h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Both Marty Noxon's Point Pleasant and Veronica Mars (Alyson Hannigan is a Guest star) are in trouble in the Great American (attention span of a goldfish) ratings war. Veronica Mars is at 2.5 million and falling and PP has dipped below 3 million. This in a country of 370 million people. Fox replaced PP with a program called Stars without Makeup, concentrating on things like Cameron Diaz' acne and actually upped the ratings. So what is the future of drama on network television? Nada. Zilch. Zero. When I was watching American TV recently it was obvious that fear of the remote control was top of the network list. Half way through one program they would start showing trailers of the next. If it happened to be two episodes of the same series then confusion reigned supreme as you could never work out whether you were on the trailer or the program.
They used to post written boxes in frame for the next program and blot out the dramatic finale of the one that was running. Oh to be able to live in such fear!

Unfortunately this seems to be an ever increasing problem with TV world wide, people seem to be more interested in watching famous people doing stupid things, or seeing some real life average Joe/Jo damaging themselves in some way, or being put on some date show with a catch etc.

Yet actual good television, with actual acting, with plots and story lines arebeing killed off. Tru Calling (cancelled), Firefly (cancelled), Angel (cancelled. Although if rumours are true, WB have realised their mistake), need I go on. It's the death of the actor and good entertainment.

Xander

I read news like this and it makes me even more grateful that Buffy and Angel managed to get a combined 12 years in the can before TV became increasingly volatile. I was particularly upset at Tru Calling being cancelled, as it had an original premise and had just started to show signs of having real scope. Grrr, it's all so depressing.

It seems to me that originality is frowned upon these days, TV and movie executives seem to be going for the repeat, wash out & repeat again. I've watched 4-5 different American real life cop shows and seen the exact same car chases and people being generally stupid, just rehashed under a new name.

Even in the world of film, we seem to be going through this. Name me 5 films that were on last year without naming one that's a remake of an old film or TV show. The problem isn't the executives, they're only going with what makes them money. The problem is the general public, they're the ones who want this rubbish, they're the ones who don't want complicated plot lines, stories or god forbid, actual acting. So who do we blame, we have a go at Hollywood or WB or UPN, but at the end of the day, they're out to do what every company wants, and that's make money and if a show isn't making enough, they'll dump it and replace it with something else.

As a Buffy fan, I have to live with the truth that many people will never understand what it is about the show that is so great. Not even that, as a cult TV fan, shows I like to watch are constantly being cancelled. This is because cult TV only attracts a small number of actual TV viewers. We all got lucky with Buffy, it was one of the very few cult shows that makes it through the gauntlet.

We can only hope that this fascination with reality TV burns itself into oblivion and that people, once again, crave great stories and good entertainment.

Leaving now....
Xander

Wow, I just actually had a go at thinking of 5 decent films last year that weren't remakes of old films/TV shows, and I couldn't do it straight off the top of my head (though I did manage it eventually).

For me, reality TV is the modern bane - I can think of no quality TV that has come from it. But I try to be optimistic. As someone whose real fondness on TV is comedy, the last few years have seen some really great stuff (The Office, League of Gentlemen and even more recently Peep Show - that's not as bad as it sounds, it is just a sitcom, albeit one rather close to the bone at times).

Could it be that the up surge in comedy shows, especially sketch shows, is symptomatic of the falling attention span of the average viewer. The American style of show has two nine minute bursts of comedy so you do not have to stay with it very long. A goldfish attention span helps in that they can re-clothe and repeat many comedy scenarios without people complaining.

The fact that American drama demands 22 Episodes at 42 minutes per episode without hesitation, repetition or flagging pace makes it a particularly difficult area to work in.924 minutes is an awful lot of television, Eqivalent to 8 James Bond films nose to tail in 8 1/2 months.

I have to wonder, though if this obsession with California culture is not one of the self inflicted wounds. Even Point Pleasant, filmed in San Diego, pretends to be on the East Coast but propagates the exact same mentality as all the OC's, One Tree Hills etc etc. If every program in Britain was centred around Halifax would the rest of us not be a little turned off. Could this be the reason that the CSI program, essentially a not very original or interesting concept has taken off. Will we have a CSI London and CSI Shanghai? A lot of Comedy is centred on NY even though it is not always filmed there.

Even West Wing, now that the 911 factor is fading has slipped below 10 million. Half of America actually believe it is a documentary and that The Governor of California can Terminate the commys.

