Comments | depudor: In Defense of the Networks

depudor

In Defense of the Networks

Oct 29, 2006 19:13

In my quest to become a one-woman unpopular opinions thread, I’ve chosen to tackle an issue that’s been bugging me for quite some time, and that is the tendency of fandom (not specifically VM fandom, but any fandom) to blame the network when a show has problems.

The subject came up at The LoVe Shack the other day, on this page, and I couldn’t hold ( Read more... )

Comments 93

paratti October 30 2006, 03:46:10 UTC

I totally believe you.

depudor October 30 2006, 04:18:20 UTC

Thanks! I always worry how people are going to react to my rants, so it's nice when the first comment is positive. :)

paratti October 30 2006, 18:06:01 UTC

Thanks for all the supplementaries about the financials too. It's really educational.

idreamofpeace October 30 2006, 04:09:20 UTC

My beef with execs is when they cancel shows without really giving them a shot. Wonderfalls is an example. They let 4 (5?) eps air, moving the time slot, with one of them being the dreaded Friday slot of doom, and then just shut it down. They also fucked with the episode order of Firefly.

I understand cancelling shows with low ratings, but it seems like one or two not-so-great rated shows that have good critical buzz could be left on the air. It's like how movie studios will produce a huge blockbuster and then an artsy film and let the profits of the blockbuster suck up some of the loss of the other film.

I'm so bummed about the course of VM. I suppose I should just cut my losses and pet my season 1 dvds.

depudor October 30 2006, 04:45:46 UTC

We've all been angry at one time or another when a beloved show gets cancelled. But what I'm trying to point out is that cancelling shows is, like, 2% of what a network exec does (and studio execs almost never cancel theri own shows, although it does happen). The execs put most of their time into looking for good ideas, developing those ideas, and nurturing scripts into a good final product. The last thing they want to do is have to cancel shows, because it's admitting they were wrong and that the TV audience doesn't like what the execs thought they would like, and it's admitting that they wasted a lot of time and money.

I understand cancelling shows with low ratings, but it seems like one or two not-so-great rated shows that have good critical buzz could be left on the air. They do. Arrested Development got three years; Huff got two, despite haing only 500,000 viewers; VM is still on the air. But you can't do that very often, just like Johnson & Johnson aren't going to keep a toothpaste on the market if only three people use it ( ... )

idreamofpeace October 30 2006, 05:12:23 UTC

I knew you'd give me some facts to chew on instead of my half-baked notions of running a tv studio.

So how much DOES EC get paid, then? I mean, how much does KB make? Do actors get to renegotiate at a certain season? And what I HATE is how we see the series regulars less than we see some guest stars. I mean, I know there's the whole contract thing, which is good, but Michael was in like 16 eps last season.

depudor October 30 2006, 05:50:34 UTC

Usually you have a five-year contract, but there's wiggle room, particularly if a show is a hot or there's a break-out star. Rob Lowe was supposed to be the star of The West Wing, so he was the highest-paid actor when they shot the pilot. I believe he got $70,000 an episode (this was back in 1999, so that number would be a lot higher now). The rest of the actors (not counting Martin Sheen, who orginally signed on as a guest star) were getting between $25-$40K an episode. But when Rob Lowe turned out to be the least compelling actor on the show, the rest of the cast got together and demanded that their contracts be renegotiated so that they would make what Rob Lowe was making ( ... )

Thread 6

arabian October 30 2006, 04:25:32 UTC

This was an enjoyable read, but for me, it's more preaching to the choir, but you already know, that, LOL! Still, I've been waiting to read your take on this. Good, good read.

I agree with you re: Peter Roth/Chris Carter, also, by the way. Sorkin and S60 as well -- and that sucks because I sooo wanted to love and adore that. Sigh. And, of course, I'm still mind-boggled when anyone in the VM fandom bitches about Dawn Ostroff. That woman has fought for this show.

