I feel like I committed television manslaughter by not watching Lone Star in time. Yes I put this critically acclaimed new Fox drama on my DVR—to watch it on my schedule—but we viewers who record are not calculated in overnight ratings. When Lonestar was made the first cancellation of the 2010 TV schedule, immediately after it’s second viewing due to low ratings, I began to mourn it.
And not just because I missed the show. (I still have the two episodes on my DVR and keep wondering if the network has the power to suck it off my list of recorded shows?) Rather I was saddened because Lonestar is the type of show I dream of as both an actress and a writer. It was not a formulaic procedural built around a legal, medical or police franchise—where every episode utilizes the same framework of “good guy comes to our hero with a problem, that he or she can solve in 42 minutes, yet still leaves us to wonder if the world might end at every commercial break.”
In contrast, a nighttime soap opera like Lonestar is a series based on characters—in any complex situation that a writer can conceive. The most critically acclaimed nighttime soap in recent history was sold as a series that would chronicle a man whose mother did not love him. The situation this character was put in was the suburban mob, thus birthing The Sopranos. These stories may require more time to find their fans but when they do, their audience is large and young which is exactly what advertisers seek. So why not give creativity more than two chances then?
I understand that the very best procedurals (which infuse as much humanity as possible creating legal’s like Ally McBeal or The Good Wife, and medical’s like Grey’s Anatomy or M*A*S*H and police drama’s like 24 or Hill Street Blues) have an immediate audience, but their large viewership’s are not exactly what Madison Avenue seeks either because the audience age skews older over time. Nor are they a creative dream for actors…
On my second episode (of a 60 show run) on Numb3rs, a cast mate warned me not to “smile” on camera. I was working hard to inform Meagan Reeves with as much personality as possible, since she was a complete buzz-kill on paper being both a psychologist and an FBI agent—without a single friend or family member in evidence over three years. Yet my colleague told me this genre really only allowed for “three smiles per season.”
Upon hearing that an actor had his emotional range boiled down to 9-second allotments over 22 on-air hours—I wondered how much litigation it would take to vacate the job. But I stuck it out and stuck in my smiles where they felt warranted and hoped the procedural police would not take away my union-card.
But if networks can only afford to carry a freshman show for 84 minutes before they are required to deliver a fan base that can be polled, packaged and guaranteed to advertisers – fans of the tube are in trouble. Because new shows will still come and go but they are likely to all look exactly the same now, so that viewers can be sucked in earlier. The death of Lone Star worries me that creativity may be the baby that goes out with the bathwater in next years TV season.
And this particularly troubles me because I have deal for a television show next season. Do I write a procedural that even I have no interest in doing again (or watching), just to get it on the air and have a job—in a time where most of us in America are feeling really desperate to have a job? Or do I stick to the unique ideas I believe in, that seem to have the on-air shelf life of meat outside the refrigerator?
Stay tuned my friends in TV land. Because while my integrity is at stake in this quandary, so is that of the shows we all like watching most. If Lone Star can die after only 2 viewings, I fear next years TV season will be nothing but Law & Order: West Virginia and CSI: Billings.
Diane Farr is mostly known as an actress most recently seen in Californication, Numb3rs and Rescue Me. She is also a internationally syndicated newspaper columnist for Herald Tribune. Her first book, The Girl Code is in print and her second, Kissing Outside the Lines on Multi-Racial Marriage in America is coming this spring. You can follow Diane on Facebook and Twitter at GetDianeFarr
I would prefer watching old TV shows like “I Love Lucy”, “All in the Family”, “Sanford and Son”, “Golden Girls”, “Martin”, etc. Today, we have way too many reality shows like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”, “Real World”, etc.
I prefer to watch shows that feature real actors who work hard to perfect their craft, that includes procedural dramas. I do love it when a show debuts and it thinks outside of the box however I never watched Lone Star so I guess shame on me. That being said, I think you should stick to your guns and write your new show the way you want to and then let the chips fall where they may.
Yeah, I agree! Some new shows are on the chopping block like Detroit 187, Chase, Undercovers, Running Wilde. I haven’t yet seen these shows.
