ER. Wasn’t it less than a month ago that they started their new season? Yesterday, we were treated to a repeat of the episode where Lucy dies and Carter is severely wounded at the hands of a psychopath.
Give me a friggin’ break.
There was a time, not so long ago, when the new season started fairly soon after Labor Day and you wouldn’t expect reruns for at least two or three months (Christmas Holidays). I somehow miss those days.
And, needless to say, seasons are getting shorter and shorter. Some series don’t even bother starting until after the Holidays. Which doesn’t prevent them from ending early to mid-May.
I realize that it’s getting more and more costly to produce series, although in the majority of cases it certainly isn’t worth the investment (a bit ironic with all the additional technical means available nowadays). Well-made, intelligent, witty shows are definitely the exception rather than the rule.
And TV heads from the big networks wonder why the viewing public is deserting in greater numbers than ever.
Must have been rerun night on NBC. Friends, Cursed, and Just shoot me were all reruns also and they weren’t even good episodes the first time they were on.
Actually, I believe all of the Thursday night shows on NBC were reruns. And the episode they played was from February sweeps (I believe).
I will agree that ER has been spoiled – it is such a soap opera now. Much of the good plot development and action has been reduced to tragedy for the characters. In consecutive weeks, so much shit hit the fan I started to wonder who let the diarrheic cows onto the set. Let’s see – bipolar mother, Mark in helicopter crash, Elizabeth in malpractice, Benton’s nephew killed, pregnancy, Benton fired, Carrie thinking about switching teams, Mark brain tumor, Elizabeth pregnant. A lot of stuff to happen to like 5 people.
At least it isn’t Ally McBeal. At least it isn’t Ally McBeal.
But, you must admit, it is one of the best episodes of the series. As I watched it for the third time, it was still emotional and gut-wrenching.
At least they’re rerunning shows from last season, and they’re not rerunning shows from this season. Yet.
And I agree…why can’t anything good happen to these people? Mark and Elizabeth are getting married and expecting a baby, but that’s overshadowed by her lawsuit and his tumor.
While I certainly agree that the seasons seem to be starting later and later (The X-Files didn’t begin until November!!) and ending earlier and earlier, the actual number of new episodes per season hasn’t seemed to changed, at least in the years that I’ve been collecting my favorite series on tape (from at least the early 1980s). The standard US TV season for hour-long dramas is 22 episodes. Some shows vary a bit from that (The X-Files started off doing 24 eps/season until the actors complained. They then dropped to the 22 ep standard except for season 5 [leading up to the movie] and the current season, which both have 20 eps). Out of curiosity, I checked out http://www.epguides.com just to make sure (since I don’t follow ER) and there have been 22 episodes of that show every season and looks like they plan to have 22 this season as well.
This standard holds true even for many cable shows who operate on a “non-traditional” season (i.e. other than Sept-May). Farscape (Sci-Fi channel) and Stargate SG-1 (Showtime) operate on the 22-episode season plan. Babylon 5, a syndicated show, had 22-episode seasons (yes, I tend to watch science fiction).
Half-hour sitcoms, on the other hand, tend to run longer seasons. This is probably a function of how long it takes to film each episode. When looking up some of the shows listed on this thread, I found that Friends and Just Shoot Me run about 24-26 episodes per season. This was true back when MASH was on; for historical perspective, I Love Lucy aired a few more during its first years (between 30-35) but trailed off to 26 eps by the end of its run. So what you may actually be experiencing isn’t a decreased season but a decreased re-run or pre-emption schedule, which serves to compress the time it takes to air all 22 or so episodes. IMHO, less re-runs and pre-emptions is a good thing.
