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Which won't young people believe when you tell them?
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Economists are still trying to figure out why the girls with the least
principle draw the most interest.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @01:12AM (5 children)
...and then The Best of Both Worlds happened.
Yes, I'm aware that Dallas did a cliffhanger much earlier. Who shot JR? It didn't have the same effect of making season-ending cliffhangers common like TNG did.
(Score: 3, Informative) by istartedi on Saturday October 28 2023, @02:19AM (4 children)
The Wikipedia article disagrees [wikipedia.org], attributing the first prime time season-ending cliff hanger to Soap, and of course Dallas, associating it with prime time soaps. The article doesn't even mention TNG, but it mentions The Empire Strikes Back being one wrt to Luke's heritage. LOL, hopefully we don't start a Trek/Wars cliffhanger significance war on Wikipedia. How will it be resolved? Return here next week to find out...
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @03:16AM (3 children)
Some of the cliffhangers discussed weren't at the end of seasons. For example, Doctor Who routinely used cliffhangers all the way back to An Unearthly Child. However, these were used within a single serial, generally not at the end of a season or otherwise between serials. There are examples of continuity such as the Macra appearing on the TARDIS viewscreen at the end of the previous serial, but I'm not sure that constitutes a true cliffhanger. In some respects, the forced regeneration at the end of The War Games might be a bit closer, but the primary questions were what the Doctor's new appearance would be, and the circumstances he would find himself in on Earth. Still, Spearhead From Space is a new story in its own right, not really a resolution of The War Games.
Now, season-ending cliffhangers might have been more common in primetime soaps than I realized, but I'm not aware of them being commonplace in other shows until after season 3 of TNG. For example, starting with the end of season 2 of the X-Files, cliffhangers were quite common. Mulder appears to be killed at the end of Anasazi, and this cliffhanger is repeated under different circumstances two seasons later in Gethsemane. However, I suspect that if this show had aired a decade earlier, these stories would have included cliffhangers at the end of seasons. By the way, the cliffhanger at the end of Anasazi was quite good. Although the Gethsemane-Redux-Redux II three-part story was quite good, I don't think the audience found Mulder's apparent death as compelling. But if the X-Files had primarily aired in the 80s, I suspect that these season-ending cliffhangers wouldn't have happened.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @04:49AM (1 child)
The 80s had season ending cliffhangers all over. Even worse, given the trend of canceling shows with little to no warning, many of them were also the series finales. While it is easier to remember the ones that happened recently, they absolutely happened in the past. Cliffhanger season finales, false endings, "to be continued..." and stingers happened back then because it garnered higher ratings for the finales, which increased the chances of a show getting renewed. Cliffhangers in general were abound with shows that aired outside the prime viewing hours because it increased your chances of tuning in next time. Today, cliffhangers and false ending are all over the place for a similar reason with everything competing for your attention. Another thing that often happened is that if the show was canceled early enough, they would air episodes out of order in an attempt to provide that closure. Often time today, they don't really care because ending on a cliffhanger doesn't really matter when TV time is more expensive and you don't get as many angry letters thanks to all the other distractions you can consume.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday October 29 2023, @11:42PM
The 80s had season ending cliffhangers all over. Even worse, given the trend of canceling shows with little to no warning, many of them were also the series finales
Fond memories of being urged to watch a show with other people in our dorm. Word was, the writers had been tipped off to the show being cancelled after just one season, and they were going to do something drastic with the script. It did not disappoint. They did the classic disarming a nuclear bomb scene, except that they failed to disarm it. Then somehow they got renewed anyway, and for their first episode of the 2nd season they had the narrator say, "this all happened years ago", so we were supposed to be watching a prequel from then on out. IIRC, either the 2nd season didn't complete or that was it; but my memory could be way off so let's test it. I haven't googled yet.
The show? Sledgehammer.
Let's see how I did...OK looks like I at least got the number of seasons correct [wikipedia.org]
OH, interesting. You can watch that entire episode [youtube.com] on YouTube. I wonder if it would hold up. I skipped to the end and confirmed the nuke. But now that I think about all this, it's not really a cliff-hanger is it? It's more like a cliff annihilator. It seemed really unique and special at the time.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday October 29 2023, @12:21AM
I still get chills watching the very first episode of Doctor Who: the fog, the dark, the bobby checking doors....you see Foreman Scrap Merchant, the door opens and--
There's the TARDIS!
And then it all cliff-hangs with the Doctor being his selfish self. The TARDIS lands with Ian and Barbara unconscious, and outside; a shadow....
I enjoy the original series more than the reboot.
I grew up with Tom Baker, but the first Doctor is just so grumpy, cantankerous, selfish, joyful...and original.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---