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So What? Television Shows

Discussion
Feb 24, 2012

The main thing that I have learned is that television shows evolve and so do viewers. Popular shows in the 1990s, like Friends and Seinfeld, which were about a close knitted group of clean friends, would never survive in televisions market today which feeds off negativity. Today’s viewers are drawn to more dirty and mean spirited comedies like Two and a Half men. In addition, television is also changing the amount of money it spends on itself. In past years, television could never keep up with the production quality of high intensity action thrillers. Now with shows like 24 and Lost, that gap is becoming smaller and smaller. As viewers evolve, television does to, and it is spending a lot more money to do so.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/02/25/why-tv-is-better-than-t...

Comments

Questions

Submitted by sarah1994 on Fri, 2012-02-24 14:07.

How much money is being spent and how has it increased over the years?

Questions

Submitted by CJC on Fri, 2012-02-24 20:38.

What do you mean clean? What do you mean dirty? Is something wrong with the actors hygiene? From what I have seen from those shows the actors look presentable, except Newman in Seinfeld, he is a little foul. Or...do you mean the content? Yes, no, maybe so! Specify and elaborate more. Has societies principles change for television and if so according to what? Where is the rubric? Muhaha

Interesting

Submitted by seamusa on Tue, 2012-03-06 17:09.

How far do think this evolution will go? Is there a point where television shows will become so advanced they are too expensive to produce in the volume that they are produced? Do more high intensity action thrillers reaffirm or hurt the emotional connection established with viewers?

I would definitely agree that

Submitted by John Kearns on Tue, 2012-03-06 17:31.

I would definitely agree that there is a point where the expense television shows will exceed the possible revenue. Television shows are becoming less profitable anyway because of advancements in sites like Hulu and Netflix. In addition, movie budgets are increasing as well, so how long will tv shows be able to produce high intensity shows that satisfy viewers.
I would also agree that they hurt the emotional connection. I think these huge explosions and high speed chases take away from things more important in storytelling. You can see it today in the movie industry. Transformers, Twiglight, Pirates of the Caribean,and Fast Five were all in the top six box office movies of 2011. These movies were all high action intensity films, but most of them didn't get as much acclaim for their script or acting performances.