Thanks Nicole and Tara, I actually agree with all your comments here. and I’m going to write the show I’d like to watch. just feeling a little worried I’m writing it for nought.
Well, I did watch the first episode of Lone Star. It just wasn’t that good a show, the characters weren’t that interesting, and people didn’t connect with it. They felt no sympathy for a guy who had it all, twice, but kept screwing it up just because his father told him to. What network executive thought that in this economy people would actually like a character who got ahead by doing what Enron did?
At least with Rescue Me, where the lead character continually messes up his life, there’s plenty of comedy to lighten it up and provide entertainment, and the characters, particularly the women, are interesting. With Lone Star it just seemed like BS. So I wouldn’t take the failure of Lone Star as a sign that there’s something wrong with the business. It just wasn’t a good show, and the network got it wrong.
Interesting comment on NUMB3RS. To me the math stuff got kind of old after a while (even though I have an engineering degree) but I kept coming back for the characters’ relationships, including the smiles!
wow Scott, what a great point of view. I think Rescue Me did itself a big favor by starting off with lots of comedy. But I would keep in mind that there were almost no women in the pilot! I wasn’t there yet and the rest were mostly guest stars. I think your points are well taken but it was just a pilot. all the fun character relationships can’t happen in one episode really. but i’m inspired to fight the good fight. thanks
I fully agree with your assessment, and really think that Fox didn’t even give this a chance. There were two problems with this scenario in my opinion.
Firstly, Fox had the first episode available from multiple venues weeks before the show aired. Ok, so we’ve seen the pilot, what, you expect us to watch it again just to count in your numbers game? I’m sorry, but no. To give you an idea as to how far in advance I watched the show (through Tivo/unbox), as soon as I downloaded and watched it, I wanted to schedule a recording for the series, because I knew it was something I’d watch. Was I able to? Nope, because the show wasn’t even in the listings yet. Believe it or not, this counts against Fox here, unless of course they’re counting those of us that downloaded the pilot. Sadly, though, I don’t think they are.
Secondly, and to me more importantly, once the show creator got wind of the poor numbers and the fact that Fox was going to cancel the show, he made a HUGE mistake, in going out and begging people to watch his show. I’m sorry, but that’s just pathetic. A huge publicity campaign, begging individuals to watch your show? Well, you’re pretty much writing your own ticket there.
That said:
I watched the pilot a few times and enjoyed it, but when watching it with a friend (tv for me is more social than anything), he brought up a good point. The show would have been great as a ‘movie’, but as a TV show, there’s not much there.
Personally, I agree with your statement of networks not giving shows enough time. NBC’s great for that this year. Why they chose to cancel Outlaw (aside from the known Conan issues) and renew Outsourced (one of the worst ‘sit-coms’ known to man) is beyond me, but they’re the ones with the money, so what can we, the little people do?
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I undestand what you are saying, but I never thought of Numbers as a procedural, but a character driven show. The relationship between the brothers, their Father, and their colleagues at the FBI and the University were the heart of the show. I think of procedurals as Law & Order which follow a pretty strict plan. But I do see your point about shows being canceled too soon.
The short term answer is they didn’t get enough viewers, but that’s only the superficial reason, not the cause. I, like you, recorded Lonestar but didn’t watch it live. I’ve done the same for most of the new one hour dramas, not because they may or may not be good, but because most long dramas have long story arcs that last the whole season. This is good for a succesful show because it gives the viewer a tie in to the whole season instead of just disconnected episodes. With an unsuccesful show that story arc is a real turn off.
I don’t know how many shows I’ve started watching at the start of the season, gotten invested in the characters, gotten caught up in the story arc, and invested in the plots, only to have the show cancelled before any of the big questions of the series are resolved. I can only speak for myself, but I think a lot of people feel this way. Why waste your time watching six or eight or ten episodes of a show only to have it all wasted when some Nielson family somewhere decides they’d rather watch the latest sitcom and the network cancels your show and replaces it with slapstick non-sense so they MIGHT get that extra 3 points in the ratings.