Another TV show that seems to get a lot of the 'network sucks' that boggles the mind is Arrested Development. I love the show; it's hilarious, but it got lousy ratings ... for two and a half years, it got lousy ratings and Fox kept it on for a quite a while considering. But all we heard about from most fans is bitching about how stupid Fox was to cancel it ( ... )

depudor October 30 2006, 07:50:34 UTC

Yeah, AD is a good example of a show the network really fought for.

I don't know when the network execs became the "big bad" but they clearly are for so much of fandom.

I think it's easy to blame "the network" because it's mostly a aneless/faceless entity that doesn't get to defend itself. The execs don't get invited to ComicCon or the Alamo Drafthouse. They don't interact with fans, so they don't earn any kind of devotion or following.

--TLS is back up, so I edited and added the link. Now I'm almost embarrassed for people to read it, because I was so bitchy. I think that poor girl JaneDoe edited her post because she figured I would come back and attack all of her points.

arabian October 30 2006, 08:54:37 UTC

No, she's a mod now and so we've been talking back and forth and she told me that she reread your post and realized that you obviously knew what you were talking about, so she was taking back her comments because you were right. I think she wrote that before she read that you had the experience in the field that you do.

I really, really didn't think it was bitchy at all. Well, maybe slightly, but come on? It's perfectly acceptable for an employee to tell their boss to go fuck themselves?!?! Geez.

BTW: I'd be interested to hear what you know about contracts/salary as well via email. I've often wondered. I knew about the EC/rest of cast ratio, but more info would be interesting.

depudor October 30 2006, 10:42:36 UTC

If I can get the current numbers, I might do another post. I recently spoke to someone who is an even bigger gossip whore than I am and who apparently has some info that she might be willing to share, but I will have to think of something juicy to trade for it. I think my lastest KB gossip might do the trick.

truemyth October 30 2006, 05:05:54 UTC

Hey there. I'm so happy I've started reading my friend's list a little bit again this weekend and got to read this entry. I really love to hear some of the history behind these other shows that I just didn't know and get some background into how the television I love (and hate) is made.

And I love suits. For the record. I think they are quite slimming.

depudor October 30 2006, 05:28:24 UTC

Heh. Especially pinstripes.

truemyth October 30 2006, 06:17:18 UTC

Throw in a fedora and I'm yours, Doll.

cacanina October 30 2006, 05:18:24 UTC

Post love!

I've always been a little annoyed with people blaming the network execs, myself, but I never had anything subtanstial to back it up. I did often think about the fact that Rob said it was the network who thought everyone dying was too dark, and that they didn't tell him to go with the coma baby and Duncan is so presious storyline, but I never had the energy to speak up about it. I'm glad that I didn't because you said it much better than I ever could.

I always *love* reading your posts, and not because I agree with your views 97% of the time, although I'm sure that's part of it, but you put seem to put so much effort and knowledge into them. In fandom, there seems to be too much apologizing for not liking something everyone else is happy with, and you're not afraid of being negative about things you aren't happy with. I enjoy that.

depudor October 30 2006, 09:35:38 UTC

I always *love* reading your posts, and not because I agree with your views 97% of the time,

What's the other 3%????

;)

but you put seem to put so much effort and knowledge into them

Thank you! I do spend many hours on these posts (a lot of that is due to my LJ formatting ineptitude, but that beats spending an hour writing up a post for TWoP and then another hour trying to edit it down so that it's under the maximum post length).

In fandom, there seems to be too much apologizing for not liking something everyone else is happy with, and you're not afraid of being negative about things you aren't happy with. I enjoy that.I think that when you express what's frustrating you, and you find that other people feel the same way, it really makes it better. It's hard with VM, because it's hanging by such a thread, so many people think that if we say negative things on the boards, the execs will see it and cancel the show. That's ridiculous. I think that if people had been more negative at the beginning of S2, particularly on TWoP, ( ... )