That's kind of the line they're traipsing over.
Robin Williams knew it well. Comics who try to do drama are mostly expected to stop doing comedies. (Tom Hanks, Denis Leary, etc.) And dramatic actors who do comedies have a hard time getting back into a drama (Jon Hamm, Robert Stack). Those who dance between both have a hard time being what they want to be. A dramatic actor who's funny, or a comedian who does dramas. It doesn't matter where they're seen to lie, it's the same challenge. (Bryan Cranston, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson.) Yes, I know I'm ignoring the origins of most of who I've named. Jon Hamm started out in stand-up, Denis Leary owes a lot of his success to others, Tom Hanks had no dramatic inclinations until Zemeckis challenged him to try out for Forrest Gump, etc. Stay with me.
Comedy is for fun. Drama is supposed to be good. What's hard is making something that balances both (Scrubs). Even harder than that, a show that does both elements and does it well. It's taxing. (Compare M.A.S.H. and House M.D., but not to each other. Compare each show's first seasons to their later ones. It's a difficult marathon to keep up.)
Williams spent his entire career with that fight. And it seems MacFarland wants to do the same himself. But I think he's aiming more towards Scrubs than House M.D. here. The Orville isn't a straight parody since you're supposed to care about the characters past 'slapstick dismissal', but it isn't serious television, because it's looser than Star Trek. (Except that Star Trek: Discovery let it's cast drop some F-Bombs in the first season out of "See? We can do something The Orville can't! No bleeps!") I enjoyed the first season of The Orville, but that's mostly freshman luck. If you do sufficient ground work and find an audience who wants what you're making, it's not terribly hard to succeed after your show is greenlit. A newly established 'universe', a chance to see how a cast 'gels together' on screen, everything is new plot wise... (if the trope isn't new to the audience, it's new to the actors who can reinterpret it however they wish)
Unlike a franchise, they haven't painted themselves into a corner with established lore, retcons that didn't work, and climax resolutions to weary viewers like Star Trek has fought against with each season. First Season is cake compared to Season 2, 3, 4... But when they do reach that point, will The Orville be able to hold it's own? Does he stand true to what the show started as, does he point the ship towards one genre or the other (like MASH did... drop the laugh track and embrace the hell of a war), or does it sink altogether and stop being fun (doesn't matter what decision is made, if that point is reached, who cares if it's a comedy or drama at that point?)
That's why I'm still watching. I want to see what MacFarland does when that point is reached... or in MyriVerse's case, if he'll keep his viewers around long enough to find that point in the first place.