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American thoughts on Brit TV

as promised (To Jay and Brekkie) (January 2006)

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JE
Jez Founding member
Matrix posted:
Jez posted:
I think 22 episodes is too long. I definately agree that its the quality not the quantity. Some uk dramas are better off with 6-8 episodes.


Or in Hotel Babylon's case 2...

Please pull this.


im quite enjoying Hotel Babylon. People said it would be the same sort of series as Footballers Wives but its nothing like it. Its the only think I watch on BBC apart from Doctor Who
BR
Brekkie
Talking of Dr Who - they used to have quite long series, with generally a number of stories played out over four or five episodes.

Also noticable that it got a 13-episode run for it's first series - plus the BBC aired it in a 45-minute slot rather than 1hr.

It's quite obviously scheduled with international sales in mind!
BF
Bewitched_Fan_2k
that be the same again this time right?
BR
Brekkie
I guess so.


Re: US television - a question about the daytime soaps: Do they run all year (with new episodes) or do they just air in the ratings seasons?
DB
dbl
Brekkie Boy posted:
I guess so.


Re: US television - a question about the daytime soaps: Do they run all year (with new episodes) or do they just air in the ratings seasons?

All year, and they never repeat them.
JA
james2001 Founding member
dbl posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:
I guess so.


Re: US television - a question about the daytime soaps: Do they run all year (with new episodes) or do they just air in the ratings seasons?

All year, and they never repeat them.


Than again, British soaps never get repeated on their original channels, bar the EE & Hollyoaks omnibus.
MR
mromega
Sci-Fi in the US have actually just purchased the rights to run repeats of "Passions" from episode 1. (Around 6 yrs worth of shows)
JA
jay Founding member
james2001 posted:
dbl posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:
I guess so.


Re: US television - a question about the daytime soaps: Do they run all year (with new episodes) or do they just air in the ratings seasons?

All year, and they never repeat them.


Than again, British soaps never get repeated on their original channels, bar the EE & Hollyoaks omnibus.


And Neighbours...
PO
Polethebear
Soaps are shown are shown all year around here.We also know have soap net here as well.A 24-hour network carrying same day episodes of all the ABC stuff plus Days of Our Lives,along with classic things like Dallas,Dynasty etc.

I hope I did not raise too much of a hornet's nest with my comments.I guess the set-up was "ahem" Rolling Eyes forigen to me.
PO
Polethebear
amosc100 posted:
I, also like the US shows although I must admit that 22 episodes per series per year can be a bit tedious and the qualityof some epiosdes can be very lacking.

There, again, sayting that we are slowly moving to US series' writing sytem. My Family and My Hero are written US style, and I do know of at least 3 other british sit-coms that are being developed with a writing team rather than just having 1 or 2 writers.

With regards to Drama I do feel that shorter series are far superior to 22 episode series'. Could anyone imagine 22 weeks each year of Spooks, Hustle etc.. The quality and novelty of these series would soon disappear. Again, saying that there were/are series in the Uk that last about 26 weeks - perfect example being Heartbeat on ITV1 which lasts for 26 weeks each year. In the past Lew Grade's ATV (and ITC)company tended to make series of about 20 to 26 episodes mainly to try to entice the US market. Maybe a happy medium would be to make series of about 11+ episodes, rather than just 6+ episodes.

Due to the nature of British terrestrial TV the networks have to have certain number of hours of documentaries, current affairs, magazine style shows etc... to keep their licence - but in many cases these do prove popular amongst the viewers, therefore they will be continued to be made en masse - just look at the schedules for five (www.five.tv), Channel 4 and BBC2 - continually full of the genre.



What is the "UK Style"???
PO
Polethebear
mromega posted:
Sci-Fi in the US have actually just purchased the rights to run repeats of "Passions" from episode 1. (Around 6 yrs worth of shows)


Yeah,should start in a couple of months.
AM
amosc100
US -style is where a US drama/comedy has a team of writers (i.e. more than 3) for a whole series.
UK-style a bit of s difference...
Comedies - normally just written by 1 or 2 people i.e. John Sullivan has wriiten all the epiosdes to Only Fools and Horse; 'Allo 'Allo and Hi-de-hi were all written by two people. Very uncommon for comedies to be written by a team.
Drama - again, normally wriiten by 2 or 3 people, a lot of 1hour 6 epiosdes series are actually written by 1 person. The only drama's I know of that have a team of writers are Heartbeat, Doctor Who (even the spin-off Torchwood - anagram of Doctor Who for our foreign visitors! - all 13 episodes are to be written by Russell T Davies!), Spooks (MI5 in US), Hustle and new series Life on Mars.
Soaps - like anywhere else in the world are written by a team of writers

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