I knew she was exactly right. Lately I’ve been poring over my Netflix options, wondering what shows to try next. Do I go with How I Met Your Mother, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Psych, The Big Bang Theory, or Dexter? All of those sound good, but what do I choose? Where do I begin? Will I get so hooked with those shows that are still running that I have to somehow work them into my already busy viewing schedule? Yes, this much pain goes into my Netflix subscription these days. Yet if I wasn’t bold enough to try Supernatural when I first got the subscription, I would have missed out on one of the best shows I’ve seen in my life. No guts, no glory. However, no time either.
How can I even entertain the idea of taking in a new upcoming series? If checking out existing shows is this hard, a new idea for an old show must be a harder sell, right? Familiar goes away, fans not happy. No, that’s far from the truth. The new Scrubs concept is being pitched as a spinoff and that’s riling up viewers. I’m not sure why. Viewers have always embraced spinoffs in the past. Look at classics like The Jeffersons, Maude, Mork and Mindy, The King of Queens, and Frasier. How about the CSI and Law and Order franchises? Why not embrace the idea? Is it because for every Frasier there’s The Tortellis? For every Angel, there’s Joey? Is it fear of the unknown? Maybe. Is it because as our choices increase, so do our anxieties? Possibly, especially since the emotional investment put into a show, spinoff or not, is often quickly crushed by a network that doesn’t like the 18-49 female demographics on the Nielsen reports. That usually results in tampering or cancellation, both of which break many hearts.
Network programming choices are ruled by branding more than anything else these days, which leaves little choice for some to cling onto an older show that might no longer fit the network’s vision. Why isn’t there a Justice League or Green Arrow spinoff from Smallville? Simple, it doesn’t cater to The CW’s "laser focus" on 18-34 females. No other network or cable station will consider it, because it’s a leftover of another station’s aging programming and the buzz has long since passed.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
"The King of Queens" a classic?!
2 - Alice Jester
Actually El Bicho, I was going to say the same of "Mork and Mindy." Everyone has a different definition of "classic." I just listed it because I was having trouble coming up with recent spinoffs off the top of my head. :)