The networks seem to care nothing for the viewers they are trying to capture and only about how well their show did compared to what was on the other channels at the same time. I’ve seen good shows left on the air because their competition was bad and good shows cancelled because their competition was very good. Likewise I’ve seen good shows that were on for several years and then cancelled and replaced with bad shows because some other network put on a better show and the network with the good show would rather cancel the good show and gamble that it’s new shows would be better than the other networks new show. And most of the time they’re not, but once a show is cancelled it’s next to impossible to bring it back. So the network then cancels it’s new shows and tries again with newer shows. And so on and so on.
The result of all this cancelling and replaceing is that we viewers seldom get to have resolution with the shows we watch. Shows are cancelled half way thru the season with the story arc unresolved and plot questions left unanswered. Cliffhanger endings at the end of the season that are left hanging when the show doesn’t return next season. This just leaves the viewer frustrated and angry and very hesitant to get invested in a new show if it’s going to be cancelled soon after starting.
That’s why I, and I’m sure many other viewers, have decided to just record promising looking shows on our DVRs and not bother to watch them. If the show lasts for a few months and gets good reviews, maybe I’ll start watching it. If it lasts half the season and gets an extension for the full season, I’ll probably make time to watch the stored shows and get caught up enough to watch the new shows live. But if the show gets cancelled after two, three, four shows, then I’ll feel I did the right thing by not wasteing my time on it. That’s what I did with Lone Star. When I saw the cancelation notice I deleted the unwatched shows and didn’t think anything more about it. The same with My Generation and one other cancelled show that skips my mind right now. If the networks have no fidelity to the shows they put on, why do they think the viewer should care at all?
One thing I might also point out is that the networks seem to care less and less about WHAT they bring to the screen. They’ve already given up on Saturday with nothing but reruns and syndicated shows. And all but CBS and CW seem to have given up on Friday as well with nothing but reruns and news type shows on then. It may seem helpful to show reruns for people who might have missed the show during the week, but that’s a silly reason since, if you miss a show, you can always just watch it on Cable’s On Demand or on the networks web site. A rerun these days is effectively just dead air but the networks don’t seem to understand that. They seem to be living in a pre-DVR, pre-OnDemand, pre-web world in which all that matters is what people watch live, right now. And there is less and less of that every year.
The obvious solution to this is to rate a show by how much it’s watched, not how many TVs are tuned to it at it’s actual broadcast time. As an example, I watch Chuck, House, and How I Met Your Mother every week. I might watch one and record the others, or record all three and do something else, but I do watch all three every week and don’t really greatly perfer one over the others. If, say, each week I watched House and recorded the others, then, according to ratings, House would get renewed and the others cancelled. But that would be a really stupid thing to do since all three are equally good shows. By not counting delayed viewing the networks are sabotaging their own shows by forcing viewers to pick just one show to watch live and be counted and the other shows, which are watched later, to not be counted at all. This makes about as much sense as if a Mother of five was pushing one of her children in the swing and DHS came and took the other four since she wasn’t treating them the same at that exact same moment.
So, what’s the final answer? I don’t miss Lone Star since I never watched it and feel no guilt that it was cancelled. Will lots of other shows, good shows, get cancelled because people won’t watch them till they know they are sticking around? Sure, sad as that may be. And how can we, as viewers, make sure good shows are kept? We can’t. Most people I know watch TV shows time shifted and, as long as networks refuse to rate their shows in a logical 21st Century manner, their’s nothing we can do other than going back to watching TV as if it were still 1960, and that’s not ever going to happen.
wow. so many great points Tom and I didn’t even know Outlaw was cancelled. holy fast moving freight train. thank you thank you for sharing and venting your thoughts! df
wow. i’m so moved by all the passion for this subject. I think the only thing i would like to add is that many people at Numb3rs, myself included felt that it was at it’s best when it was allowed to be about characters. from the time it was created to the time the first episode aired it became more and more procedural and by the time i came, 13 shows later it was a crime franchise with math. my favorite work there was with Peter aka Larry, who i actually asked for as a love interest. When i first came I think the going idea was that i would have some sort of love story with David aka Charlie but as I have never forgotten Peter’s work in Sophie’s Choice (which he hates!) and really thought he might make me a better actor. I was not only right, but i got to smile in every single season i was with him, because how could you not.
