This story on CNN’s website brings up an interesting point, that TV is leaping toward serialized drama in an effort to capture some the magic from “Lost” and garner ratings.
Apart from demonstrating once again that Hollywood and TV producers are sheep who latch on to the most superficial of labels to attempt to re-bottle lightning, what does this mean?
Is network TV sufficiently recovered from the recent writers’ strike to venture again into the territory of shows with real writing? Are they looking to shrug off the spate of so-called reality television that has plaqued the airwaves for years?
And where the hell were the pro-serial TV producers when “Firefly” was on the air, damn it?
I wouldn’t consider Firefly a serial in the way the other shows referenced are. There were some plot elements that carried through some of the episodes but it didn’t have the sort of overarching storylines that Lost and The Nine had.
The next looming trend is telenovelas, supposedly. “Ugly Betty” is an adaptation of a telenovela, and the new MyNetworkTV (the leftovers from the WB/UPN merger) relies pretty much exclusively on them for night time programming. I haven’t heard how the telenovelas are doing ratings-wise. I was sort of interested in watching one of them but the whole five nights a week thing interfered to much with other TV viewing.
Where were they a few years ago?
DVR, TV download, and TV series on DVD weren’t as much of a given even two years ago.
The problem with serials is that you pretty much have to catch every episode to know what’s going on, otherwise you get lost and don’t tune in for the next episode. Procedurals don’t have that problem (the L&O franchise does a brilliant job of having entirely self contained episodes). Soap operas and dramatic series move slowly enough that missing a few episodes is not a big deal. Serials require a viewer’s attention.
Now, if I miss Lost or Prison Break, I can find the episode easily and catch up before it airs or buy the DVD in the summer and watch every episode. Still, though, people get serialed-out. There’s a limit to how many storylines that any viewer is willing to keep watching and some good ones got canned this year because they couldn’t find and keep an audience.
That said, Firefly wasn’t a serial and a lack of “pro-serial” producers and viewers were not the reason it got cancelled.
One thing the networks have discovered is that viewers hate re-runs of a television serial - ratings plummet and people lose interest or get confused when new episodes start up again. Fox was clever with 24 and quickly changed so that all the episodes (baring some major disaster/news story) will be shown week after week, without any repeats or breaks between episodes. Now the other networks are following suit - I believe I read that next season, LOST will be shown back to back, with no breaks. This should help keep ratings up if people get used to turning on their TV at a regular day and time to see a new episode.
Regarding serials being in vogue again - I think it is just another phase. Remember when almost every daytime show was a rip-off of Jerry Springer? That didn’t last long. Then it seemed like reality TV was going to take over every channel, on every prime time slot - until a few shows bombed and networks realized they had another problem - no great interest in later syndication for these shows - especially if the winners were already well known. Yes, a few of those shows are still on the air (American Idol, The Apprentice, etc.), but the heyday is over.
I think TV serials will always come and go - remember Dallas, Dynasty, Knotts Landing, The Colbys, etc. etc. - as long as the writing is decent, and the first few episodes grab some attention, people will watch. But just like West Wing finally wore out its welcome, and the writers of LOST have decided to start planning how they will end the show - good serials should have what daytime soaps call The Bible - a general idea of where the show is headed, at least a year in advance. For prime time, I think they are getting the idea that a good serial has a limited life-span, and it will be wiser to plan the grand (lucrative) finale to take place after about 4 or 5 years tops. As the old adage goes, “leave 'em wanting more.” Far better than watching a great show just fade away without wrapping it up during its prime.
MASH was a perfect example of knowing when to call it a day - granted, it wasn’t really a serial, but they saw the writing on the wall and wrapped up a great series with one of the grandest, and most watched finales of all time.
There’s a basic flaw in your reaqsoning. The writer’s strike happened in the U.S. but European tv has been plagued with reality tv for as long or even longer and there was no writer’s strike here. It might be that it was a convenient solution for the American networks to do reality tv but the strike wasn’t the cause
He was working on it. I think you mean executives.
We’ve talked about this before here in CS and the concensus is that the tv landscape was vastly different back then. Cable tv was in its infancy and regulations for the big three networks were a lot more complicated than it is today (even with affiliates).
IMO MASH went on for too long. Alan Alda chewed the scenery and did liberal grandstanding a couple of seasons to much. I’m liberal but it made for bad tv.