My love affair with American TV shows began as a child. I remember watching Star Trek, sitting on the sofa with my younger brother, dodging the Enterprise as it flew towards the screen during the opening credits. There were a host of other SF series as well, mainly coming from the fertile mind of Irwin Allen. Luckily my Dad provided something to return my feet to terra firma. He was a huge western fan so other early viewing included The Virginian, The High Chaparral, Lancer, Cheyenne (and spin off Bronco) and the excellent Hondo that sadly only lasted one season. Not to mention Kung Fu that had me attempting to imitate David Carradine’s Kwai Chang Caine resulting in more than a few bruises, some my own!
As the 70′s progressed we saw the decline of the western show and a glut of detective series filled the void – Kojak, Cannon, McCloud, Colombo, Banachek, Starsky & Hutch to name just a few. My personal favourite was The Rockford Files, to the extent that my ambition when I grew up (sadly unachieved) was to be a detective and live in a trailer by the sea. And there were also other lesser known gems like Petrocelli, Manhunter (set during the American depression) and Baretta (starring the ill fated Robert Blake).
Then there were the SF shows trying to fill the gap left by Star Trek and Irwin Allen – The Six Million Dollar Man (and spin off The Bionic Woman),Logan’s Run, The Fantastic Journey, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica along and numerous others that are probably best forgotten (The Man From Atlantis anyone?)
All of these shows had one thing in common; you could miss a dozen episodes come back and nothing would have changed. The characters and their relationships would be the same as when you left them. Then in the 80′s things changed…
Hill Street Blues was a different kind of show, with a large cast of characters whose lives were often changed dramatically by events. The stories were different to and dealt as much with the protagonists lives as they did with their attempt to find criminals. This new, almost soap opera type show was a hit and others soon jumped on the bandwagon. St. Elsewhere transplanted the idea to a hospital and L.A. Lawto the courtroom, both were hits who’s influence is still felt today in series like E.R and Boston Legal.
This was great both from a viewers perspective (better developed characters enriched the viewing experience) and from the networks (it encouraged people to tune in EVERY week) and things stayed more or less the same until the mid 90′s and…
J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 hit the screens with its incredibly ambitious five year story arc. Yes there were some episodes that told pretty much stand alone stories but there was a main plot arc that ran through the whole show and it worked, almost anyway. I say almost because Straczynski tied up most of the plot threads at the end of season four when it looked like there wouldn’t be a season five. This resulted in a final year that contained a lot of padding, but by and large this brave experiment worked. Sadly I think its Mr Straczynski and his grand scheme that is, indirectly, the reason for my current feeling of disenchantment.
No one dared to try this kind of thing again until J.J. Abrams created Lost in 2004. Abrams had dabbled with a multi season plot strand with Alias and its Rambaldi McGuffin but with Lost he really embraced the long running story arc as no one since Straczynski had. Audiences loved it and the series was a huge success and like all successes it brought a flock of imitators. Some fell by the wayside early on (Threshold) but others survived for a full season (Invasion, Surface) only to get canned leaving viewers with lots of unanswered questions.
And it’s this lack of respect for viewers that’s behind my falling out of love with American TV, 22 episodes is to much time to invest in something that’s never going to reach a proper conclusion. I watched and enjoyed both Surface and Invasion but I’m left wondering why I bothered. I understand that they need viewers to survive but why try it in the first place? Why not go back to basics and tell single episodes stories. The US networks are notorious for cancelling excellent shows, Firefly and The Inside are two recent examples, but at least they can be rewatched and enjoyed. This new trend for multi season epics leaves me with no desire to see them again, even though the money hungry studios release them on DVD.
This disillusionment has spread from just the long running tales to all American series. I used to watch all three versions of C.S.I., House, Medium and lots more but now feel anything but compelled to watch them. Even Lost has lost its charm, if you’ll pardon the pun, although that could have more to do with the steady realization that, unlike Mr Straczynski, there is no plan and they’re making it up on the fly.
Will I go back? Probably at some point. I’ve felt the same, for different reasons, about British TV and have returned to that in recent years. But right now I find myself watching films in the time freed up from TV viewing and I’m enjoying watching something that I know will have an end before bedtime.
TAGS: star trek, babylon 5, firefly, lost
Horror and Western film buff, Marvel comic geek, music lover and occasional gamer. 
There was, I recall, something of a running thread through ‘The High Chapperal’, albeit a loose one I admit. Moreso with ‘Branded’, ‘The Fugitive’, ‘The Invaders’ and ‘Run For Your Life’ where we were given a starting point (man has to prove he’s not a coward / find the one-armed man / has only a certain time to live / save the earth from invasion). The difference was that they did have an end that week (well apart from te occasional two-parter); David Vincent had won the battle but not the war, Paul Bryan might be dying but was becoming more human, Jason McCord, well, he wasn’t a coward, he just hadn’t proved it to the army, and so on. You could miss an episode and still be in the game.
I enjoyed the first series of ‘Deadwood’, I kept up with it, and it had a beginning, a middle and an end. Except there wasn’t an end; up popped series two. Problem is, that now, if I miss an episode, then I consider my viewing well and truly screwed and that’s it for the rest of the series. It might be great for a ‘must watch’, except nothing now is a ‘must watch’ and I cannot be bothered to record anything. I think the last series I watched beginning to end was ‘Murder One’ which was great; the second series was God-awful.
‘The Virginian’ was fine, BTW, up until it decided it had to toughen up, hire Ennio Morricone to rejig the theme and compete with Leone – no contest.
Hi John
Can’t say I recall a thread running through The High Chaparral (possibly because it was so loose) but you’re certainly right with the others, although it felt less like a plot thread and more like a plot devise. The Fugitive started the whole man-on-the-run sub genre that includes The Invaders, Kung Fu and The Incredible Hulk to name just a few.
And speaking of The Fugitive reminds me I didn’t mention David Janssen’s great cop show Harry O. Funny how almost all detective series took there title from the name of the lead character.
Deadwood’s a good example as HBO recently announced that series three would be the last, although at least they’ve now decided to make a couple of TV movies to tie things up.
The way I feel at the moment I’d rather wait until a series is finished with a proper conclusion and then pick it up on DVD than waste my time watching every week with no idea if it will end.
‘Harry O’! Brilliant – even if the title sequence did feature abuse of a British sports car.
Remember the Universal ‘Mystery Movie’ strand? Fat detectives, married detectives, old detectives, high priced detectives, low-rent detectives – cracking stuff…
Indeed. Not to mention cowboy detectives, remember Hec Ramsey starring the great Richard Boone?