really interesting point made by the head of HBO: a reason why even HBO has so few long running shows is because the tv writing community is more and more made up of people who never worked on 24 episode network shows and so they literally don't know how
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an important thing to remember about the real golden age of television (the sopranos) is that it was created by — and i mean this with total respect — hacks. i.e. professionals who slaved away on the rockford files, northern exposure and becker and knew how to make television
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who's the hottest tv creator now? it's craig mazin, whose background is entirely in movies and who tv projects are miniseries (chernobyl) or stuff very strictly delimited by IP in how long it can be and literally what can happen (the last of us)
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succession has totally embraced sitcomdom to the point where the long running plot arcs and logistics make no sense. why are these four adult kids always in the same room with their dad? what happened to his dementia? doesn't matter, the show is all character dynamics now
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I’d watch a prestige hbo dramedy about a group of young internet-era tv writers who receive an order for 24 episodes of their show, and have to figure it out
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back in my day we drove both ways uphill on the 405 and the ventura freeway from santa monica to culver city to make 24 episodes that premiered after every labor day and wrapped up before ever memorial day damn it
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Flip side to this is the continued popularity of classic sitcoms and crime procedurals (Friends, The Office, Law and Order), even with younger audiences. They all have 100+ episodes, each episode is self contained, the characters never change, etc. People love TV for a reason.
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I think my brain has been reshaped by watching British television but now when we watch a show that has 10 plus episodes it’s too long. You realize that half of those 22 episodes are unnecessary.
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he's lying, successful shows impose unacceptable labor costs as staff and creatives ask for raises; shutting them down is simply a market power move
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