Now, what is getting shorter and shorter is the actual airing time of a given episode. Commercial time is creeping up higher and higher…I think some networks have now surpassed the 15 minute/hour mark…and as a result I’m experiencing more and more “Plot Missing” moments during every show I watch. I don’t have the actual stats to hand comparing how long, say, an originally-aired episode of Battlestar Galactica (1978) was versus an episode of The X-Files being shown in 2000, but I can say that when some of the cable networks re-air old shows there’s sometimes footage missing to make room for commercials (which is really sad in the case of SciFi Channel, which has all of 6 commercials that they run over and over and over…). So if you want to gripe about something to the networks, gripe about that and I’ll be right there with you. The reason I mostly skip network programming is that it bores me silly, not that they’re skimping on the number of shows each year.
Actually not that much these days. I only watch 5 current shows regularly, two of which (Farscape and Stargate) aren’t running new eps until January (they tend to run opposite of the network programming). The only new show I’m watching is CSI (which airs the same time as Farscape, of course) which I started watching in part because someone here at work recommended it (she knows someone who consults for it). Nash Bridges and The X-Files are the other shows I watch. I might occasionally pick up something airing on one of the informational cable networks (the History channel has some cool shows as do Discovery and The Learning Channel).
What I do have, however, is an extensive video tape collection of shows I liked years ago. (I think I’m up to 270 some odd tapes…and I tape at EP/SLP speed, too :)). What I know about episodes numbers, etc, I picked up from various TV-themed newsgroups and lists I’ve been on since 1995 when I discovered the 'net. That and reading episode guides (official and otherwise).
Oh, and for another TV season tidbit, for some reason shows from the UK (e.g. Blackadder, Red Dwarf [thru season 5]) tend to run 6- episode seasons (or “series” as they call them). So the 4 seasons of Blackadder I have on tape amount to 24 episodes, barely a single US season.
Amen to that! It doesn’t seem to be as bad overseas. I went and bought the commercial versions of Highlander (seasons 1-5; season 6 is not worth speaking of) mainly because there was an extra 2 minutes of footage in each episode that aired in markets overseas…the so-called “Euro-minutes”. Two minutes doesn’t seem like a lot, but over the course of 22 episodes it’s virtually an entire extra show! I also have the “Canadian” versions of the first season of Forever Knight which, again, have about 2 extra minutes of footage. Not sure what the difference is nowadays, though.
X-Files premieres so late in the season because the actors and Chris Carter were doing the press junket the year the movie opened instead of beginning filming. Therefore the season premiere had to be bumped. The next year they moved to LA, so once again, bump the premiere up. This year there really wasn’t any excuse, I suspect it was just habit.
Former X-Phile, (who gives a flying fornification about flying bat-boys? Find Mulder, you morons!)
I very much like the European format. Five or ten second commercials, if they are well made, are as effective - and oftentimes more - as full thirty-second North American ones. BTW, Canada has about as many commercials as the U.S.; I would say the average 30-minute program is in fact 23 minutes long, once you take out the commercials. For special events, like the Super Bowl, or the showing of blockbusters like The Titanic recently, the ratio borders on the ridiculous.
Swiddles: I guess the X-Files followed the trend along with a few others this year (ER, for example). In addition, part of the reason may lie with the contract negotiation problems they had (and still have?) with David Dukovny.
The number of episodes per season hasn’t been changing, but the way the networks schedule them has. For a show with 22 episodes in a season, they used to show all 22 (running out in mid-February or so) and then go back to the beginning and show them all again. I’ve noticed they start shuffling in the reruns earlier, probably to stretch the supply of new episodes and have some stockpiled for sweeps months. If the episode guides have air dates, check to see if eps 19-22 usually air in May.
Actually, they’ve has some pretty specific excuses the past two seasons. Fox got the rights to the play-offs and World Series which pushed the premiere of their season back. The XF premiere was aired the same night as the Simpson and Malcolm in the Middle Premieres. Poor Futurama, its east coast premeire was pre-empted by a football game that ran long.
Actually, I do enjoy the late start a bit. Yeah it’s annoying to have a longer summer to sit through, but they can’t squeeze as many re-rums in during the season since they try to end the season at the same time as other networks.