>>Half of America actually believe it is a documentary and that The Governor of California can Terminate the commys.<<

The 5 films thing I can do easily:
Hero, The Motorcycle Diaries, Shrek 2 (a sequel, true, but nothing to do with TV) Finding Neverland and A Home At The End Of The World. The key with film and TV is to not watch the blockbuster stuff, controlled by the large American studios (I suppose Shrek 2 is a bit of an exception in that case but still a top film) but the smaller low-key stuff.
America's massive population makes it more likely to show quite bland rubbish, I doubt there are many shows that could appeal to even a third of that figure (the Superbowl is the only example I can think of) and quirky stuff won't get much of a look in because it cannot appeal to a wide enough audience. In the States and the UK Buffy was getting approx. 2.5 to 3 million viewers, great for BBC2 which has about 10 - 15 million regular viewers, awful for Fox which has around 150 million, Britain's relatively small population fosters cults, whereas in the States they just get swamped.
Also there is a cultural thing, the Americans don't seem to revere history or age like Europeans do, Buffy/Angel reached the grand old age of 8, the longer running shows like Star Trek: TNG, DS9 and Voyager (9, 7 and 7 years respectively) Friends (9 years), ER (9 (I think!) and still counting) and The Simpsons (16 years and counting) and Cheers/Frasier (20 years) are mere striplings comapred to many of our shows, even humble Countdown has been running longer than the longest running American TV show. Look at the ratings for British TV and we have many, many programmes much older than that, 4 of the highest rating shows (Coronation Street, Eastenders, Casualty and The Bill) have a combined age of about 85 and there are many programmes that have been around for a decade or more, in Britain TV shows seem to last longer.
Finally in TV as in most things short bursts of genius are frequently more appreciated than long running performances, arguably the greatest comedy ever, Fawlty Towers, had only 12 episodes. It has been said by many (including me) that if The Simpsons was never made Futurama would be regarded as the best cartoon ever and yet it only lasted 4 seasons.
Wow, long post.

>>The 5 films thing I can do easily:
Hero, The Motorcycle Diaries, Shrek 2 (a sequel, true, but nothing to do with TV) Finding Neverland and A Home At The End Of The World.<<

Sorry to pick up on this one, I know it's only a small thing, but it's one of those discussions that I find myself getting passionate about. 'Finding Neverland' AKA Peter Pan by J M Barrie, a entirely new look at it I'll admit, but hardly original. Although it's always great to see a new version of that particular story.

Even the Star Trek franchise has suffered recently after the cancellation of 'Enterprise'.

And as my brain hurts right now, I'm going to stop before I say something silly.

Xander

I don't think the upsurge in comedies is to do with falling attenmtion span - it just so happens there are quite a few good ones about at the moment (and small sidenote, DrFerris, but I don't think comedies necessarily attract vieweres with smaller attention spans, even sketch ones, even if they don't necessarily require great attention spans - for me, a programme well done of any variety is simply a progaramme well done which anyone can enjoy - sorry if that sounded confrontational, it wasn't meant to).

I should point out that I'm not a big fan of American comedy, much preferring British stuff (and I do think a lot of the reasons for the main differences are due to the differing natures of TV and scheduling in the different countries - in the US, it seems to me, ther is far more pressure to churn it out, which isn't necessarily in the best interests of quality). And some of the best comedies of late in my opinion aren't sketch shows - The Office and Marion and Geoff spring to mind.

PS I thought book adapations were allowed in the 5 films from last year. If not, I'd struggle - my original 5 films from last year were: Lost in Translation; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Troy; The Bourne Supremacy; Dodgeball (juvenile, I know, but still, how I laughed).

Not so much book adaptations, as that particular story, which has been done time and time again. Original screen plays are fine, I just think that Hollywood and the powers that be seem to be frowning upon originality. I'll admit that there are a few original scripts out there, but not in the numbers that once were. And as for original television, it seems more and more apparent that originality is ignored and the re-telling of old stories is prefered.

Joss knew this and was one of the lucky ones. There must be a hundred scripts out there that are being ignored, because the studios aren't prepared to take the risk on a story that there not entirely sure will work.

In a way, I agree with the lack of attention span from TV viewers, but is that attention span down to the countless amount of (May I be so bold) tripe being beamed into our living rooms. People are becoming bored with television. It's about time that someone took a risk on the unknown.

