Which, of course, ignores monstrosities like Dragonball Z. I don’t know enough about anime to answer this, but is that sort of interminable, drawn-out series typical of anime based on long-running manga series?
I think the American system can be better for episodic shows as long as the quality can be maintained, for the simple reason that there will be more good episodes to watch 
I think the problem is that the Beeb is involuntarily public-supported. A somewhat similar situation arose in the late 80s when it was noticed that Garrison Keillor was making the astonishing pay of $250,000/year. There was an uproar, with few people noting that he was host, producer, and chief writer for the biggest show on public radio that wasn’t news and, at that rate, he was making less than a second banana on a big-market Morning Zoo.
It’s hard to say. On the one hand, the British system generally offers a better bang for your buck as the viewer. Each episode will on average be higher quality and you won’t be left with lots of loose ends due to network meddling. On the other hand, when the US system works, it works well. I don’t think any of Whedon’s shows would have worked as well with fewer episodes per season, for example. Those shows all emphasized steady character development, slowly building up a rapport with the audience. I think a lot of the effect would have been lost if those changes had been accelerated to fit a shorter season format. Basically, as I see it, shows that have one central idea work better in the British format, but shows that emphasize long term character growth benefit from the American system.
Also, Arrested Development and golden days Simpsons were fantastic through and through and having fewer episodes would be much worse.
Nah, DBZ had several oddities. First, they made a weird decision to simply make one episode out of every manga issue. This was very odd, because each Manga issue was only a little thicker than, say, a Marvel comic. And maybe even less. This led to a grotesque level of padding. Suffice it to say that nobody does it like that anymore.
I don’t watch or read it myself, but I’ve heard that the Naruto anime caught up to the manga it was based on, so they had 80 episodes in a row of what many consider to be filler.
FMA?
Manga tend do tend to flog the horse dead. Anime based on those manga will often just take the first major event in the comic storyline and make that the whole story (Berserk, Video Girl Ai, etc.) But in the case of Jump Comics’ creations like One Piece, Rurouni Kenshin, Hunter X Hunter, Zatch Bell!, etc. really have nothing like a storyline, so the anime tend to follow that and just keep going on eternally. The target audience for those manga tend to be children and young teens though.
It’s more or less a genre thing - at least since Dragonball, shonen adventure series tend to follow the same format - Bleach, Naruto, etc, are other major examples. Other genres or demographics tend to either have shortish runs (13, 26, or 52 weekly episodes, as mentioned), or discrete, and sometimes not contiguous, series. Even when based on fairly long-running manga.
There are a few series in other genres that go on forever and ever, but they don’t tend to be arc-and-mythology based like the above, and therefor don’t seem to drag like the above (especially Dragonball and Naruto), and it’s not common enough to be taken for granted. The two most obvious examples are Doraemon (the second TV series ran from 1979 to 2005, and the third picked up almost immediately, on the same network (with a different production company), and is still running) and Sazae-san (run consistently on a single network since 1969) - both of which are based on exceptionally long running manga series, as well - Doraemon started in 1969, and ran until the creator’s death in 1996, Sazae-san ran daily from 1946 to 1974. Notably, both series are episodic in nature.
My major gripe with American TV is the desire to have every single show go on forever. Prison Break is a perfect example of this. If it was a British show, it would have lasted 2 seasons, had a proper conclusion, and been hailed as one of the greatest adventure shows ever. But no, its excellent ratings caused FOX to keep renewing it, making a third AND fourth season which were obviously thrown together in a panic, and were never even dreamed up when the show was created, and now the show is going down in a blaze of disaster, not even getting to finish its last season, and is going to have a reputation of being a joke.
Most American shows won’t even get to the pilot stage if the networks know that the show is only going to last a given amount of time. They only want stuff that COULD go on forever, as long as the ratings stay high. And of course, if they don’t succeed, then you get shows like The 9 and Surface which end before the story can even wrap up properly, or shows like Journeyman or Jericho where there IS an ending, but you can tell that it was a rushed conclusion and is not where the creators saw the storyline going
The ONLY reason I gave Lost a second chance was when it was announced that the show WOULD wrap up at a pre-decided point, so at least I KNEW they wouldn’t be trying to drag it on past its prime.
Yep. It’s so disheartening, when the first season was so very, very bloody good, and the second also worked pretty well. From then on you could just see the man behind the curtain for every shot. We stopped watching without even realising it. We’ll never buy DVDs of the first two seasons.
It seems like shows in the US suffer from two problems - from the POV a viewer, at least: 1) they can get cancelled justlikethat. No resolution. No warning. Not just for you, but for everyone making the show. They just stop. 2) The opposite: they just keep going on and on and on and on and on. That story you thought was wrapped up in a satisfying way? No! Here it comes again! Stories should end; if you expected to watch a soap opera, you would have watched a soap opera.
It doesn’t even make commercial sense - stop a series at a high point, and it will continue to sell without you having to pay much out. ‘My GF liked [whatever show]; what shall I get her for her birthday? I know!’
British TV shows, not just on the BBC, are better for this because there seems to be more of a guarantee that the show will last, more of an expectation that it will end sometime, and, importantly, because there tends to be just one two writers for a series. They leave, series stops. The writer rules.
Those British TV series that have eschewed this format have suffered from it. Cf. Red Dwarf, My Family (always shot US style), and the execrable Two Pints.
More episodes than six is good, but US seasons are just a bit too long, IMO - the actors never get a chance to do anything else significant, and that makes them poorer actors.
To each his own and all, but I think both Look Around You and The Mighty Boosh have been great. I was surprised at how ‘big-budget’ Boosh looks. Brit comedies shows are more often like Look Around You, low-key and low-budget…
Noir (2001) is 26 episodes & done. Its spiritual successors, from the same production company, are Madlax (2004) and El Cazador de la Bruja (2007). I’m not promising they’re good, mind. I’ve only seen Noir, & it’s pretty trippy.
Starship Operators was one 13-ep season. I liked it.