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from the diamonds-in-the-coal-pile dept.
John Koblin writes in the NYT that there's a malaise in TV these days that's felt among executives, viewers and critics, and it's the result of one thing: There is simply too much on television. John Landgraf, chief executive of FX Networks, reported at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour that the total number of original scripted series on TV in 2014 was 371 and will surpass 400 in 2015. The glut, according to Landgraf, has presented "a huge challenge in finding compelling original stories and the level of talent needed to sustain those stories." Michael Lombardo, president of programming at HBO. says it is harder than ever to build an audience for a show when viewers are confronted with so many choices and might click away at any moment. "I hear it all the time," says Lombardo. "People going, 'I can't commit to another show, and I don't have the time to emotionally commit to another show.' I hear that, and I'm aware of it, and I get it." Another complication is that shows not only compete against one another, but also against old series that live on in the archives of Amazon, Hulu or Netflix. So a new season of "Scandal," for example, is also competing against old series like "The Wire." "The amount of competition is just literally insane," says Landgraf.
Others point out that the explosion in programming has created more opportunity for shows with diverse casts and topics, such as "Jane the Virgin," "Transparent" and "Orange Is the New Black." Marti Noxon, the showrunner for Lifetime's "UnREAL" and Bravo's "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce," says there has been a "sea change" in the last five years. "I couldn't have gotten those two shows on TV five years ago," says Noxon. "There was not enough opportunity for voices that speak to a smaller audience. Now many of these places are looking to reach some people — not all the people. That's opened up a tremendous opportunity for women and other people that have been left out of the conversation."
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:21AM
Meh, I can kinda understand. Captain Kirk narrated the beginning of every episode of Star Trek: ToS with the assertion that it was a "five-year mission," but it lasted only 3 years.
Star Trek: TNG, DS9, and Voyager all lasted 7 seasons. That's a good number to grow and explore as a series before going out with a bang, as all three series finales did.
Enterprise sucked ass, but we all knew it would. Was that Sammy Hagar singing the title song? Seemed it was also a make-work program for some former franchise cast members:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:40AM
Enterprise sucked ass, but we all knew it would. Was that Sammy Hagar singing the title song?
from Memory Alpha:
http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Where_My_Heart_Will_Take_Me [wikia.com]
I wish they had kept as the title theme "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling, which was used in promotional material.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wherever_You_Will_Go [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:45AM
Three of those are widely acclaimed and decorated directors. LeVar Burton is a board member of the DGA, Robert Duncan McNeill has directed on the order of 100 projects and Dawson has a reasonable resume as well. If you count in Jonathan Frakes and others, Star Trek, as a series, created an astonishing number of highly regarded directors. However, I'll never count William Shatner on that list, regardless of anything else he does, I can never forgive him for the terrible job he did on The Final Frontier.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:54AM
"Star Trek Enterprise" was a holodeck program by Will Riker. It sucked ass because it was fiction-within-fiction like "Dixon Hill" or "Captain Proton"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:52PM
The other two years were only boring space travel and therefore were not made into shows. After all, you cannot expect something exciting to happen every week.
Note also that episodes cover a larger time than the length of the episode.