THB #319: Eight Is Not Enough

“Like streams through the revenue gap, so are the tools to reduce churn.”

Back in ancient times, when American TV meant 22-26 episode seasons, the British did it differently. Fawlty Towers did 2 seasons of 6 episodes, 12 in total. The Benny Hill Show went on for 20 years… and never had a “season” of more than 4 episodes. Inspector Morse did 33 episodes over 8 seasons. Downton Abbey was mostly 9 a season. Cracker did 25 in 3 seasons. Even Are You Being Served? took 10 seasons to get to 69 episodes.

Many great shows. But the machinery was quite different than our own. We may know that Vince Gilligan created Breaking Bad, but in England, it would have been “Breaking Bad by Vince Gilligan.” When Jimmy McGovern created Cracker, he was also the sole writer on the entire first season and is credited with 10 of the 18 episodes in Seasons 2 and 3. Gilligan had his hands on every episode, but he only has writing credit on 13 of the 62.

Yes, this is a bit broad… there are always exceptions. But …