Why is that?
That actually had a full season of 26 shows. But the premise got boring so halfway thru the cavemen came back to the future to live with the astronauts.
Hilarity ensued. :rolleyes:
But it had a cool theme song.
Well, they have short seasons. And, most of them are* really *bad. Yes, i know, us Americans are amazed by the quality of such things as Masterpiece Theater, but we only get the cream of the crop.
The costumes they had for some of the women were wowzer!
It’s not exactly the same question you asked, but we did have a recent thread which is relevant: Why do British shows have such short seasons?
I don’t know whether this is a good analogy or not, but I kind of think of it this way: traditionally, American networks adding series to their schedule are like companies hiring employees; British networks adding series to their schedule are like companies giving workers a contract for a specific piece of work.
It’s about time, it’s about space
It’s about time I slapped your face POW
(Sister Marie! burpo hit me!)
Ooo! Ooo!
That’s right- the cavemen moved into a modern apartment, and kept bonking their heads on the windows, because they couldn’t grasp the concept of glass (“Me no see anything, but feel something”)
Not the proudest moments of Imogene Coca’s career.
Now, now, Gunther! :dubious:
No doubt you are aware this is the EXACT thing the British hear about American TV? Usually from the Americans now I think about it. “You Brits think US TV is better because you only see the good stuff…”
No, they see things like Starsky and Hutch and Love Boat. Ew!
Why is that?
Completely different attitude toward TV. A BBC official once told me that they take pride in offering viewers new programming every few months. They see no need to milk series for more than they’re worth, and they let them run only so long as the quality of writing remains the same.
This is why there are only a dozen episodes of Fawlty Towers; neither John Cleese nor Connie Booth wanted the series to grow stale. *** Doc Martin ***will probably end after its next season for the same reason. And so on and so on.
Yes, and both are true, after all- why export the crap & the failures?
Does anyone even MAKE caps any more? Did you ever hit an entire roll of paper caps with a hammer? Satisfying BOOM! I had this model kit once.
I have that album on CD; it’s incredible. I’ve played some of those songs live and gotten good response (mostly from drunks). Do I have to spell it out? C-H-E-E-S-E-A-N-D-O-N-I-O-N-S, Oh, no! The film, “All You Need Is Cash” is equally hysterical.
I think BrainGlutton might be stuck. If he, "Why is that"s once more, give him a nudge. 
Khan was actually a sort of consolation prize. The series Khan was actually a sort-of follow-up to the TV-movie Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders, based on Robert H. Van Gulik’s Judge Dee mystery The Haunted Monastery, made by the King of TV Movies, Nicholas Meyer*. It starred Dheigh as the titular Judge Dee, the only non-Asian actor in a cast of Asian actors playing Chinese characters (KD – real name Kenneth Dickerson – despite playing many Chinese and Japanese characters over the years, was African/English), and was obviously intended to "sell’ the idea of a Judge Dee series. The network balked, though, daunted by the thought of an all-Asian cast that they thought the majority of US TV watchers couldn’t relate to, or because of the cost of T’ang dynasty costumes and sets, or whatever. So they “compromised” by only retaining the lead actor and setting mysteries in the present day, in the US. Voila!
I’m not surprised it died. It’s like turning Hamlet into a continuing series about a guy of Danish descent living in Minnesota with his wacky neighbor Yorick.
*The same guy who wrote The Seven Per Cent Solution and its two sequels, wrote the screenplay for the movie version and directed it, wrote and directed Time after Time, and wrote or directed Star Treks II and IV. Among other things. His TV movies are the best and the most under-appreciated.
They “see” things like Starsky and Hutch"?
I “saw” Starsky and Hutch but it must have been over 30 years ago. (And I liked it!)
Love Boat wasn’t something I watched.
TCMF-2L
If the Brits didn’t export the crap how come so many Americans seem familiar with Are You Being Served?
All those Mrs Slocombe “Pussy” jokes…
The horror, the horror…
John Cleese’s pithy assessment: “Shakespeare only got about 3 hours out of Hamlet, so I think 6 hours of Basil Fawlty is more than enough.”
Yes, that’s right. You saw it back in the '70s, and it’s still representative of the American programming that’s shown all over the world.
Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks (heh!), but neither S&H nor LB are what I would call “quality programming.” IMHO, they’re right up there with crap like Baywatch (remember that?).
In that case, British programs probably should be excluded from this thread. A brief run is not crib-death in their case, not a sign of creative failure or executive meddling or an audience too ignorant to appreciate the show; it’s just a naturally shorter life-cycle.