Do Short Seasons hurt a TV show ?

[Mikey]

Ok,
First thing,
This is not another Doctor Who thread --- but I will use Doctor Who :The New Series as an example ....

They make 13 one hour episodes per year .....
Figure that into playing time, it comes out to be about 3 months...
Within this 3 months, the fans are all hyped, there's tons of internet chatter on the subject and fans are just geeked about everything Doctor Who.

When these three months have passed, it's like a dead zone in the Who community for the next 9 months.

Doesn't it seem more logical to make the series longer lasting per-year ?
Perhaps 7 months with 26 episodes ...

It seems like making it last longer would bring in more money in the long run.

Also,
Making a series 13 episodes per year reminds me of the old George Reeves Superman days when the cast would complain they have nothing to do for 9 months out of the year.

Just wondering what the logical reason is to make a series so short ?

[megoscott]

It's a trend that's spread from England. They've always had shorter seasons. Heck, Fawlty Towers was only 12 episodes at all. Now we have these long waits for short seasons of Battlestar Galactica, or Madmen. HBO has had sucess with it. Sopranos was always 13 episodes and it took forever between seasons. But I don't think it's a coincidence that all of those series are also very very well made (IMO). I think they do better work in more manageable chunks. Better budget, better schedule, more time and money for quality. So no, I don't think it hurts.

[jwyblejr]

Cartoons are just as bad it seems. Look how long it was between seasons with The Venture Brothers.

[apes3978]

Well, with animation, the time it takes to produce an episode is much longer that a standard TV episode, so it's expected if their seasons are shorter...

Regarding HBO series, they are not chock-full of commercials like a network program, so they may make less episodes because they have to rely on people subscribing to their network to even see the show. And then of course they also make money from DVD sales and syndication, but again, those profits aren't as instant as what a network series receives (not that I'd guess anyway...)

I think it all comes down to making a show thats profitable... Smaller amount of episodes to be made equals a lower budget... Lower budget equals higher profits in the end.

[HardyGirl]

Well, if it's a new series and it doesn't last, chances are you won't be seeing them in syndication (b/c they're aren't enough eps).

[Mikey]

Well, if it's a new series and it doesn't last, chances are you won't be seeing them in syndication (b/c they're aren't enough eps).

I never thought of that.

I think the old syndication guideline was a series had to have ran at least 3 years to be put in syndication... And that was the old days when most shows made at least 26 - 30 episodes per year........ making a grand total of no less then 80-ish episodes.

That's what killed a lot of shows that didn't make enough ..... like Land of the Giants and Space 1999

[kryptosmaster]

I find it annoying but usually enjoy when the show comes back. The flipside is "out of sight, out of mind" and in the MTV era that's not a good thing.

Rich

[jds1911a1]

if the season is populated with good stories a short season can work (or with shows like Monk and Psyche 2 partial seasons with reruns in between) and let's be honest with the short season it does spike the dvd sales in anticipation of the new season when the prior season is released in the down time

[spotter]

I would rather have short seasons with high production value. As just SCI FI nut i loved the first few seasons of Stargate sg1 ( IE showtime ones) once it went to Fox/SCi fi network it slowly tracked into mediocre stories and zero production value.



I loved Galactica for the even though I have turned by back on galactica in the last 2 seasons it wasn't for lack of crafting or production I just didn't like the story arc after Starbuck came back as a cylon I didn't care anymore but lots of people stil loved the show.

Lost is awsome and although I am not a fan 24 again has strong stories. Star Trek next Gen ( and every iteration thereof )has so many boring pointless ship in a bottle episodes to save on production costs so they can limit it to existing sets. Its like seein gthe California Rock pile on Vintage Trek or the Local Quarry on last few season of Classic Who

if short, well written seasons allows a better budget per show Go For it