Television Innovation

I've noted something about television. It stinks. Really badly.

Innovation is not rewarded in American television. Indeed, it is actively discouraged. All they care to do is to take an existing idea and change the details. So if there is a successful show, they take the core idea of the show, take new characters and put them in a different place, change the name, and then market it as a new show.

Look at Survivor, for example. New idea, right? Spawned truckloads of imitators, right? Well, Survivor was just another imitator. The supposed "Granddaddy of Reality TV" was based on a Swedish TV show called Expedition Robinson. It aired because it was shown to work.

What else is often shown? Sitcoms, military dramas, crime dramas, etc. All shows that have been done before.

Now, take the flipside... Let's start with my favorite shows that got pillaged: Firefly! Firefly was an odd duck. A western in space, you see. It's characters were not squeeky clean Star-Trek types. In fact, they weren't even the "good guys." They were crooks, and there was a lot of good character development. It was interesting. It was new.

The reward for being new and interesting, was it got poor marketing, shown out of order (Really... To show a TV show out of it's intended order just isn't a good plan), and was cancelled.

Likewise, the other two series I like whining about ("Harsh Realm" and "The Lone Gunmen") were treated similarly.

Then let's take something completly different: Lost. Yes, the uberpopular TV show. Innovative, isn't it? New and unique? Has everyone talking around the watercoolers and whatnot? I've only seen the pilot so far, but I enjoyed it.

ABC Executive Lloyd Braun was the one who green-lighted the show. His reward for helping create such a popular new drama? He got fired!

An thusly lies the answer why people are watching less TV these days... Why new movie releases are flopping...

THE NEW SHOWS AND MOVIES ARE COOKIE CUTTER VERSIONS OF OLD ONES. And they also SUCK.

Oh well. Rock on, kids.