... thinking that less is more

Quick: How many episodes of the UK version of The Office were there? Most people don't have to look: 12 plus a 2-part Christmas episode. And Extras? Same thing. Fawlty Towers? Twelve.

Now, let's look at drama: Life on Mars? Sixteen. Prime Suspect? Sixteen. Cracker? A HUGE 25, spread over many series.

How many episodes of Friends are there? Two hundred and thirty six. Seinfeld? One hundred and eighty. Northern Exposure? One hundred and ten.

Wait, why did I mention Northern Exposure? Because I've only seen about 50 of those episodes, and that's about all I need. Don't get me wrong, it was a brilliant program. It was funny, inventive, creative. And it also went on about three seasons too long.

In North America, for the most part, a network buys a series from the creator for a number of seasons, and a number of episodes per season. The show runs season after season anywhere from 25 to 32 episodes per season. That's a lot of television, no matter how you cut it.

What this means is that in a season, a show can fluctuate greatly in quality and tone. Yesterday we talked about Jericho and how the show seemed to go through a complete overhaul in tone in its first season. At the same time, Friends and Seinfeld had periods where they seemed to lose their focus, and both had what some consider to be very unsatisfactory endings (though I know I am alone when I say that I think the end of Seinfeld was pure genius). All three of these shows were victims of the North American mode of television production: Consecutive seasons and teams of writers.

In the UK (and parts of Europe) it works a little differently. The creators produce a set number of scripts for a series and sell that. They are then produced and run in a short series of anywhere from 6 to 10 episodes, consecutively (no repeats). If there is enough demand from the public, or the broadcaster wants to give it another chance, then a second series will be ordered. At that time the creator/writers produce another set number of scripts, and the series might run a year or two later, when it's ready. (My Family is a notable exception, and very controversial for that as well).

What this results in are series that have a unified tone and voice, and are given time to be properly work-shopped. Since there are only a limited number of episodes, all the stories have to be wrapped up quickly and efficiently. You'd never see "The David Brent Paper Company", for example, and Ross and Rachel, well that would have had a point like Gavin and Stacey have.

At the same time, because of the focus, shows can have whimsy and eccentricities and they won't wear out their welcome. Pushing Daises might have been lovely to look at, but spread over 25 episodes year after year it is my belief what it would eventually have exhausted its audience; The same thing happened with Northern Exposure which was just too quirky for its own good.

So, imagine this: Jericho, Pushing Daisies, Chuck et al run for only 10 episodes, week after week. They hold their slot. Then word of mouth really grows and it becomes appointment TV in the best sense: there are no place holder episodes. Then after the ten episodes there might be a year, but during that year you're going to see more focused versions of the American Life on Mars, or The Mentalist, or even The Office and not have to sit through stand alone episodes written by hired guns and not the shows creators. People are more willing to invest time and energy in something if they know they are going to get a reward (that's what worked for 24 for the first couple of seasons), and less if they feel like there is no "there" there (Heroes).

Think this is silly, and would work on the in the UK? I have one word: Lost. The show actually was lost for a while, with episodes that made little sense and were just there to fill in the numbers. Then they took some time off and set an expiration date, and limited episodes for the next few seasons. Now the show is back to where it used to be: something that fans didn't want to miss, and something that new people wanted to get interested in. The same happened with the last season of Battlestar Galactica. Sure it was a pain to wait a year between series, but at least I didn't get episodes like there were in the first two series' that did nothing to advance the plot.

Television in North America is starting to move in that direction, especially on HBO and Showtime with series like Dexter and Big Love. I think it would benefit the networks, the fans, and the creators if the broadcast wing moved in that direction also. That way there would be room for something to be "quirky" and stay that way like My Name is Earl without having to change the premise or relationships between the characters in order to "keep it fresh".

Let any series, no matter how good, last long enough and it will trend to the middle. When it trends to the middle with no focus, it can become Wings or According to Jim: able to have just enough people to survive, and since there's no real investment by the audience for every fan they lose one week they pick up another because "There's nothing else on". But, if keep it focused, iteration over iteration, the chance for it to trend away from the middle, on something hopefully resembling an upward tick, is increased.