I wrote about why good television shows are canceled earlier this month, commenting that the networks (meaning ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) have got to change the paradigm they've been using to select which shows live and which die......

I agree, and that's how I tend to do things. I've just recently started watching "House" on USA Network and it's so much more satisfying to see the arc of the stories play out back-to-back.

HOWEVER, there's obviously a huge downside to that style of viewing. If everybody goes that route, no show will exist long enough to generate a whole string of episodes. Without those early ratings, there can only be quick cancellation and no show to watch later - even a good show.

Ironically, the old show Degrassi High - and I'm told the Next Generation - did a good job of building long-term multi-year arcs, which weren't overdone. Fights changed relationships, people did awful things to others and were sorry, and took a long time to make it up to people. But it wasn't the be-all and end all of the emotional life of a show. Instead, it was just there - the way it is in real life.

Subtlety is lost. Cheers was a filler comedy, which didn't find an audience for three years. Now, the networks don't stand for it. Look at Jericho, which was a great drama, which was ruined by the need for instant ratings. The second season was so cliched and unsubtle--- corporations run by evil white guys ruined the paradise of eden for the rest of us --- it was unwatchable.

Someone suggested a long time ago for Firefly a different model of TV development. They suggested that Joss Whedon take orders for a second season at $40 for a DVD set, until he had enough to write and shoot it. I certainly would have bought one for myself, and a couple for other people as gifts. Even if it had been $120, I would have done it. Maybe that will be the new formula. Have all the pilots shot, maybe a first few episodes filmed, air them, and get people to pay for a subscription, and wait until you have enough to pay for the rest of the season.

As you are probably aware, NBC announced last week it is moving Jay Leno from his late-night spot to a five-day-a-week, 10 PM end-of-prime-time slot - in essence, replacing an hour of prime-time drama/entertainment with the much less expensive to......

These days, I watch NOVA, Frontline, and the Daily Show as I feel like on the internet (once or twice a week) The rest of it?

I can watch it off of netflix in a couple years... if it is worth it.

amidst complaints that what the labels are turning out is dreckish at best

You're being kind (but, then, my musical tastes were forged in the 50s and 60s--you know, when people could actually play their instruments).

On the future of the networks, the execs might want to revisit Marketing Myopia and ask themselves just what business they are really in.

Kinda sounds like the Marshal McLuhan metaphor for the music industry and its interaction with the public

Yeah, I guess so... but dive deeper here.
Back when Stereo was a new thing, folks would buy what were called Demonstration records. The recorded material was technically brilliant, but musically was laughable at best, usually, and barely listenable... but because the technology was so flashy, they got listened to. Once the new wore off the technology, people recognized the reason they bought the stereo systems in the first place was music, and found a lot of early stereo recordings lacking listenability.

Tying this back to the topic.. the technology has become not just ho-hum but is now all but invisible. Remember when HBO was such a great thing? We've gone beyond even this... When there's 200 networks tied to your system, you're far more interested in the programming than any identification with the medium.

My guess for that is that when teh technological personality, and the visual connection is gone, all one really has is the recorded matter. When people are forced to listen to the stuff, instead of involving themselves in all the rest of it, they find they don't like it quite so much, and it doesn't sell.

Kinda sounds like the Marshal McLuhan metaphor for the music industry and its interaction with the public.

That's good.