Why Can’t NBC Come Up With Good Genre TV Anymore?

This begs to ask the question, “Is there really any channel that has good shows?” Well, of course channels such as Showtime and HBO have clearly set themselves apart in all aspects, from network television channels. Personally, I love the History Channel, but even that has a lot of crap on it. I just can’t watch the same 30 second grainy film clip from World War II, 8 times in 4 different programs, and be expected to learn something new from it.

But we are discussing “Genre” television shows, correct? So let’s exclude non-fictional shows. Oh wait, does “Reality” tv count as “non-fiction?” Technically (in theory), yes. So, let’s disregard Reality shows as well. And for the sake of film making purity, lets exclude cartoons as well, since they animate their actors and special effects and such, its not really fair (but for the record, even genre cartoons have really gone downhill).

And to be fair to NBC, lets only look at cable network television channels, and the “genre” shows that they have, and try to find out what’s good that hasn’t been, or isn’t on the verge of cancellation. What’re the big ones out there, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox? Okay, now let’s loosely define our desired genre as “sci-fi/fantasy/action(?)”

NBC: The Cape, Chuck, The Event.
ABC: Castle, No Ordinary Family, V
CBS: The Mentalist
Fox: Bones?, Fringe, Human Target, Lie To Me.

(Never noticed until I gathered this list how many shows are about cops and/or doctors. Ridiculous.)

Honestly, most of those shows are generously borderline along the structure of our genre; however there are certain elements in all of the aforementioned shows that I feel, qualify them to be included in the genre, if only just. What I find funny is that Fox has the most shows in the genre, but are notorious for killing great shows in this genres (Firefly, Terminator: SCC, Dollhouse). From the chatter I’ve heard, Chuck is borderline cancelled, and The Cape got axed after like the first episode, and The Event’s most likely out too.

Of course, there are other stations that contribute to the genre. SyFy comes to mind, though I can’t imagine why. The CW, USA, TNT, TBS, Comedy Central, etc…but their productions don’t nearly have the type of budget and quality of production that the big 4 stations can afford to produce. Another station that almost has me considering getting cable for the first time in like 6 years, is AMC. The Walking Dead. ‘Nuff Said.

Heroes: Season 1 was awesome. Season 2 was disappointing (with a writer’s strike to blame). Season 3 floundered hopelessly; however, there was some good in it, though too few and far between to renew public interest in a show hit hard by the writers strike. Now Season 4 is rather tricky to judge. After the effects of season 3, season 4 had to be hard to write from the start. They took a different direction, introduced some great characters, played by exceptional actors, but the plot did take a long time to develop, and the climax of the 18-20 some-odd episode arc took about 10 minutes, and as a result the show was left on a cliffhanger.

In season 1 of Heroes, the creators said they wanted to have a sort of rotating cast and settings. They first screwed up by making the show the Petrelli soap opera based in New York and California. It seemed like they just ran out of good ideas. When a comic book like The Avengers gets stale, Marvel doesn’t just cancel it, call it garbage, and throw it away, never to be touched again. They may or may not take a few months away from publications, usually not though, and get a new creative staff. If I had to guess, NBC probably had a hand in the direction of the show going into the second season. They saw how well-received Nathan, Sylar, Claire, and HRG were, and decided to make their lives the center-stage drama, and kill off any new characters. Another thing, in comics, the superhero (and villain) groups also rotate their members. There may be certain mainstays, for iconic purposes, that are always affiliated with the team or book, but they do change frequently.

If Heroes was truly intended to be a comic-book style of television show, they should have recognized that. And in my personal opinion, their BIGGEST mistake was killing off Isaac Mendez. An interesting character, with depth and an interesting power, who kind of narrated and at the same time, conducted the plot of the show. And of course, bringing Sylar back in season 2 just showed viewers that they are going to be getting the same thing over again, just a little different.

Galactica was ABC.

Clearly you don’t know what dude’s talking about. “Genre TV” doesn’t mean a specific genre, moron.

You’re being very charitable towards Heroes. No clear direction after the first season? How about after the first six episodes?

You nailed it.

Well, NBC isn’t failing alone. This has become an industry wide issue across most of the networks. ABC is is crashing on No Ordinary Family, V and last seasons Flash Forward. CBS as given up altogether, FOX puts every genre show on Friday night, even Sy Fy hasn’t had a break out hit since BSG. As with almost everything in entertainment, (except in film when it’s also often about the editing) it’s the writing. There’s simply no comparison between something like The Event to Fringe. No comparison to V versus Walking Dead. When you write something that plays to 8 year olds (No Ordinary Family, The Cape) and compare it to sophisticated writing in LOST, a lesser extent Fringe, or even the non genre Modern Family, you get the difference between a hit and a near canceled series. The same can be said of Super Hero/ Sci Fi movies who play it straight versus ones that play it for camp. The Event suffers from the same mission creep as Flash Forward or the latter seasons of Heroes. Unlike something like LOST & BSG (or the first season of Heroes) which maintained the over all mystery but still told personal, character driven stories with heart, these failing shows drift around killing time between plot progressions with mindless scenarios that often defy internal story logic. .. which is what Heroes seasons 2-4 descended into. Each week was literally contradicting the previous week.. Which means they had no idea where they were going at all after Season 1. So, I wouldn’t pick on NBC, per se, so much as wonder where all the modern day Rod Serlings and Gene Roddenberrys went and why the networks keep supporting the Irwin Allens out there. Abrams and Moore can’t carry the entire genre on their backs forever..

