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Something that’s always bugged me about television series is how they can start to get tedious.
This mostly revolves around dramas of one kind or another. Sitcoms are usually self-contained episodes that don’t really rely on a back story. Although, sometimes they do.
When I was a kid watching cartoons, for instance, it was always annoying that when watching “Battle of the Planets” the villain was going to get away. Not the minor bad guy, the dude piloting the weird ship that looked like one kind of animal but was called something else, but the top bad guy. G-Force would never, ever, knock down the Spectra organization.
Shows that have a back story where the main character or characters are looking for something, running from something, or have some kind of goal as its background story are going to become tedious.
Following a character for year after year just to see them fail, in the long run, is a bummer.
If I were given a chance to create a television show I would do it differently. It would be designed to be contained in one, maybe two, seasons. All the scripts would be written ahead of time to create a uniform and believable story. Nothing is worse than when writers start pulling ideas out of the air to make things that happened in the past fit with what they want to do in the future. Anyone remember the eighth season’s cliffhanger of “Dallas?”
The season would have a definite beginning, of course, but also have a definite ending that has a definite resolution.
If there’s enough enough clamoring for another season, then it can be done. A new story line can be written up, again with the idea of going through an entire season. Kind of like a long mini-series.
This would also let the actors involved decide if they want to keep going for another season. Everyone knows how fickle actors get when it comes to being stereotyped. If they have another project they want to do they don’t have to worry about renegotiating their contracts in mid-season.
So, if you’re in Hollywood and reading this go ahead and drop me a note.
