The Unfettered Critic – June 2023

You remember M.A.S.H., right? That viewer favorite ran for eleven seasons, an unusually long run, as most shows at the time said goodbye after six or seven seasons. Eleven wasn’t the record, of course—Gunsmoke had survived a then-unprecedented twenty seasons—but producers and marketing execs took note anyway. And today, a number of network shows actually have passed that episodic watermark. Gray’s Anatomy is airing its 19th season, Law and Order SVU its 24th, and—Ay caramba!—The Simpsons has been airing new episodes for 34 years!

Sadly, such lifespans are not the norm these days. In fact, very few shows down the road are likely to break such longevity records.

Why? Time for a history lesson!

Once there were but three major channels on the Boob Tube: ABC, NBC, and CBS. Then the phenomena of cable television allowed shows to air in “syndication.” Initially, syndicated shows were reruns of programs that had aired on the majors, then were consigned to “rerun” status on smaller, independent stations. Some of those reruns disappeared as audiences got bored with the content, while others caught fire and ran…well…forever.

And the rerun that burned the hottest and brightest? Star Trek. A show that initially had aired for only three seasons was still airing the same 79 episodes decades later. The public was addicted to that Final Frontier and everyone in the business noticed. Its syndication was so successful that two decades after its initial debut on NBC, Star Trek became one of the founding fathers of a new genre: “First-Run Syndication.” Beginning in 1987, a brand new show called Star Trek: The Next Generation found distribution on syndicated stations around the world—and that became the standard for new shows airing in syndication.

Skip forward another few decades. Cable is still hanging on, but streaming has overtaken the marketplace. People today tend to subscribe to streamers (networks, to the civilian ear) that show the movies and TV titles they most want to see. Initially, those shows were produced in lots of twenty to twenty-four—just like regular TV.

But then studio executives rationalized that they could produce a show that would draw even more subscribers if they allowed a bigger budget to acquire movie-quality actors, bigger visual effects, and everything else people were willing to pay for at the local theater. And they realized they could jury rig that bigger budget by making fewer episodes. Simple.

Streaming continues to evolve. The lucky number for a new streaming production initially was thirteen episodes. Then ten. Maybe eight. Now some air as few as six new episodes per year. And that doesn’t mean “from fall until spring, every year.” It’s now normal for shows to stream those ten or whatever, and then disappear for unpredictable periods until the promised new season is produced. In fact, producers point to budgeting and scheduling as the causes for even shorter seasons.

Yup, new times have brought about new “rules.” But that doesn’t mean that we’re adapting. We are, in fact, a bit miffed about it.

Today we’re treated to some great programs, like The Morning Show on Apple+, which aired its first season of ten episodes to much fanfare. It even won a few Emmys. And we eagerly awaited the show’s second season…which took twenty-one months to appear! We’ve now been waiting for the promised third season for seventeen months. And that’s just one example.

Which makes one ask…what is a “season” anyway? Both The Bible and The Byrds said, “To everything there is a season.”

One suspects that neither of those revered sources subscribed to streaming.