Age. The word itself was coined circa the end of the Seventies to describe a happened fact by then--shows that either used comedy to tackle serious issues, or otherwise serious programs that embraced a lighter side and got a laugh or two thrown in the mix.
The reason I bring this definition to the fore is some news I came across today...and the memories that sprang from it. You see, one of the main TV shows that influenced my thinking as a prospective writer and creator is being released to DVD starting the end of this month: The Black Sheep Squadron. The first set will include the two-hour pilot TV movie (a.k.a. The Flying Misfits in syndication) and the first ten one-hour episodes. The show aired from 1976 to 1978 on NBC.
I was ten when the show appeared. Sure, Robert Conrad had top billing, and there was a fairly competant supporting cast--but the real stars were the five F4U Corsairs and the other WW2 combat planes in the action sequences. Of course, they also used a load of wartime footage too. I remember they almost always opened the show with a newsreel pastiche for necessary exposition.
Yes, the basic premise was taken from the autobiography of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, the founder of the real VMF-214 who served as a technical advisor to Stephen Cannell, the producer and frequent scriptwriter on the show. Yet even at the time, the show suffered criticism for being loose with historical events, making the squadron's pilots look like bigger goofballs than they really were in the war, the snarky attitude toward the military brass characters (especially Dana Elcar's antagonistic Colonel Lard, one of the more thankless jobs in TV acting) and so on. The gun camera footage use got repetitive and thus as cliche as the Indian charges of old Western movies. The second season, with the field hospital nurses brought in to do Nielsen Ratings combat with Charlie's Angels, got downright ludicrous. At least the show lasted longer than Pappy's actual tour of duty. All the while, Black Sheep Squadron the series walked the tightrope between being a serious action war story and a service comedy, of which there were many in that decade.
The show should have ended seriously, but I don't remember for sure. In real life, Pappy was shot down in a dogfight, trying to save a buddy who was killed in front of him. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of the Japanese. Several of the other men in the Black Sheep Squadron were killed in the Okinawa Campaign, when an enemy dive bomber struck their carrier when they were to be launched for an air strike. I know this would have been anathema to the tone of the second season, but at least it would have fitting for a farewell episode to at least honor the real losses of the war.
I'm saving my pennies. Maybe I'll catch a break from Columbia House Club and ditch a couple items from the existing wish list. I've got a month or so to think it over. Why not?--I've waited nearly thirty years already!
FP