Brass (TV series) Brass (TV series) Brass was a British television comedy-drama, made by Granada Television for ITV and eventually Channel 4. "Brass" is northern English slang for "money" as well as for "effrontery". The series was set primarily in Utterley, a fictional Lancashire mining town in the 1930s, "Brass" satirized working-class period dramas of the 1970s, most significantly "When the Boat Comes In". Unusually for ITV comedies of the time, "Brass" eschewed a laugh track and utilized a dry sense of humour based in part on convoluted wordplay and subtle commentary on popular culture. The series also parodied the 1977 Granada TV
Comedy-drama type of comedy-drama hybrid. Examples of this genre include "All in the Family", "M*A*S*H", and "One Day at a Time". Another example was "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd", which aired from 1987 to 1991. In fact, the term "dramedy" was coined to describe the late 1980s wave of shows, including "Hooperman", "Frank's Place", and "Doogie Howser, M.D.". These early shows influenced how general TV comedies and series (especially family themed sitcoms) were developed. They often included brief dramatic interludes and more serious subject matter. An example of a successful comedy-drama series that distinguished this genre in television was