4 ms·

The joke I've heard is "six seasons and a movie" that goes back to broadcast TV series. Something about contracts running six years, so costs balloon after that

The joke I've heard is "six seasons and a movie" that goes back to broadcast TV series. Something about contracts running six years, so costs balloon after that, and a one-time movie is much easier to schedule a group of actors for. I've long wondered why Netflix doesn't do it more often. I'm sore about the cancellation of "Santa Clarita Diet" and I think it could easily be wrapped up in a movie.

ghaff 4y ago
Costs (salaries) can balloon on successful series. It's also the case that, if a series is getting close to the number of episodes that can make for profitable syndication deals, it made sense (in the context of network TV) to stretch things to that point. It's also the case that, as long a series is still doing pretty well, odds are that putting something new in its slot will be a net negative. Traditional broadcast also just had different incentives than streaming. A successful sitcom captured a lot of eyeballs that could be translated into advertising dollars. It could also be a magnet for viewers to watch perhaps somewhat less captivating content in adjacent timeslots a la "must see TV Thursdays on NBC." Netflix, on the other hand, mostly needs to fill its catalog and have enough really must see content so that subscribers keep renewing. There's overlap between the two models. Both reward series that people really want to watch. But the specifics are subtly different.
meh8881 4y ago
This is a joke from Community about open ended TV shows typically having enough narrative steam to get a compelling run of six seasons and a movie at best. Not a financial thing. Community has crawled through the trenches to get its six seasons and now finally a movie and I wish them the best.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Sometimes shows naturally have a 1 or 2 season arc and sometimes (rarely) they go out strong at 6 or 7. But, yeah, for me sometime around season 5--even if a show has successfully mixed things up a bit--I find tuning in for new episodes more and more optional in most cases.
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  I wasn't thinking of it as a Community joke, but rather a Dan Harmon quote/meme that he placed in Community (he's nothing if not meta). If my memory is correct (and it does get a bit fuzzy over time), my comment above is paraphrasing him or some other explanation of the saying.
gowld 4y ago
There's no 6-season cutoff. It was just an estimate of a successful show.
- toyg 4y ago
  The cutoff is 100 episodes, which traditionally is a magic number for US syndication deals. An ongoing series with 100 episodes under its belt will get a good deal for everyone involved. Most traditional series will hit that number in 5 seasons, but obviously nobody wants to make a deal for a dead series; so you produce season 6 too, to make it palatable. By this point, however, your talent bill has probably grown significantly, so making new seasons is less and less profitable - as well as narratively hard. So you pull the plug and start afresh.

ghaff 4y ago

Costs (salaries) can balloon on successful series. It's also the case that, if a series is getting close to the number of episodes that can make for profitable syndication deals, it made sense (in the context of network TV) to stretch things to that point. It's also the case that, as long a series is still doing pretty well, odds are that putting something new in its slot will be a net negative. Traditional broadcast also just had different incentives than streaming. A successful sitcom captured a lot of eyeballs that could be translated into advertising dollars. It could also be a magnet for viewers to watch perhaps somewhat less captivating content in adjacent timeslots a la "must see TV Thursdays on NBC." Netflix, on the other hand, mostly needs to fill its catalog and have enough really must see content so that subscribers keep renewing. There's overlap between the two models. Both reward series that people really want to watch. But the specifics are subtly different.

meh8881 4y ago

This is a joke from Community about open ended TV shows typically having enough narrative steam to get a compelling run of six seasons and a movie at best. Not a financial thing. Community has crawled through the trenches to get its six seasons and now finally a movie and I wish them the best.

ghaff 4y ago
Sometimes shows naturally have a 1 or 2 season arc and sometimes (rarely) they go out strong at 6 or 7. But, yeah, for me sometime around season 5--even if a show has successfully mixed things up a bit--I find tuning in for new episodes more and more optional in most cases.
hotpotamus 4y ago
I wasn't thinking of it as a Community joke, but rather a Dan Harmon quote/meme that he placed in Community (he's nothing if not meta). If my memory is correct (and it does get a bit fuzzy over time), my comment above is paraphrasing him or some other explanation of the saying.

gowld 4y ago

There's no 6-season cutoff. It was just an estimate of a successful show.

toyg 4y ago
The cutoff is 100 episodes, which traditionally is a magic number for US syndication deals. An ongoing series with 100 episodes under its belt will get a good deal for everyone involved. Most traditional series will hit that number in 5 seasons, but obviously nobody wants to make a deal for a dead series; so you produce season 6 too, to make it palatable. By this point, however, your talent bill has probably grown significantly, so making new seasons is less and less profitable - as well as narratively hard. So you pull the plug and start afresh.