Are TV Show season's getting too short?
#76
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
That is what you wrote:
However, you were interpreting/agreeing with this post:
Hence the confusion.
How do you know they didn't show repeats on the skipped weeks? You list Bonanza seasons as having some weeks without episodes, but all that really shows are weeks without new episodes. A repeat episode may have been aired on those non-new weeks.
Any skipped week was some other show, not a repeat of the regularly scheduled show.
#77
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
You are correct. In my instance, I'm fairly certain they were repeats. I remember watching Cheers when it was on and they only repeated a few episodes during those "bye" weeks (e.g. Holidays). But they most certainly showed repeats before the summer. The summer, however, was strictly ALL repeats until FOX started stuff like 90210 new episodes in the summer.
#78
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
That's why I specified the missed episodes were on holidays. Holiday specials. When I was growing up in the 60s thru about 1972 a show would sometimes not be on because they were showing a special but you never saw a rerun till the season was over. Once you saw a rerun you knew to quit watching until next fall even if it was only March or April.
#79
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
Do you have evidence that those specific dates were pre-empted by holiday specials, or are you just assuming?
#80
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
Now that I've said that, I cant imagine why anyone gives a shit. It's not like it will make any difference to bringing back longer seasons, good programming or reasonable schedules. I'm outta here.
#81
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
Plenty of shows for a NEW episode every week... On occasion a show might skip a week for a holiday or a network special but that was uncommon. And in any event...So what? Don't you expect a break for the holiday?
The point here is this: When I sat down on Sunday night at 9PM I had every confidence was going to see a new episode of Bonanza and 99% of the time I did.
Now, from the anecdotal evidence provided here of a select few shows, it does seem like shows in the 50s and 60s tended, though not consistently, to have longer seasons than now. For example, The Twilight Zone had a season high of 37 episodes, but also had a low of 18 episodes for season 4, where it was a mid-season replacement. So while breaks were less common, things like mid-season replacement, longer breaks between seasons, reruns, etc. were not unknown even then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._Zone_episodes
It's hard to say when exactly shows started having shorter seasons, on average, but the Laverne and Shirley example shows that even back in the 1970s, 24 episodes a season was not uncommon. Considering network fare averages probably 22 episodes a season nowadays, there hasn't been that dramatic a shortening of the season for the last 40 years.
Now, something not discussed is whether or not these longer seasons were necessarily a good thing. Rod Serling was famously drained of ideas by the long runs on The Twilight Zone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twi...2.80.931962.29
In his third year as executive producer, host, narrator and primary writer for The Twilight Zone, Serling was beginning to feel exhausted. "I've never felt quite so drained of ideas as I do at this moment", said the 37-year old playwright at the time.
So, at least for creator-driven shows, shorter seasons may be better to let them tell their stories at a reasonable pace without exhausting them.Also, unlike the network shows that still try to run fall through spring, a lot of the smaller cable shows do run non-stop, or close to, for each season. Networks have picked this up a bit, but only for serial shows. 24 almost always ran non-stop, sometimes with multiple episodes in a week.
I think another thing to consider is the declining importance of "appointment TV." In the 50s and 60s, people would have to schedule their lives around their favorite TV shows. You couldn't do anything else for most of the year on Sundays at 9, since that's when Bonanza aired. Networks had a more "captive" audience, so they delivered the goods.
As VCRs, video games, computers, the internet, etc. entered the arena, TV was no longer the only means of audio-visual entertainment in the home. Networks no longer had the audience that they did for shows like Bonanza. Less audience means less money, means smaller budgets, means less episodes. Networks could get away with airing more reruns during the year because a good portion of the audience probably had missed it the first time around ("it's new to you!").
Once DVRs, TV on DVD, on-demand, and internet streaming came into play, TV was no longer the only options for watching TV. Nowadays I don't even have to be home at the time the show airs in order to watch it. I don't even have to know what day of the week the show airs, or when its seasons start or end. My DVR will automatically record it for me. If it doesn't, I can catch up with on-demand or internet streaming. Or if I missed the first few seasons of it, I can catch up on DVD, and maybe just wait until the DVD of the current season so I can watch it in one batch.
#82
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
AAlso, unlike the network shows that still try to run fall through spring, a lot of the smaller cable shows do run non-stop, or close to, for each season. Networks have picked this up a bit, but only for serial shows. 24 almost always ran non-stop, sometimes with multiple episodes in a week.
AAs VCRs, video games, computers, the internet, etc. entered the arena, TV was no longer the only means of audio-visual entertainment in the home. Networks no longer had the audience that they did for shows like Bonanza. Less audience means less money, means smaller budgets, means less episodes. Networks could get away with airing more reruns during the year because a good portion of the audience probably had missed it the first time around ("it's new to you!").
But not only were those thing entering the home and creating a broader base for media distractiont but the sheer VOLUME of what is being broadcast these days is a factor. Back in the 70's you only had the big three networks, PBS and maybe an independent channel. The addition of FOX, CW and all those cable networks increased the amount of programming exponentially. Consider how many TV series were in production in the 80's compared to TODAY.
#83
Senior Member
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
This one looks really odd. The final two episodes aired in August, 4 months after the rest of the season ended, running from September-April. I'd be interested to know the background and production reasons for this. From an outsider, it almost seems like the producers found out that their 4th season would be the last, and asked for extended time to write and produce a season finale for the last two episodes of that season.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...itive_episodes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...itive_episodes
#84
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
Regarding The Fugitive. I was a kid at the time and didn't really watch that show. But I do remember that the catching of the one-armed man was really, really hyped. And people talked a lot about it and anticipated the finale. So maybe the late airing was a way to build the hype.
#85
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
The western Guns of Will Sonnett ran two seasons. They had planned a third but got cancelled. One season three episode was filmed and aired at the end of the second season's summer reruns just before fall season began.
#86
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Are TV Show season's getting too short?
Regarding The Fugitive. I was a kid at the time and didn't really watch that show. But I do remember that the catching of the one-armed man was really, really hyped. And people talked a lot about it and anticipated the finale. So maybe the late airing was a way to build the hype.
IMDB's trivia page for the show states that a 5th season was planned, but that lead actor David Janssen declined, as he was tired of the show:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056757/trivia
This site says the same, but that Janssen's decision not to do a 5th season came in December, which gave them time to write and produce the finale by the end of March. So they could've aired at the end of the season, but the network held them back until August:
http://www.davidjanssen.net/EpGuide_TheFugitive.htm
This book probably has more definitive info:
http://www.amazon.com/Fugitive-Recap...dp/0938817345/