I hear people discuss the “Golden
Age of TV” in referring to TV of the past.
They refer to shows like Hill
Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and M*A*S*H, all great shows to be
sure. But they came at a time when shows
like that were few and far between.
In
these days of hundreds of channels, TV viewers are not restricted to NBC, CBS,
ABC, and FOX, to find good quality TV Drama.
I argue that TODAY is the TV’s Golden Age. With basic cable channels such as FX, AMC,
TNT, A&E, and USA, to name a few, the choices have never been more
plentiful. The same goes for
high-quality dramas. 25 years ago, you
may have had 2 or 3 excellent dramas on the air in any particular TV
season. Now it’s not uncommon to have
that many on in a given week or maybe even a given night. Don’t get me wrong, broadcast television does
offer some quality programming. In fact
I would say that when it comes to comedies, the broadcast networks do it
better. But cable TV is the place to
go for drama.
Shows
like The Shield, Breaking Bad, Rescue Me,
Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Justified, The Americans, Damages,
Southland, The Wire, Homeland, Game of Thrones, and The
Sopranos all have a couple of things in common. All of them are critically acclaimed,
award-winning, highly respected programs, and all of these shows aired or still
air on a cable network. The list of
these cable dramas goes on and on.
But why
does cable offer much better original drama than network TV does in this
era? There are several reasons. Cable offers less restrictions than broadcast
networks do. Cable allows for more sophisticated
and intricate storylines with decidedly adult themes and language. Cable offers you the feel of watching the
quality of a big screen film with every episode. Groundbreaking shows like The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, or The
Walking Dead would never have seen the light of day if it weren’t for cable
TV.
Cable
drama series also have seasons of much shorter length. Whereas a broadcast network drama show such
as NCIS produces anywhere from 20-24 episodes a season, cable shows only
produce 10-13. That means less “filler”
episodes, episodes that do not really push the story forward but are there
merely to fill a quota because the storyline isn’t enough to stretch an entire
season. Cable TV seasons run 3-4
months. This means that reruns are
basically non-existent, and every episode is important. CBS needs to stretch 24 episodes of NCIS over
an 8 month period since the broadcast networks seasons start in September or
October and run until May. That leaves
plenty of time for reruns.
My
guess is that you will see the major broadcast networks start following cables
lead and give shows 13 episode seasons instead.
This will give them the flexibility of adding more original programming,
and more quality writing for each drama series.
Overall, cable drama series provide a much more enjoyable, and
satisfying experience for the discernable TV viewer than broadcast networks
offer.
With
the viewing choices growing every day, the broadcast networks will need to step
up their game in order to compete for our time and attention, and TV will be
better for it.
