However, producers quickly discovered that serialised storytelling did not work in the context of syndication. Although eighties soap operas like Dynasty and Dallas performed phenomenally well in prime-time, affiliates found that they attracted very few viewers in syndication. As a result, television producers came to believe that syndication depended on a more accessible form of storytelling, that television series should be designed so that audiences could miss one or two episodes without feeling “locked out” of the story
Some of these changes have trickled down from the world of cinema. As the mid-budget thriller and drama has found itself squeezed out of the multiplex, actors and directors have come to embrace the freedom afforded by prestige television. By this model, HBO was able to attract Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey to work with director Cary Fukunaga on the first season of True Detective. HBO enjoyed considerable success at this year’s Emmys with Big Little Lies, starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley.
Similarly, the revolution in computer-generated imagery towards the end of the twentieth century made it easier (and more affordable) for television to compete with cinema in terms of scale and spectacle. This coincided with a home media revolution that found more and more viewers watching television on expensive media centres that could be accurately described as “home cinema systems.” These factors combined to narrow the gap between what had traditionally been seen as the cinematic experience and television production. Modern television series like Game of Thrones and Black Sails can legitimately compete with blockbusters in terms of scale and spectacle.
However, while technological innovations have changed the scope and texture of televisual storytelling, they have also affected the manner in which writers and producers construct television storytelling.
Perhaps the most significant change in television storytelling over the past two decades has been the embrace of serialisation in prestigious prime time television. For most of the twentieth century, television storytelling was episodic in nature; a regular cast in a familiar setting dealing with one major event a week. At the end of the episode, everything was reset to factory settings. As a result, most episodes of classic series like M*A*S*H, The Simpsons, Miami Vice or Star Trek could be watched in just about any order without confusing the audience. Nothing major carried over from one episode to the next, and there was no expectation that the viewer should have seen the previous episode before watching the next episode.
This episodic storytelling was driven by a number of factors. During the twentieth century, most television aspired to a long life in syndicated reruns. After broadcast on a major network, most shows could be bundled up and sold to local affiliates. Those smaller networks would broadcast those old television series to fill up dead air during large chunks of the day. Many television series like The Brady Bunch or Star Trek attracted an entirely new audience of fans through afternoon broadcasts. In fact, syndication was so good to Star Trek, that the spin-off Star Trek: The Next Generation was designed to air in first-run syndication.
8 CinÉireann / October, 2017
Star Trek