Just a short question
While I've been AFIAte, during the time periods when I haven't been well enough to sit up and type but have been able to stay awake, I've watched a bunch of Youtubed episodes of the old Sharpe's Rifles series. Finally.
So, okay.
--Am I much mistaken, or is it or isn't it a soap opera doesn't it have "a lot of relationship drama" with a few more swordfights, explosions and moderate-speed chase scenes than your typical mainstream network series? And aren't "whiny men who were generally unable to find their way out of a wet paper bag" pretty thick on the ground (even if they often do get killed off by the end of the episode)?
Did Sharpe's Rifles ruin the Boys' Own Adventure genre for British television, or was it widely felt to have done so? Going only by YouTube comments that does not seem to be currently the case.
Now, granted, I wasn't aware of its existence during its first run - I'm not even sure if/when it ever aired in the States - so can any fen from Over The Water enlighten me as to whether or not it was initially marketed as a Women's Picture Series? I know what its current demographic popularity is, and why, but was that ITV's intention? I do know that wasn't how the novels were marketed, nor the audience they attracted - I shelved them pretty frequently in the Eighties and I was put off by the covers they had then, so while I wouldn't utterly rule out the notion that some Very Clever Person in Programming deduced (possibly from the success of the Poldark series on A&E) that it would bring the Estrogen Brigade onboard in droves, I wouldn't expect it, either.
I mean, despite all attempts to tell them so, US TV execs have not figured out that the audiences for space opera with kickass heroines & dashing-yet-ambiguously-gendered heroes and historical romance Manly Men Singing Folk Songs Doting Over Babies Doing Manly Things With Guns And Swords In Tight Trousers Jackets During The Napoleonic Wars share a significant overlap...
So, okay.
--Am I much mistaken, or is it or isn't it a soap opera doesn't it have "a lot of relationship drama" with a few more swordfights, explosions and moderate-speed chase scenes than your typical mainstream network series? And aren't "whiny men who were generally unable to find their way out of a wet paper bag" pretty thick on the ground (even if they often do get killed off by the end of the episode)?
Did Sharpe's Rifles ruin the Boys' Own Adventure genre for British television, or was it widely felt to have done so? Going only by YouTube comments that does not seem to be currently the case.
Now, granted, I wasn't aware of its existence during its first run - I'm not even sure if/when it ever aired in the States - so can any fen from Over The Water enlighten me as to whether or not it was initially marketed as a Women's Picture Series? I know what its current demographic popularity is, and why, but was that ITV's intention? I do know that wasn't how the novels were marketed, nor the audience they attracted - I shelved them pretty frequently in the Eighties and I was put off by the covers they had then, so while I wouldn't utterly rule out the notion that some Very Clever Person in Programming deduced (possibly from the success of the Poldark series on A&E) that it would bring the Estrogen Brigade onboard in droves, I wouldn't expect it, either.
I mean, despite all attempts to tell them so, US TV execs have not figured out that the audiences for space opera with kickass heroines & dashing-yet-ambiguously-gendered heroes and historical romance Manly Men Singing Folk Songs Doting Over Babies Doing Manly Things With Guns And Swords In Tight Trousers Jackets During The Napoleonic Wars share a significant overlap...