Graduating as a Nielsen #1
I never write on this thing anymore, but I thought of this the other day and just had to share with somebody.
I was walking to my Archery class a few days ago and I realized that the way that I feel about graduating UC Davis is like when a producer chooses to cancel a top TV show in prime time. Yes, I am comparing my college departure to the series finale of shows like Friends or Sex in the City.
The upside is that you are going out on top. Everyone loves you, you have accomplished a lot, and you are leaving when everyone still has fun and kind memories of you. If you are really lucky, you are leaving when people still can’t get enough of you. For TV shows, this usually means really successful DVD sales of the series. For a college graduate, maybe this means that people will be much more vigilant about keeping in touch.
The downside is that it is a huge risk. For one, you are going out in your prime. There is constantly that “what if” factor. Maybe the last four seasons were really good, but what if the fifth season was going to be the best one yet? How will you ever know?
No one wants to watch the TV show that was cool. It’s like every high school drama that has ever been on TV. The show may work when the cast is young and fresh and in high school, but dynamic just doesn’t work when the producers try to move the show to college. Remember how crazy we used to be over Dawson’s Creek circa de 1998 (you may laugh at me, but it was a big deal)? But then, the kids graduated high school and the whole premise didn’t work when they were at college. Both figuratively and literally, the success wasn’t there when the producers moved inland.
Besides, how do you stay forever? Even if the writing is as good, even if it somehow gets better with time, how do you guarantee success? What if the plot lines just run out?
Even if you stay, other people leave. Your loyal castmates move on to pursue movie careers, spin-offs, or, God forbid, a personal life. Yes, the show can hire new cast members, but they are NEVER as good as the original. And how do you explain the transition to the audience? Either you switch actors for the same role and try to pretend viewers won’t notice or someone has a baby or new cousin come into town and that new person shoves their way into the show. Will the show even work with a new cast of characters? Isn’t the original cast part of the shows’ charm? Say I stayed here for another year-would it be successful without so many of the people I’ve come to depend on as being around? Could a new cast measure up?
And then there is also the risk that your new TV show just won’t compete to the old one. Look at how successful Seinfeld was. Michael Richards and Jason Alexander both attempted to launch themselves into new series after Seinfeld wrapped. Both attempts failed. Sure, they are funny guys (inconsequently, one of whom is now infamous for being a racist). But neither one is going to live up to the legacy of Cosmo Kramer and George Costanza. Do you really want to be the has-been who has already peaked? Or is it enough that you always have the legacy of that success in your background? On the flip side, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her first Golden Globe for The New Adventures of Old Christine. None of the Seinfeld cast ever earned that honor, regardless of how successful the show was. So you can have greater success in the next show-but how do you know?
At the end of the day, I guess for me it is better to go out on top, while the audience still loves you and the ratings are high, even if it means eating asphalt in the road ahead. And hey, not many people even get to have a Nielsen #1 show, right? It’s pretty good to have had that, even if it means taking the risk of walking away from something great.