I haven’t mentioned some of the youtubers I watch much, but one of them is The Critical Drinker, and he just put out a video highlighting how streaming services are badly botching episodic programs, i.e. the old TV series.
Welcome to the party, pal. More than a year ago I published a piece on Bleeding Fool declaring it was time to make mid-season cancellation great again.
While he makes some good points about the long intervals between seasons, a key consideration is that the higher episode counts allow the audience to build greater familiarity with the characters, especially the supporting cast. It was common in those days to give the stars a week off from shooting, and build episodes around the minor characters, which gave them a chance to shine and show what they could do. Of course, most TV shows were also episodic and nature, and lacked overall story arcs, but even Babylon 5, which was one of the first American shows to have a fixed series run and overall plot arc, had episodes that were pure character development.
(I should also mention the death of Walter Koenig, whose finest work was arguably the recurring villain of Alfred Bester on the show. May he rest in peace.)
Back in the day, it was remarked that there was a significant difference between television stars and movie stars. While movie stars made more money and were certainly higher status, television was a more intimate medium. Instead of spending a couple hours with someone once a year in a theater, television invited them into your family room, and you saw them every week for half a year.
Stretching those summer breaks into two or three years back then would rightly be regarded as madness, but such is the state of Hollywood that no one seems to know much about anything. Programs are budgeted for a bunch of episodes which are then dumped like gravel onto a back road. Does it have a following? Do people like it? Well, let’s look at doing a sequel year after next.
Back in the day, it often took time for a show to find an audience. The first season was often uneven and it might take a few episodes for the cast to hit its stride. Sometimes the show fails utterly, hovers on the brink of cancellation, and then takes off. None of those dynamics work in the current environment.
Maybe, just maybe, the originators of the television medium knew a thing or two, and the episodic “seasons” based on the calendar existed for a reason. Broadcast television is still a thing, though its reach is much more limited and the quality is awful. I don’t watch any of it, but I see the promotions when I’m watching college football and shudder. There’s definitely an opportunity for talent to emerge. Given the current upheaval in the industry, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
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