I’ve lately gotten into watching British comedies (Blackadder, Black Books, Spaced) on DVD and I’ve noticed one really odd thing. Every season has only 6 or 7 episodes on it, and shows often last only two or three years, and sometimes they’re not even consecutive years. The upside of this is great, as I only have to rent one DVD, but it has made me a bit curious about the inner workings of television in the UK.
What causes this format? Here in the U.S. some weekly shows have as many as 20 episodes per season. How are the shows aired (weekly, monthly, seasonally)? Are they all like this? If some of these shows were popular enough to make it over here, why did they only last a few years?
If the first series was made in 2000, and the second in 2002, what do the cast and crew do in the off year?
Probably because most of 'em are rubbish and the makers know that after a handful of episodes the viewing figures will drop through the floor, and the series will be cancelled.
Some of them do have a kind of “season” that seems to end around November and start again in February/March. The explanation used to be that it was because the tv companies were gearing up for the festive season and the time when they start an almost interminable run of repeats, interspersed with the “Christmas Special”. It also explains why they still show Morecombe and Wise year after year.
I think part of the answer is that American TV is more commercial, driven by ratings, so that if a TV series rates well, there is pressure to keep the series going until the ratings drop, or the actors and writers finally get sick of it. British TV is freer from such pressures, so a series can be put together as a 6-episode one, because those writing and producing it know that if they went on any longer, they’d run out of ideas and material.
Another reason is that US comedies are often written by a panel of many people, and members of the writing team change and rotate (like our soaps), whereas UK comedies are usually scripted by only one or two people writing, which means they run out of ideas quicker/get exhausted/have more of a sense of completeness about the work.
As well as what Giles said British comedies have much smaller writing teams than American ones, typically one or two people compared with the revolving cast of writers on American shows. It’s much easier to write ten seasons of a show when a different person writes each episode.
What the others said (and I said in that earlier thread ) about writers. It’s almost a tradition for comedies to be written by duos: Blackadder, Fawlty Towers, The Office, Father Ted (yes I know that one’s Irish), Only Fools and Horses, Porridge, Dad’s Army, Allo Allo, Hancock’s Half Hour, On The Buses, Little Britain, Steptoe and Son, Yes Minister…
Also, on American TV, there is a tremendous incentive to produce enough episodes of a show for it to be successfully sold into syndication. Those are usually run one episode per day, on weekdays. The magic number for this seems to be around 3 dozen episodes. This allows a local TV station to run them 1-1/2 to 2 months before repeating.
The residual payments for a series in syndication is very valuable to the actors, producers, writers, etc. on the series. There have been cast parties held to celebrate when they tape the episode needed to reach the magic number for syndication.
) about writers. It’s almost a tradition for comedies to be written by duos: Blackadder, Fawlty Towers, The Office, Father Ted (yes I know that one’s Irish), Only Fools and Horses, Porridge, Dad’s Army, Allo Allo, Hancock’s Half Hour, On The Buses, Little Britain, Steptoe and Son, Yes Minister…