Thank you, truly, for all your thoughts
This article has expressed better than I ever could why I don’t watch tv. The last show I watched regularly was Six Feet Under. When I do watch a tv show now, it is generally because I became interested in it by being exposed to someone connected to it through a different medium. I am almost embarrassed to say I had never seen DF in anything until last weeks Grey’s Anatomy. I only watched that because I am such a fan of the tribume articles. I am a big math geek, and because of that many friends suggested that I watch Numbers, but I just never got around to it.
I would love to have given Lone Star a chance. Unfortunately by the time a tv show gets good buzz – and by that I mean either by a friend or a critic that I respect – it is already cancelled. The shows I might actually want to watch aren’t even on my radar until someone suggests that I watch them, and by then, they are often already cancelled. Given how much utter crap there is on tv, I’m generally not willing to give any show a shot unless I have a reason to believe I will like it.
It is really sad to me that American tv is so bad. Have we developed such short attention spans that we can’t follow anything other than so-called “reality tv” or redundant procedurals that have little or no character development? For me, the best shows are the ones that have characters with distinct personalities that you get to know better over time. When you meet a new friend, you get to see more and more of their personality over time; you won’t see all their quirks, all their neuroses immediately upon meeting them. It’s only as you get to know them that you learn more about them. Television shows either have generic characters that are secondary to the storyline, or they give away too much about their character right away. Either way, there is no continued character development. I am almost glad though that I didn’t watch Lone Star. I can imagine how frustrating it would be to really like a show and have it be cancelled before it is really even given a shot. And that’s another reason why I don’t watch tv; why bother when the majority of the good shows don’t attract enough viewers to stay on for very long.
Not to go off an a political rant, but to me, this is all just another example of capitalism run amok. I remember when Hill Street Blues was on. I watched it from the beginning, and thought it was a great show. But, ratings were not great early on, and there was talk of cancelling it. Supposedly people couldn’t follow it because there were too many characters, too much dialogue with people talking over each other, etc. Thankfully it was given a chance to find it’s audience. Today, I doubt it would have made it past a few episodes. It’s all about finding a product that will quickly start making a profit, and if it doesn’t do that quickly enough, you dump it and move on to the next one. Quality is secondary to profitability.
As far as integrity, I say create a show that you would want to watch. I struggled with a similar issue for years regarding my career choices. I originally chose my career because I am good at it and it pays extremely well. In my field, profitabilty trumps all. We try to give good service, but the focus is always on profit. After years of feeling like I sold out my integrity for money, I left and started doing something I can feel good about. Of course we all want to do something that we can feel good about as opposed to feeling like we sold out, but that is not finacially possible for everyone. If it is financially possible to do what you think is right (I would guess that with your acting career you made some pretty decent money despite having three little rugrats sucking you dry) you should write the show you would want to watch. You won’t be writing it for nought if you write it to the standards of what you would want to watch. Wouldn’t you rather know that you wrote something of really good quality as opposed to writing something that is designed to appeal to the masses? You are clearly intelligent and a very good writer, and you have much more to offer than a repeat of the same crap that is already on tv.
Diane-
I did watch lone Start but found it difficult to watch… It was not very good… More to your point aboit shows getting cancelled too early , I offer up Friday Night Lights. Probably the best drama on Tv and cancelled by the network for lack of Viewership… But then it caught on but was then produced for Direct TV First , I assune they pay for most of the production costs, and then months later aired on Network TV.
As for your developement deal, I say stay true to yourself, because you do not seem to be one to play the game. You are creative and talented and I am sure that your show will be a hit. Remember some of the most successful shows in history were not formulaic…. Think Seinfeld, House (Yes a hospital Drama but Character Driven), and others.
Whatever you develop I’ll Watch!!!!nat least the first two episodes and I won’t DVR them!!!!
thanks Steve!!
thanks for watching my acting career because you like my column! that may be a first but makes me so happy. and thank you also for all these thoughts. i will try to fight the good fight.
lol, yeah, it probably is a first. I have read the Chicago Tribune for years, so I caught your articles and I really enjoy them. All my geeky friends at work kept telling me to watch Numbers, but I never did. I tend to listen to music or read way more than I watch tv. One day at work I was reading one of your articles, I think the drunken driving one and I started talking about it to one of the girls I work with, and she said, “oh my god, that’s Meagan from Numbers!” I had always seen the little blurb in the articles saying what shows you had been in, but somehow until that moment I had been thinking of you as a writer who also acts, not as an actress who also happens to write.
