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From note about Coupling (spoilers on anything possible here), a comment about US TV
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Posted by: bdowell

Warning in advance - there may be spoilers about any topic from any time period ever in the history of man included in discussions in this thread. If this bothers you, then please consider yourself warned in advanced and do not make a federal case out of the issue. Thanks in advance from a poster that doesn't want to be admonished about the posting of spoilers or discussions that may take place from any spoilers that may be revealed in advertently for shows that someone, somehow may have missed or not watched yet.

I am doing my best to comply with requirements and demands of those that have made issue with spoilers that have been revealed inadvertently for shows that might not relate to the original topic at hand. If this doesn't work, then my posting days here may be at end, along with my over-all participation in this site. Sorry, but while I wish to continue using these forums, I do not want any inadvertent slip of spoiler information to result in admonishment or banishment from these forums, hence the heavy-handed disclaimer above.

From this article at Zap2It one of the stars of the hit BBCA show Coupling (in this case the actor that plays Steve, real life name: Jack Davenport), had this to say (third quoted paragraph):

quote:
While the BBC's "Coupling" has become a cult hit on BBC America and in its home video releases, an NBC adaptation of the show bombed last fall. Davenport concedes that he saw an episode of the latter "by accident."

"I was reluctant to see it, since I was still playing the character myself over here," he says. "But I was in Los Angeles for something and -- I swear, it was sheer chance -- I came across the American version while channel surfing. Of course, I couldn't tear myself away because it was such an odd experience.

"I mean no disrespect to the American actors or the production team, because I think they did a very good job, actually, but I had thought it might not work even before they tried it. In farce, you take an innocuous situation, throw a spanner in the works and whip it into a frenzy. You can't really do that if you have to keep cutting to 'a message from the folks at Wendy's.'"

The fascinating part of this is in the third paragraph -- the "You can't really do that if you have to keep cutting to a ...." comment.

It makes me think that the actor may have hit the solution to some of the problems for why some shows don't become hits and how to fix the problems.

For example, shows like Sports Night, which relied so much on the banter and interaction between characters, or shows like Coupling which works in the same way, is it possible that the future will hold a time frame where shows will be shown uninterrupted with commercials and messages from sponsors being shown only at the beginning or ending of shows? Or from product placement in shows or even perhaps the dreaded "black bar" with scrolling advertisements running below the TV show?

It's an intriguing idea. It works well for networks like HBO, which Zap2It has another article on (potential future development of traditional sitcom type programming to be aimed at HBO rather than at traditional networks like Fox, CBS, etc.) They are able to air shows like Curb, or Arli$$, Larry Sanders, etc., without having them interrupted by commercial breaks, and because of that, the flow of those shows seem better and more natural and the quality of the shows seem better over all.

Is this perhaps the future of TV? Would it be a good thing?

As Mike Myers said in his Linda Richmond char in the Coffee Talk skits on SNL: "discuss"

Posted by: wmcbrine

On BBC America, Coupling is shown with commercial breaks, so I don't know that this analysis is fair. Then again, I have a Tivo, so I don't see them. :-)

Posted by: bdowell

quote:
Originally posted by wmcbrine
On BBC America, Coupling is shown with commercial breaks, so I don't know that this analysis is fair. Then again, I have a Tivo, so I don't see them. :-)

When posting the original note above I realized that this was the case, but was trying to think about just how intrusive commercials are on BBCA.

I remember BBCA airing a marathon of Coupling episodes during it's first season run (when I originally got hooked on the show) and to be honest, I remember there being many commercials, but don't remember them being that intrusive.

Maybe a big part of the problem is that in the U.S. a sitcom normally airs in a half hour block, and it's total air-time is only about 20 minutes, with at least 10 minutes (or so it seems, I'm sure someone will say it's only 8 minutes per half hour or some number like that) gone for commercials.

The commercials tend to happen right after the opening joke of the show, and then last for 3 - 5 minutes, then give you about 10 minutes of show time, then 3 - 5 minutes, etc.

On BBCA, you get Coupling in a 40 minute time slot, with what seems to be an equal number of commercials spread throughout it's airing as would be in the half-hour slot on most regular network shows.