Red Dwarf and Blackadder.
When I started watching both, they were in their prime, about mid way through their run, I assumed they were this good from the beginning. Having caught the first season of both, I can barely watch, it makes me wonder how they got a renewal.
[QUOTE=Pushkin]
Red Dwarf and Blackadder.
When I started watching both, they were in their prime, about mid way through their run, I assumed they were this good from the beginning. Having caught the first season of both, I can barely watch, it makes me wonder how they got a renewal.
[/QUOTE]
I disagree, I recently had a Red Dwarf marathon (all eight series over the course of a week), and despite the lack of visual polish (due no doubt to a miniscule budget) the writing for the first series is fantastic.
[QUOTE=Leechboy]
**Wings
**
Nine seasons, and I’ve never met anyone who’s ever watched more than one episode.
[/QUOTE]
Methink you’re being too harsh. I was never a big fan, nor were my roommates back in grad school. Still, we all saw a good number of episodes, and we agreed that it was a decent show.
And that’s exactly what it was. Not a star performer, but a steady one. It’s longevity was hardly surprising.
The Gong Show. How did it survive past the first week? This is what they should show to break a person during interrogation.
[QUOTE=Szlater]
I disagree, I recently had a Red Dwarf marathon (all eight series over the course of a week), and despite the lack of visual polish (due no doubt to a miniscule budget) the writing for the first series is fantastic.
[/QUOTE]
For my money, the first series is the best of the lot. Hmm…well, maybe second to the second.
But for my money, a) the last 2 series weren’t at all bad, even if they weren’t up to the earlier series, and b) the first series of Blackadder was also the best, snivelling Edmund, and all.
So, you know, YMM - and probably does - V.
I was brought up on BBC production values, so I’ve never held a wobbly set against any show!
Some shows just seem to start off with great characters, which are then given progressively lazier plots, other start off with shaky characters which are then given tighter plots. For me RD and BA were the latter, something like Frasier was the former.
Your M may V of course.
[QUOTE=Lumpy]
And there have been shows that by every measure should have been cancelled after their fourth episode, yet somehow managed to go on and on.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think there are any of these, because the only measure that matters to the network is ratings.
[QUOTE=Pushkin]
Some shows just seem to start off with great characters, which are then given progressively lazier plots, other start off with shaky characters which are then given tighter plots.
[/QUOTE]
Well, I think the RD characters changed a lot over the years and I have to admit I enjoy the later episodes more (particularly with the rewritten Cat and reintroduced Kryten). But, the first season’s Lister/Rimmer relationship was brilliant… no doubt helped by the fact that Charles and Barrie were at each other’s throats for most of the time.
I think your sentiments are shared on BA with most people. I remember reading an interview with either Atkinson or Robinson saying that they needed to rewrite the characters after BA as it was touch and go for a while as to whether BAII would get made at all.
My Wife & Kids–The only real actor on the show is the kid who played Franklin.
[QUOTE=Charger]
America’s Funniest Home Videos is still on? I had no idea. I loved it when it was a new show, but I assumed that it died in the mid-90s. I was happier then.
[/QUOTE]
That’s exactly what I thought when I read that it was still on. Is it still hosted by Bob Saget?
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
I’m amazed I’m the first to mention Knot’s Landing. It was a mediocre prime time soap opera that got on the air because that was a huge genre back in the seventies. And then it somehow managed to stay on for fourteen seasons, long after the genre that initiated it had passed. My theory is that not even the people at CBS were watching it so they just assumed it had already been cancelled.
[/QUOTE]
Knot’s Landing was a spinoff of the incredibly popular Dallas, which, in the early 80s, was guaranteed gold. It had a Ewing brother, it had California smut sensibilities, it had pretty women with substance abuse issues. It had Alec Baldwin at one point. It DID peter out toward the last couple of seasons and kind of limp along, relatively unnoticed until it finally just kind of last-gasped and jumped off the cliff behind the cul-de-sac.
[QUOTE=chorpler]
That’s exactly what I thought when I read that it was still on. Is it still hosted by Bob Saget?
[/QUOTE]
From the Wikipedia page (there’s always a Wikipedia page), Saget hasn’t hosted it for over a decade.
Bob Saget (1989-1997)
Daisy Fuentes and John Fugelsang (1998-2001)
Tom Bergeron (2001-current)
The page mentions also that all episodes of the show are in syndication. So-- not only is the show cheap to make, ensuring a first-run profit, but they then pull in more over the years. (Plus I wouldn’t be surprised if, just as AFHV used clips from a Japanese show, the Australian version of this show also shares clips, thus spreading the costs that much farther…)
[QUOTE=Charlie Tan]
163 episodes over 7 seasons: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
[/QUOTE]
While it’s not a show I’d ever gone out of my way to watch, I’ve seen a number of Sabrina episodes. For the most part they struck me as pretty well-written and decently acted for the sort of show it was. I can certainly understand why it would be popular.
Sabrina was better than it had any right to be. All the elements were silly, the acting was broad, and the mechanical cat was the worst special effect in TV history.
But the show was fun to watch. I’d take it over Full House or Home Improvement, or even Seinfeld in a flash.
I’ve been stabbed in the heart. Am I stuck in the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits?
Wings was a very good show.
Jag
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
There are soap operas that have been on the air since the '50s.
[/QUOTE]
And yet, it is only “three days later…” in soap opera land.
There was an episode of The Golden Girls where Bea Arthur sits down to watch some TV with her mother. She asks, “What are you watching?” Her mother answers “Guiding Light.” Arthur responds by saying, “I haven’t watched that show in 30 years.” Her mother says, “Well, it’s later that same day…”
Saturday Night Live. In any given episode, maybe one funny bit. Long, loud sketches that consist of beating to death one joke or one catch phrase. And year after year, the least funny actors are the ones who stay on.
Mad TV. Entirely humor-free since 1995.
[QUOTE=plnnr]
And yet, it is only “three days later…” in soap opera land.
There was an episode of The Golden Girls where Bea Arthur sits down to watch some TV with her mother. She asks, “What are you watching?” Her mother answers “Guiding Light.” Arthur responds by saying, “I haven’t watched that show in 30 years.” Her mother says, “Well, it’s later that same day…”
[/QUOTE]
I thought that was Rose and Dorothy talking about the soapish comic strip Apartment 3-G.
Originally Posted by Leechboy
Wings
Nine seasons, and I’ve never met anyone who’s ever watched more than one episode.
I liked Wings…mostly for Tony Shalhoub…he was a standout in that show.