BTW, Chuck survives entirely on character, heart and the fact they don’t let an arc go longer than 8 episodes…

NBC has the same problem most of the networks do and that is they rely on the same group of writers/producers for shows and ideas. NBC is owned by GE so they’re not hurting for money–they need to get people with fresh ideas and stop playing it safe. There are tons of stories that need to be and should be told, but the people in charge of the networks are stuck on stupid.

A new live action “Wonder Woman” with David E. Kelly at the controls? Good luck with that one.

patience. they have none.
used to be shows like Cheers (I know it wasnt scifi but listen) could be given time.
cheers was low rated its first season, but was allowed to build up.
by the second season it was a hit.
heroes got too hot too soon.

make a good scifi show, hold the budget down, then give it time, and you could have a hit on your hands.

i think it important to keep cost down, because lets face it, scifi on tv is a niche category, which is why the longest running scifi shows were syndicated (stng) or on second tier cable (stargate, b5).

(A) Any idea or concept can be improved upon during the journey from the drawing board to implementation. That’s a basic truth. Doesn’t mean it will, but it certainly can. (B) There’s a difference between how movies and TV work. (C) Regardless of what some people may have thought about Wolverine’s quality, there’s no question that it did well, well enough to warrant a bigger-budgeted sequel.

So, to recap: Everything you said was untrue and refutable either by established experience or provable fact.

Sadly, if good quality was all it took for a series to be a hit, there would ONLY be good shows on the air. Things like appropriate publicity, and enough of the audience being being receptive to it, matters as well.

The “concept of Heroes” was X-Men. They just figured a more modern way into it. That was the only original thing the show did.

That’s unfair to call No Ordinary Family written for 8 year-olds. It’s written for families, and twenty years ago would have fit right in with everything else on television.

It doesn’t work today because we have cable. All those people who think USA and Bravo and Showcase and AMC and HBO bring out fantastic shows should stop and realize that what they’re actually showing is content that — for the most part — the networks themselves could never air. There’s no reason why a show like Covert Affairs or Psych couldn’t be on one of the networks today, except that they’d have to write more episodes and be weaker and then die in the ratings.

No Ordinary Family would be a smash hit on ABC Family, but ABC took the risk of putting it on its regular networks. Had Desperate Housewives not been there, I think Pretty Little Liars might have even made a success of it too.

And blame the censors in there as well: cable gets to be edgy because there’s some lines networks SHOULD be approaching but can’t because they are networks and cable’s cable. Sex & The City is one show that should be on cable only, Secret Diaries Of A Call Girl (from the UK) is another. Deadwood, for language, sure. But a lot of the others? No way.

What killed the network wasn’t the end of Heroes. It was Jay Leno. Leno retired, then changed his mind and went prime time, forcing their 10 pm dramas out to pasture or in spots that they should never have been. (And ER’s termination helped that along too.)

NBC quickly became a joke about itself afterward. They need to go back to pushing quality first, and giving it time to click with audiences. But, unfortunately, in this TV economy, that’s not going to happen. ABC will follow it soon, and one day CBS too.

The Event is a good show and I watch it every week. I am not one of the few Nielsen households so the fact that I watch The Event goes unnoticed. It’s more of a mystery than a sci-fi show, and that may have turned off most of the people that were initially interested. You have to watch it every week or you get lost…like Lost. Lots of folks prefer to watch shows like that on DVD, but that often gets them cancelled like Flash Forward. The supposed hot demographic of 18-34 just doesn’t watch a lot of network tv anymore. When you’re young and have a life, appointment television is a crazy idea. It’s too difficult and just not worth the effort to follow a show when you know it’ll hit DVD and you can watch it all at your own pace and pause at will. I watch The Event because I was hooked from catching the first few episodes. I was going to skip it, but I watched the first 4 and was hooked. I also tend to not watch television as it airs even if I’m at home because I could be doing something else and can fast forward through commercials when I watch the show later. I don’t have a nice TV, and streaming is uncomfortable to watch at a desk. I’m just a regular television watcher that often doesn’t really want to watch television but I like a good show and I prefer to watch it at my own pace. NBC is really good about having their shows available to view on their website, so I would hope they take those numbers into account before they cancel a good show like The Event.

And Heroes turned to crap because of the writers’ strike. After that, I disliked the overall direction and changes made to the show. Bring it back to wrap the story, but not to keep it going.

The thing is that Leno did say he was planning on stepping down, that was when NBC lined up Conan to be his successor. The problem arose when Leno pulled a Brett Favre and didnt want to retire, thus we got the flop known as “The Jay Leno Show” and instead of punishing Leno for being a flip flopper they tried to bone over Conan.

I think you missed the example i provided. X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Reread my statement, watch that film, and then take your  recap of what was untrue and refutable and well, shove it.

or continue being excited about and defending pure feces. Im sure you are overly ecstatic about the teen wolf remake on mtv. im sure thats up your alley on something that was improved on. Have fun watching repeats of the remakes of Knight Rider and the Bionic Woman.

Oh and it turns out NBC even thought the show was crap and didn’t order it.