Sunday, May 06, 2007
Longing for TGOD
In the spirit of the hipness of the new millennium, I decided to create my own anagram. In this case, TGOD is not a religious reference, but simply "The Good Old Days". In particular, I'm talking about TGOD of Television. My last entry was about a new show on Fox that was just picking up steam. I waited for a few episodes before I wrote anything about the show because I wanted to see if it would last. I also noted in my very first sentence that the mere act of writing about the show would probably turn out to be the show's death knell.
In the last year or so a new trend has become apparent in television. It seems that the brains behind Hollywood have decided that a show that can't generate an audience in the first 5 episodes is never going to make it. In TGOD, shows got at least a season to prove themselves, and often got moved around the schedule to see if that made any difference. Now it's Wham Bam Thank You Actors.
I'm bitching about this policy because in at least several cases of "premature evacuation", I was really starting to dig the show (the last entry was case in point). The rude part is that when they decide to yank the show, they really yank it. The time slot is usually filled with the reruns of something else until the next short lived series is ready to take its place. The result is that same frustration when you are on a date that is going really really well and then your date passes out. There is no resolution. The story line just ends. And last week's previews are the only hint you have of where the story was going.
As strategies go, this one sucks for a very good reason. The strategy is creating "false positives". I mean that the strategy is making people stay away from the first 4 or 5 episodes because no one wants to get involved in a show that may be summarily yanked just when things are getting good. Of course, if those television die hards (like yours truly) don't watch the first few episodes, then the ratings will never pick up and the studio execs will kill off the show. this is a vicious cycle.
Frankly, the network that breaks the pattern will get my viewership. I would rather watch a mediocre show that comes to a conclusion, than a fantastic show that might get pulled out from under me.
Just recently, this phenomenon has happened to a variety of shows on several networks, including:
The Nine
Drive
In Case of Emergency
Day Break
Standoff
3 lbs
Kidnapped
Vanished
Smith
Heist
My poor TiVo subscriptions are starting to look like a graveyard for the short lived...
I'd like s better resolution. I understand that the production costs can be high, but maybe they producers of these shows should air the remainder of the season somewhere other than television (YouTube comes to mind). Maybe the shows will find an audience after all.
In today's market, I wonder if M*A*S*H would have ever made it past the fifth episode... (sigh)
In the last year or so a new trend has become apparent in television. It seems that the brains behind Hollywood have decided that a show that can't generate an audience in the first 5 episodes is never going to make it. In TGOD, shows got at least a season to prove themselves, and often got moved around the schedule to see if that made any difference. Now it's Wham Bam Thank You Actors.
I'm bitching about this policy because in at least several cases of "premature evacuation", I was really starting to dig the show (the last entry was case in point). The rude part is that when they decide to yank the show, they really yank it. The time slot is usually filled with the reruns of something else until the next short lived series is ready to take its place. The result is that same frustration when you are on a date that is going really really well and then your date passes out. There is no resolution. The story line just ends. And last week's previews are the only hint you have of where the story was going.
As strategies go, this one sucks for a very good reason. The strategy is creating "false positives". I mean that the strategy is making people stay away from the first 4 or 5 episodes because no one wants to get involved in a show that may be summarily yanked just when things are getting good. Of course, if those television die hards (like yours truly) don't watch the first few episodes, then the ratings will never pick up and the studio execs will kill off the show. this is a vicious cycle.
Frankly, the network that breaks the pattern will get my viewership. I would rather watch a mediocre show that comes to a conclusion, than a fantastic show that might get pulled out from under me.
Just recently, this phenomenon has happened to a variety of shows on several networks, including:
The Nine
Drive
In Case of Emergency
Day Break
Standoff
3 lbs
Kidnapped
Vanished
Smith
Heist
My poor TiVo subscriptions are starting to look like a graveyard for the short lived...
I'd like s better resolution. I understand that the production costs can be high, but maybe they producers of these shows should air the remainder of the season somewhere other than television (YouTube comes to mind). Maybe the shows will find an audience after all.
In today's market, I wonder if M*A*S*H would have ever made it past the fifth episode... (sigh)
