More show biz changes…

Updated on March 30, 2009 By Ken Begg 9 Comments

Changes continue to amass as the old network television and film studio models grow increasingly unstable.

On the television front, there’s NBC abandoning an hour of prime time every weeknight, as Jay Leno takes over the 10 PM (EST) slot each evening for a talk show. This is some pretty big dice NBC is rolling, although really, with the current model dying they’re smart to try something that may pay off big for them.  Play it conservative right now might keep someone’s job momentarily safe, but it’s a sucker’s bet long term.  Still, ABC and CBS, with NBC dropping out and neither Fox nor the CW fielding shows at 10:00, should see some uptick in this area.

Tied into this somewhat, there’s talk of making shows like Heroes intentionally close-ended rather than onrunning. This basically means you’d see more show set up to run as long mini-series, telling one story and moving on.  Of course, if some such show were a huge hit, they’d probably continue them in some manner, although the result might be more like a film series than a typical ongoing TV show.  Again, this is a fairly radical rethink for the networks.

Harper’s Island on CBS will be one show, and it’s basically going to be a limited-run, horror/mystery program with slasher overtones.  Obviously it won’t be as gory as theatrical stuff like My Bloody Valentine, but then look at how graphic CSI can be.

Another roll of the dice is that ABC is going into the remake business, taking another stab at the failed cult show Cupid, which originally ran in 1998 and starred Jeremy Piven.  This makes more sense, arguably (or at least as much sense) as revamping old successful shows like Knight Rider or The Bionic Woman.  They’re also thinking of giving V that sort of makeover for next year.

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  • Ericb

    “This basically means you’d see more show set up to run as long mini-series, telling one story and moving on”

    Isn’t this format pretty common in the rest of the world?

  • Yeah, I actually had a line in there about that, but I must have accidentally whacked it. Thanks for catching that.

  • Danny

    “Tied into this somewhat, there’s talk of making shows like Heroes intentionally close-ended rather than onrunning.”

    As Eric said, this is common in the rest of the world. It was apparently also the original plan for Heroes, but it was kept on.

    Anime does this a lot, and I think pretty successfully. I’m not a huge animu fan, but I think it’s a good model. Have a certain number of episodes and be done. If the show’s a hit, make a sequel show and call it Heroes X or some-odd.

  • When I was a wee tot, I remember how weirded out I was that Prince Planet (an early Japanese cartoon) actually ended–the last two episodes saw the deaths of the show’s two major villains (itself weird at the time). There were a few American shows that ended, most famously The Fugitive, but it was pretty rare, and PP was the first such show I ever saw.

  • GalaxyJane

    They’ve been bruiting about a V continuation or reboot for at least 5 years now, so I’ll believe that one when I see it.

    I actually think Heroes would have been improved by closing off the story at the end of the first season, the first season finale and everything that have followed have been anticlimactic to say the least.

  • Foywonder

    “They’ve been bruiting about a V continuation or reboot for at least 5 years now, so I’ll believe that one when I see it.”

    You’ll see it this fall. Assuming it gets picked up for series, that is. Scott Wolf (formerly of Party of 5) has the Marc Singer role – though the main character is said to be a single mom Homeland Security agent whose teen son immediately falls in with the Visitors – and Morena Baccarin (formerly of Firefly) has been cast in what amounts to the Diana role from the original. The co-creator of The 4400 is behind the reboot. The whole Nazi/Holocaust allegory is being done away with; instead the theme will be what happens when citizens have blind faith in their leaders.

    Personally, I don’t have much faith in this reboot.

  • Aussiesmurf

    I would say that this is already happening in a lot of ways.

    Shows are often being given ‘notice’ of their intending axing, so that ongoing storylines can be brought to a close.

    For instance, the ongonig sitcome ‘How I Met You Mother’ has already filmed a finale for use when the show is discontinued.

    HBO shows like ‘The Wire’ and Showtime shows like ‘Dexter’ really have seasons that have a single story-arm, which can either conclude or continue into other series.

    Re the japanese anime : i agree in that i remember ‘Star Blazers’, ‘Mysterious Cities of Gold’ and ‘Ulysses 31’ as a kid both actually having concrete endings, which i always thought was waaaay cool as a seven year old

  • fish eye no miko

    I once heard that Heroes was going to start its second season with an almost entirely new cast and plot. I still wish they would have had the balls to do that.

    I like the idea of more limited run shows. So many shows run longer than they should and either become stagnant or get so far up their own mythology’s ass that it’s hard to enjoy or even understand it anymore. I remember actually being glad that a show I really liked, Avatar: The Last Airbender had a specific number of seasons planned because I knew that we’d get some damn closure (and we did. And it was glorious).

    And I gotta say, I’m looking forward to Harper’s Island. Horror-related plot, with a close-ended premise? Yes, please!

  • The Rev. D.D.

    Yeah, I’m also going to be tuning in for “Harper’s Island.” The last time CBS tried a horror-themed show (at least, that I watched) was the flawed but gripping “American Gothic,” so I’m willing to give CBS a try on this one. And hey, if it’s good, maybe we’ll see more horror shows in a similar vein.