In risk-averse Hollywood, the mantra seems to be “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In the language of network television, that essentially means that if a show gets enough viewers, keep it on air for as long as possible, and milk the success for all it’s worth. But most television buffs would be hard-pressed to find many shows that ran longer than 10 years and were as fresh when they ended as when they premiered.
“(E.R.’s) stories aren’t as interesting,” McCormick senior Ankur Shah says. “The cases are all the same. They’re clearly running out of new ideas.” Shah now prefers House, M.D. to E.R. because he says the main character is completely different from anyone on E.R. “I’m intrigued by something new,” he says. “It’s not tiring, like E.R. became.”
Commercial show previews are sometimes all audiences need to realize that shows are becoming stale. Shah has noticed the repetitiveness of today’s television even in shows he doesn’t follow as loyally, like The O.C.
“I hear it’s getting ridiculous,” he says.
But The O.C. has only been on for a mere three years. There are some shows whose number of seasons entered double digits before Ryan, Marissa and the rest of the Orange County bunch were created.
The Simpsons was recently signed on for 18th and 19th seasons and has become the longest-running entertainment primetime series on air. The show seems to be winning Fox viewers but losing some true fans. These fans are the ones who watched The Simpsons for its irreverence, wit and delicious satire. They may be hesitant to admit it, but they know the show’s smart writing has been sacrificed for cheap slapstick humor, and celebrity guest spots now only compensate for weak writing.
With a similar time span, The Real World has been glorifying sex, alcohol and racial disputes since 1992. The houseguests are no longer new and surprising; viewers can almost always bank on the racist, the homosexual, the homophobe, the drama queen, the alcoholic and young adults with generally hedonistic qualities.
Communication junior Libby Proctor says that, although there’s still a large audience who watches The Real World, other reality shows have not fared so well for her.
“(Survivor) has lost its appeal,” Proctor says. “I just stopped watching after the first one.”
But determining a show’s longevity is a guessing game that ends up resembling a Goldielocks story: Some are too long, some are too short and some are just right.
The five years Dawson’s Creek spent on air, for example, seemed too long for some.
“I still cried at the end (of Dawson’s Creek), but it just kind of needed to end,” Weinberg junior Monika Rymsza says.
But then there are shows such as Ricky Gervais’ BBC hit The Office, which ran only two seasons long with a two-part Christmas special – not because it was a dud but because Gervais knew to quit while he was ahead. He left the audience wanting more, and they got it on DVD. The second season sold 142,782 copies in the U.K. during its first week of sales, which made it the new record-holder for fastest-selling DVD of a television series. The first season itself has gone on to sell a staggering 840,000 copies to date.
The same could be said for Family Guy, which returned to Fox after astronomical DVD sales convinced the network that they really did have a gem.
Then there are the rare, the few, the proud – those shows that leave viewers with a happy ending. Sex and the City reached a point in its sixth season when the gals were becoming domesticated, so it bowed out gracefully.
Seinfeld, billed as “a show about nothing,” could’ve gone on endlessly. But barring the final episode that disappointed some critics and fans, the show maintained its dignity by ending after nine successful seasons.
And it’s not just The Office and Family Guy that are enjoying the fruits of DVD sales. It seems like every show (Saved by the Bell, Charles in Charge, even Pinky and the Brain) has gone digital. With the click of a button, viewers can transport themselves back to a time when shows still had their originality.
“It’s much more fun to watch the DVDs,” Shah says. “I can watch episodes back-to-back without commercials. The story sticks better as opposed to just on TV.”
But at the rate some shows are speeding ahead at, perhaps we’ll be seeing The Simpsons 20th-season DVD sooner rather than later. D’oh.
Medill junior Archana Ram is the PLAY film editor. She can be reached at [email protected].