I just recently ran across you on twitter, and through that found your website, and so this was the first article I read via the website. I’m still not much of a tv watcher, but really, when someone seems cool and intellligent, it makes me interested in their other work. I watched NCIS for the first time tonight because I just ran across Pauley P. at the AIDS Walk LA, and she seemed like such an outstanding person. I guess I just like to support the work of people that seem to be really decent, smart, funny and articulate.
Whenever I read your articles, I think how great a show could be where you are the host and talk about the sort of things that you write about – it could have a format sort of like Bill Maher or Chelsea Handler, where you have a guest panel and you all talk about whatever you feel like talking about. That would be an outstanding show, and if HBO had any sense they would be beating down your door.
Thanks for the info. I missed the show too but now i do feel badly about it. I think I would rather die than watch another Law and Order show
Hi Dianne, I miss seeing you regularly on TV; but love your tweets and your thoughts here. I think you’ve really touched a nerve for those who aren’t directly involved with the dealings of television programming but who are very directly affected by them. I as a viewer would love to be able to *not* predict plot steps, anticipate tempo changes, or recognize a foreshadowed character or element as has become so easy to do within the safe, formulaic show’s we are fed every week, season after season. But that would require allowances for writers to explore some great territories where commercial overlords and paranoid executives are afraid to allow them to roam and cultivate. No I get it that the networks are businesses and companies who are in it for profit; and writers have to keep this in mind and stick by their ideas before they allow their work to be bought and bargained – then transmogrified – into some horrific machine-stamped version of the story.
Personally; I think that the networks/development companies should begin showing stories that are cut versions of the full script; and just sell the better, full-length versions in DVD box sets. Honestly, it’s how I best enjoy most of the shows; and I think the stories would suffer less if they weren’t prostrate to the commercial interruptions they have to be edited around. You as an actor would enjoy the benefit of better direction, role-playing and display of your talent, without being restricted to a quota of smiles, disrobings, coffee-carries and holster reaches. The dog can go back to wagging its own tail!
Carry on!
wow Bluestem. This is an article that my editors were not to sure about but I thought was worth a try. And I must say these are the most engaging responses ever. thank you so much for your well-said thoughts
ok ginny you keep spreading that idea about my own talk show on hbo and i will back you. Pauley P is my friend too and she is terrific. thanks again for reading and blogging
Finished watching either Entertainment Tonight or E! News. They’re saying “Outsourced”, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Chase are getting a green light to run the whole season. So, I guess they will have a 2nd season after all.
By contrast, long-running cable shows like “Stargate SG-1″ have thrived with, by broadcast network standards, relatively low numbers. I doubt the show ever had more than 3 million viewers per week, but it ran for 10 years and clearly delivered a quantifiable demographic.
Hi Diane
Interesting article and some great comments. As an exciled Brit I find US TV incredibly difficult to watch. There are some great shows, but I simply cannot get used to the commercial breaks. I end up DVRing any show which I want to watch.
I think the thing which comes through in all the comments, and it’s one I’d agree with, is that the most successful shows have good, strong characters with some depth to them. After all, anyone with any intelligence wants to see the interaction between the characters develop, and the character’s personailities come through. THis is even true of “non-story” based shows, and the example I think of straight away is a british show called Top Gear. This is a car show, but the show gains its “watchability” from the personalities of the presenters and the way they interact with each other.