Nothing against comedy, but it's a given, as long as it makes people laugh the story generally doesn't matter (I know I'm getting some come back for saying that). Drama on the other hand is a whole different world, the story and plot lines have to be good, otherwise it's just CSI whatever!

I can't remember the last time I watched a 'new' drama (Excluding Buffy) and was pleasantly surprised by the originality of the writing or performance. Writers seem to have reverted back to the whole 'We gotta have a sex scene' syndrome, as I like to call it.

Xander

I don't really want to decry the attention span of comedy fans...I am one myself, Bud, and I agree that The Office was one of the ground breaking comedies of the last decade. I don't see a lot of the new stuff because I refuse to pay for any more trashy television than the government forces me to. [Grammar!]
I am relatively old but I wonder if you remember such programs as Blot on the Landscape, The darling Buds of May etc. I accept that these things would not challenge society in that there is no "First screen kiss between the pope and a pregnant nun whilst the vatican is held hostage by terrorists with a nuclear anthrax bomb filled with illegally imported chicken carcases but Hey! They were fun. Is there no room for fun any more? At the other end of the scale was Bouquet of Barbed Wire and Six Feet Under which were ground breaking. My plea is that there is room for both but My pleas fall on mummified studio bosses, turned to pillars of salt by fear of failure. [Mix your metaphors, much?]

Oh and Mr Bean....Truly inspired.

I do remember Darling Buds, DrFerris, and gotta admit - not one of my faves - even if it did have Catherine Zeta Jones in it - though that's not my taste for quality TV talking.

Joking aside, I do take your point, though. The one reason why I support a licence fee is that it allows the BBC to take chances without the same commercial pressures - which isn't necessarily to say they have always made the right decisions, of course.

Regrettably it appears that Point Pleasant is now officially cancelled after thirteen episodes. It has been replaced by the un-aired 2nd series of Tru-calling which it, in turn ,replaced. The fickle finger of fate strikes again. American audiences have the attention span of gnats, or is that just American Advertisers.

Lets get reality toilet cleaning on now.


C

My main reason for posting here is just to extent a cheery "hello again" to Bud and Dr Ferris. You might not think so, but you know me - as 'dashboardprophet'. It's taken me all this time to find my way here and my name seems to have been hijacked in the meantime. So, I am now 'oldramon'.

I am disappointed about the early departure of 'Point Pleasant', and can only hope that the great Marti Noxon has better luck with her next project.

Good to hear from you again, Larry/Dashboardprophet/Oldramon!

You've found this convo, so I guess you've found Slayerville as well. If not, this is the place to be:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A3736839

Check out the conversations list, there's a lot of useful and interesting stuff there. Use the "click here to be notified about new conversations" at the bottom of the page to keep abreast of what we're all up to. And the "Add to Friends"-function can be quite handy to keep track of and stay in touch with all or most of us. If you got any questions, just fire away. I'll be glad to help, as will everyone else, surely.

Welcome back!

Nite Owl

Welcome back Dashboardprophet, many lost souls have found their way back to us now.

I don't know if you ever read "The Day of the Triffids", [Not the film...I spit on the film] where messages were left for all the survivors to enable them to congregate and form a new society. I feel that we are doing the same here!

There is some poor person still placing postings on the cult "Why did Spike Die" thread and we have no way of reaching them. I tried to leave a message on my Carlyle Ferris page but the moderators just wiped my introduction in retribution.

C

>>I tried to leave a message on my Carlyle Ferris page but the moderators just wiped my introduction in retribution<<
You've got to love the mods don't you? I've just realised something, since I moved my account long before the switch off I can change stuff with impunity and I've got a fair few postings on Talk Buffy. I'll add something to my PS on the off-chance people from Talk Buffy stop by

It looks as though we underpriveleged terrestrial TV viewers are finally going to get the chance to see Point Pleasant on Saturday Channel 4. May I be the first to say: Yay!

Fantastic news Dr Ferris! I must admit I thought the early bath in the U.S. would mean C4 wouldn't bother to put it into the schedules. I, for one, am quite excited. Despite the negative reaction the show received I still think anything with the Marti Noxon touch has to have some redeeming qualities. It's on at an odd time, 1.10pm. Still, I am ready for it.

You probably already know this Dr Ferris but the reason why Wesley's surname is Wyndham Price is partly a tribute to John Wyndham - the writer of the book that "Day of the Triffids" as well the story which "Village of the Damned" (the film the kids watch with the kids who can read minds at the drive in "The Simpsons") was based on which is called "The Middlewich Cuckoos".