Four And Out
I always thought it strange that Star Trek started each episode with the Captain explaining the ship was on a five-year mission. This seems to limit how long the show can run. Lucky for Roddenberry, Trek was canceled after three years so that took care of that. (Later Trek shows had continuing missions.)
So it's even odder that two relatively new prime time shows have greater limitations, Community and Glee. The first is set in a community college, and the cast should graduate after four years. Glee is a high school, so the same deal. I know when money is at stake a show can run as long as it needs to, but do these shows have contingency plans for long runs?
In Community, it's not just college, it's a particular study group. Will they fail a class together and have to take it over? Will they graduate and stay together? Will they become professors?
For Glee, will they replace ths students with new classmates? Will they be held back? Will they go to college? Will they run out of songs to sing?
Or will both shows follow Star Trek and take the easy way out?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:12 AM
4 Comments:
Well, there is always the Simpson's solution. Deny there is a time line.
I also wonder about shows with kids played by people older than they really are. Michael J. Fox was a teen, Alex Keaton, for years it seemed, which he could pull off because he was really short. But then he never grew, even as his sisters on the show did. They handled this by dressing Alex up in suits, platform shoes and clever camera angles.
Currently I am watching "The Middle," with an 8-yr old who I believe is played by an older kid with a growth challenge. The older siblings seem to be approximately the ages they are portraying. I never watched Different Strokes - how did they handle that issue there?
The Simpsons often parodies the idea of a sitcom by noting how each episode starts fresh, despite what happened in the past.
But in non-animated shows, you just accept that kids grow older, even building episodes around it. Sometimes, if you want to keep the "cute" factor alive, you bring in a new kid, such as in The Brady Bunch or The Cosby Show.
Or like "2 1/2 Men", you abandon all pretense of cute and plunge and and embrace "the awkward years". If Charlie's liver and the show hold on, my guess is we'll get a lot of more the ex-wife's baby.
I think there were four sons total in My 3 Sons but a set of adorable triplets. Alex Keaton had a younger brother.
My guess is is that Community will last as long as it is popular and they will have meta-ironic fun with the concept of spending five or six years in community college. (They have senior citizen students already).
As a non-fan, I will say Glee has the appearance of a bubble and will die of reasons other than longevity
Based on ratings, it's hard to believe Glee won't last longer than Community. The only thing Community has going for it is it's on NBC, and they can't afford to cancel anything.
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