Correction: the second season of The X-Files had 25 episodes (the DVDs just arrived in the mail, hooray!). Seasons 3 and 4 each had 24, but season 5 did indeed have only 20. Seasons 6 and 7 have 22. This according to the insert booklet that came with the DVDs, which names each episode and lists an air date.
I’ll wager that the particularly late start this year was due in large part to the Olympics. NBC couldn’t air anything new, and the other networks didn’t want to compete with NBC. So, everyone held off until the games were over.
I’ve heard that, for sitcoms at least, the operation used to run like this: 12-13 episodes are worked on and put to air consecutively. The same shows are then rerun. During the initial run and rerun, the writers and actors work on and film another 12-13 shows, which are then, again, shown consecutively and rerun. The Hollywood people then use that 24-26 week period to start work on the next season, since, by the time the reruns stop, a year will have passed.
For reasons unknown, it appears that the networks are experimenting with a new programming model. Now, only 4 or 6 new episodes are released at a time, followed by a month or two of reruns. The new programming is scattered throughout the year. I have no idea why they’re doing this, but one possibility is that the networks are trying to make more opportunities to air what used to be called “mid-season replacements”. In the past, if a show sucked and no one watched it, it’d get yanked after its initial run and replaced with a second-string show that might have a chance of getting more viewers. Perhaps the networks are trying to identify their loser-shows faster with the “4 new shows in a row” model, get 'em off the air faster, and replace them with something worthwhile. Or, maybe they’re trying to create “openings” in the middle of the season to see how a new show will go over. It sure seems to me as though there are a LOT of new shows lately, in terms of titles…
Oops…my bad. I have the official guides, too (not to mention all of them on tape) so I should know that. The DVDs are on my Christmas list. I hope someone pays attention ;).
As for the late start, I think as beakerxf mentioned the real reason lately is the World Series. Still is a pain that the show is only on about half the year.
Swiddles lamented
Here, here! Of course, with DD only doing 11 out of 20 eps (and only fully starring in the last 6), they can’t find him too soon. Ironically, part of DD’s issue with the show was their overly-long seasons. I think he was the primary person involved in getting the lengths knocked back to the more traditional 22 episodes. I can’t blame him–looking at him in early seasons versus later ones you can see how much “wear and tear” he’s accumulated; more, I think, than just the normal aging process. And I know he’s quite happy about only having to work a few months out of the year instead of 8-10. Gives him a chance to develop his post-XF career now AND spend time with his family. He’s even gone so far as to say he wouldn’t be adverse to doing a 9th season as long as he got a similar deal as he did this year (unlikely, I suspect). Given the last two episodes, though, I think Chris Carter misspoke when he called Mulder the “absent center” of the show this season. He’s more like the “absent brain.”
*Max also noted *
Probably because they’re stupid. It’s annoying when a show is yanked after only 4 or 6 episodes; it usually takes me that long just to find a show and get into it. I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot here. No wonder the survival rate for new shows is so low.
Michele
waiting for Fox’s new special “Who Wants to be a TV Programming Executive.”
I’d just like to add that the Summer Olympics were another reason that a bunch of shows premiered late this year. All the NBC shows started after they were finished, and I think other networks took their lead.
BTW, I think the X-Files is a little bizarre this season. Did anyone guffaw when Robert Patrick held out a picture of Scully and said “Have you seen this woman?” ala Terminator 2? Remember his cameo in “Wayne’s World 2?” They definitely need a scene where he gets frozen in liquid nitrogen.
omni
I actually thought up “diarrheic cows” on the spot. What I have been looking to use (which is related I suppose) is:
“I hope your mother gets buggered by a herd of gonorrheic donkeys.”
I just can’t seem to slip it in to everyday conversation, though.
It’s annoying when a show is yanked after only 4 or 6 episodes; it usually takes me that long just to find a show and get into it. I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot here. No wonder the survival rate for new shows is so low.