I'd like to be able to discuss any original cable show. Venture Brothers is the first one that comes to mind.

That would be a different thread. And one may well come. But it's not, I think, what the vision was for this particular thread.

To get down to specifics, I'd say first of all that comedy v. drama is a judgment call on Psych and Monk. They're funny, to be sure, but for me they come down on the other side. Both were on hiatus, unfortunately, during the experimentals so I can't say I know for sure where they'd have popped up.

They have a narrative structure that seems more in line with dramas than straight comedies, though, which I think is a big factor. So drama can be somewhat elastic, and we can certainly take shows up as they come and discuss them where they fit most naturally. But keeping the lines, if not sharp, at least visible, is important to a lot of us because it builds better discussion.

Is narrative structure the crux of the buscuit?

For me personally, probably, I don't know about others.

That works for me. It is the narrative structure of most shows that drives my need to discuss them.

Are Psych and Monk both hour long shows? It seemed when we did the two experimental network threads that all of the hour long shows ended up in Drama whether or not they may have been more of a comedy to some.

Would someone please explain why we need to specify "drama"? Why not "Original Cable Programming"?

The ballot was very specific:

Question One - Should we have dedicated threadspace for (non-premium) original cable drama?

IIRC, in the past, Venture Brothers has been discussed in the Other Media thread.

Monk and Psych are hour-long shows.

So drama can be somewhat elastic, and we can certainly take shows up as they come and discuss them where they fit most naturally. But keeping the lines, if not sharp, at least visible, is important to a lot of us because it builds better discussion.

Yes indeedy. Psych and Monk to me have the narrative structure of dramas, and they are dramas that happen to be funny, not unlike Ugly Betty. Whereas The Office, for example, is a comedy the happens to be dramatic. Go figure. Anyway, get the thread opened, and if it doesn't work in Drama than if we get a Comedy thread it can go in there.

Slug: Discussions of original cable dramas we watch, that don't fit into the Boxed-Set or Premium Cable threads. NAFDA.

I'd rather: Slug: Thread for the discussion of original cable drama. Psychics, detectives, surgeons, and firemen welcome. NAFDA.

and:

Header: Thread for original cable dramas, including but not limited to TNT, USA, TBS, and F/X. Talk about shows that aren't discussed in Boxed Set (Sci-Fi Channel, The Dead Zone) or Premium Cable (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax) are discussed here (Psych, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, The Riches, The Shield, Monk, etc). This thread is NAFDA.

SA, those are pretty good. I was tossing something out to get the ball rolling, and don't actually watch any original cable dramas that don't fit into Boxed Set, so I didn't know what to say about them.

Can you come up with a way to let people know in the slug that the thread isn't for discussion of shows that might go in Boxed Set or Premium? I see you've done so in the header, but there's an overlapping grey zone for the three threads, and since we don't want someone to get accidentally spoiled for shows they didn't expect to see in a certain thread, I think we need to be more careful.

Talk about shows that aren't discussed in Boxed Set (Sci-Fi Channel, The Dead Zone)

This summary of Boxed Set doesn't quite work for me, because it differs from Boxed Set's definition of Boxed Set (which per its header is 'genre', and in that context 'genre' means sci-fi/fantasy).