3 ms·

Well, with the exception of shows like The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, and the like but I agree overall.

• minimaxir 11y ago
  That's why I clarified "scripted." (Or "procedural" would be the more technically correct term.)
  • jonnathanson 11y ago
    I think "scripted" is the right word in this case. "Procedural" refers to a specific type of scripted television, typically but not always a legal, medical, or law-enforcement drama. A procedural show follows the same format every episode: a mystery of some kind is introduced (medical, crime, or what have you), and the characters go through the procedures of solving the mystery. Law & Order: SVU can be described as a procedural; South Park cannot, unless you're using a very very loose definition of the term. If you're looking at this in terms of nested sets or categories: - Scripted vs. Nonscripted - Comedy vs. Drama (usually also means half-hour vs. hour) - Episodic (every episode is self-contained) vs. Serialized (the show follows an overall, evolving storyline that builds each episode) - Subgenre So a show like L&O: SVU would be a scripted, one-hour drama in the crime procedural subgenre. (We could also describe the show as episodic, but given that all procedurals are episodic, this would be redundant.) South Park is a scripted, half-hour comedy in the animation subgenre that typically follows an episodic format, with occasional serialized story arcs spanning multiple episodes (and in the case of this season, the whole season).
  • zumatic 11y ago
    See also (in the UK): Spitting Image, Drop the Dead Donkey (sadly both long defunct).