Unfortunately commercials are the reason TV shows here exist and are commissioned (at least in the mind of TV execs, and according to a friend of mine who works for BBC America – maybe I should introduce you to him!), so when there is no instant hit with an audience it makes the sponsors nervous that they arent getting value for their dollar, so the show comes under threat. This makes TV making very difficult in the US as it stifles creativity and we end up with a load of “me too” products as there is a higher degree of confidence that a new show will be a success with the watching public….. How many variations on CSI, Law and Order or NCIS do we need? How many variations on reality (celebrity and otherwise) do we need? Its a little sad, but without some risk takers we would neve have shows like The Office (and remember this was only converted to US audiences because it was such a hit in the UK. US networks would never have commissioned such a risky concept… I mean, come on! A pretend documentary about a paper company, which is really a comedy! I can see the big question marks above the network execs’ heads now)
I think to be honest Diane, you need to make a show which protects your integrity and creativity. Dont dilute or water down your thoughts or beliefs, and if this isnt food for the masses, then find a network who will show it, because that networks audience appreciates diversity and the challenge of really getting their teeth into something of substance!
Cheers !
you still rock Pringle. thanks for this comment
Diane, I think you should go on next season’s “Dancing with the Stars”.
oh, not yet Nicole. I think I have a few seasons left on scripted tv before that, but thank you
OK!! I just hope the show will be on for several more years before you get on there.
haha….I wasnt aware I “rocked” before, but glad I do now
Not sure about “Dancing with the Stars” however, I seem to remember you dancing to Deee Lite !
And if you ever write a show where there’s a part in there for a stroppy, ugly geordie…. you know where I am!
You’re on TV and you don’t understand how ratings work? Neilsen has selected certain households who participate in programs that allow them to track exactly what they watch. They don’t have magic beams that tell them who’s sitting there actually watching the shows that come up on their TV. Bad shows get cancelled…people get over it.
Look at Rand!
So how do you think they track tivo?
and did you think Lonestar was a bad show?
People get over a cancelled show when they have nothing to do with it and nothing at stake. People who work in tv on the otherhand, have a lot at stake. And have to plan their next job based on all the effort they have put in or seen put in when one doesn’t work. This is particularly important to be mindful of if a show is terrific and hit the mark and yet the network didn’t wait the 30 hours it takes to track Tivo viewer ratings. Which sometime come in significantly higher than Neilson ratings.
Thanks for sharing though. df
I forgot about Lonestar! We meant to watch it,or DVR it at least.
Funny thing about the “magic beams” we simply don’t have a phone line connected to our [satellite] DVR. No reason, we just don’t. During a call with a customer service rep she assured me that they could still get info off of our box through “beams from our dish or something”. Her exact words. I hung up.
I won’t do a show by show debate, I’ll just agree that yes there is a lot of garbage on TV, and the film industry produces its fair share as well. Do they really think they can take a British dark comedy and just recast it with Black Americans and have a hit? And yes, they always throw in a mixed race couple because that makes it funnier. Right?
We tend to pick TV shows for the actors in our house. Skilled actors with experience tend to pick good shows to display their craft. So yes, we have seen most of Farr’s work though we never got into Roswell, we missed too many early episodes and never caught up. It has lead us to some colossal disappointments, especially back when all of our friends were doing off-off-broadway and as faithful supportive friends we went to see everything they did from vampire plays to weird pseudo sci-fi/sociological commentaries about rival tribes(I wish I could remember the name of that one). Generally though, this works for us as does avoiding certain actors who have exactly the opposite track record.
I still wonder exactly how shows really go from that glimmer in a writer’s head to full blown pilot and are picked. I’m familiar with the process, in theory, but I’m afraid it’s really just a neurotic guy named Merc. Yes, I watch Episodes.
Glad to hear you’re planing on writing a show you believe in Farr. I’ll be watching, and who knows; I just may plug a phone line in so my viewing counts wether those magic beams work or not. OR I cold switch to cable…
I can’t believe we are losing soap operas because of reality shows and lifestyle shows.
I don’t watch soaps, but this is a travesty.
we lost jon and kate plus 8 today too. which I think perfectly represents the now classic reality tv cycle. kate was a family lady, got rich and (it seems) kind of entitled, divorced (probably due to problems exacerberated by visibility and the entitlement, loses her former life, lives the pained but rich and famous high life, and now she will be dropped and returned to a life of normalcy (and normal income) with all the problems of excess visibility. I hope we let go of watching other peoples struggles as entertainment soon. but i’m guessing, it’s here to stay