4 ms·

So true. I don't get why American TV shows always need to be ran to the ground. Like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory are shows that should've gone p

So true. I don't get why American TV shows always need to be ran to the ground. Like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory are shows that should've gone past their 8th season. The Office should've never had those abysmal last two-three seasons. That '70s show should've never had those abysmal last three seasons. I always like it when creators and producers recognize when a show has run its course. This is why we have good memories of Seinfeld. Jerry Seinfeld stood to make something crazy like 5 million per episode if they had done a 10th season but he knew the show had run its course and ended it on a high note (something, btw, that was a plot point on an earlier episode). Same with Breaking Bad, they knew that they had a story to tell and that it didn't need to drag on and they delivered some of the finest 5 seasons of television drama that one could ever ask for.

risorect 6y ago
The old-school American network way of making (more) money was to run TV shows into the ground so that they had more episodes for syndication. HBO, Netflix, etc do not have that motivation.
- JansjoFromIkea 6y ago
  Netflix payed $500m for the rights to steam seinfeld last year, HBO paid even more the Big Bang Theory. If you make a show that people will mindlessly put on for hundreds of hours, that's still worth an utterly insane amount of money for a very long time.
- matthewowen 6y ago
  More color on this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes
pwinnski 6y ago
So you're complaining about shows that shouldn't have lasted beyond season 8, and holding up as a good example a show that ran 5 seasons, while the article is about Netflix canceling shows after one or two seasons. Seems like there's a gap there.
sircastor 6y ago
I watched an interview with Damon Lindleof recently where he talked about how the ABC execs wanted and expected to draw out Lost as Long as they could. When they were trying to negotiate down the show, the execs thought they wanted more money. They wanted to do 10 seasons and 6 was the compromise. It was mind boggling to them that the producers only wanted to do three seasons Link: https://youtu.be/ej3ftLjmYlA https://youtu.be/ej3ftLjmYlA
- sbierwagen 6y ago
  Great anecdote. Damon Lindleof is a terrible person to deliver it, though. Lost could have run for 20 seasons with no meaningful difference, since they never actually had any idea how to resolve the plot. Maybe he thought he couldn't have gotten away with dancing around the resolution for 10 seasons?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  And if LOST were only 3 seasons it might be remembered as a classic and not a train wreck.
Touche 6y ago
I think you have some rose-colored glasses with Seinfeld. The post Larry David seasons are not nearly as good. They tried to mimic his style with over the top storylines but didn't know how to weave them together like he does and none of the jokes really landed. Seriously go watch a random episode from season 9, it's not very good.
- reader_mode 6y ago
  I recently watched the entire series again, you can see the show drop off last two seasons - and I commented on this before knowing about David leaving towards the end. But credit to them they didn't completely run it to the ground like most shows.
astura 6y ago
Because running shows into the ground makes a lot of people a lot of money.
dagw 6y ago
So true. I don't get why American TV shows always need to be ran to the ground. It's a side effect of the weird way TV show syndication contracts (used to) work. Basically for various historic reasons you could charge cable networks more for showing re runs of shows with over 100 episodes than you could shows with less than 100 episodes. So it often made long tern economic sense to push your show over that 100 episode line even if the last season or two where terrible and got terrible ratings on initial airing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes
ck425 6y ago
I personally really enjoyed the last two seasons of The Office US. Sure the transition was a bit dodgy but once it got it's stride it was enjoyable. Hell I'd even rate the final season as among the best overall.

risorect 6y ago

The old-school American network way of making (more) money was to run TV shows into the ground so that they had more episodes for syndication. HBO, Netflix, etc do not have that motivation.

JansjoFromIkea 6y ago
Netflix payed $500m for the rights to steam seinfeld last year, HBO paid even more the Big Bang Theory. If you make a show that people will mindlessly put on for hundreds of hours, that's still worth an utterly insane amount of money for a very long time.
matthewowen 6y ago
More color on this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes

pwinnski 6y ago

So you're complaining about shows that shouldn't have lasted beyond season 8, and holding up as a good example a show that ran 5 seasons, while the article is about Netflix canceling shows after one or two seasons. Seems like there's a gap there.

sircastor 6y ago

I watched an interview with Damon Lindleof recently where he talked about how the ABC execs wanted and expected to draw out Lost as Long as they could. When they were trying to negotiate down the show, the execs thought they wanted more money. They wanted to do 10 seasons and 6 was the compromise. It was mind boggling to them that the producers only wanted to do three seasons Link: https://youtu.be/ej3ftLjmYlA https://youtu.be/ej3ftLjmYlA

sbierwagen 6y ago
Great anecdote. Damon Lindleof is a terrible person to deliver it, though. Lost could have run for 20 seasons with no meaningful difference, since they never actually had any idea how to resolve the plot. Maybe he thought he couldn't have gotten away with dancing around the resolution for 10 seasons?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
srtjstjsj 6y ago
And if LOST were only 3 seasons it might be remembered as a classic and not a train wreck.

Touche 6y ago

I think you have some rose-colored glasses with Seinfeld. The post Larry David seasons are not nearly as good. They tried to mimic his style with over the top storylines but didn't know how to weave them together like he does and none of the jokes really landed. Seriously go watch a random episode from season 9, it's not very good.

reader_mode 6y ago
I recently watched the entire series again, you can see the show drop off last two seasons - and I commented on this before knowing about David leaving towards the end. But credit to them they didn't completely run it to the ground like most shows.

astura 6y ago

Because running shows into the ground makes a lot of people a lot of money.

dagw 6y ago

So true. I don't get why American TV shows always need to be ran to the ground. It's a side effect of the weird way TV show syndication contracts (used to) work. Basically for various historic reasons you could charge cable networks more for showing re runs of shows with over 100 episodes than you could shows with less than 100 episodes. So it often made long tern economic sense to push your show over that 100 episode line even if the last season or two where terrible and got terrible ratings on initial airing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes

ck425 6y ago

I personally really enjoyed the last two seasons of The Office US. Sure the transition was a bit dodgy but once it got it's stride it was enjoyable. Hell I'd even rate the final season as among the best overall.