ShareThisBy ROB OWEN
Maybe it's a reaction against the overabundance of procedural crime shows in recent years. Maybe it's due to the success of ABC's 2004 hits "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."
Whatever the reason, close-ended TV shows are out and serialized dramas are in this fall _ in a big way.
Already, Fox debuted "Vanished," the ongoing story of a kidnapped U.S. senator's wife, and almost a dozen more serials will debut before the end of October. Add to that returning scripted series and reality shows (also serialized) and this fall has the making of one of the most demanding lineups for regular viewer attention since the 1980s heyday of "Dallas," "Dynasty" and "Falcon Crest."
Unlike close-ended shows that resolve a story every week (think: "Law & Order," "CSI"), serials feature varying degrees of stories that continue week-to-week. Serials demand that viewers show up on a regular basis, but not everyone is willing to conform their lives to a TV schedule. For others, it's a matter of once bitten, twice shy, as they've watched past favorites canceled without resolution.
"It is hard to get invested in a show," said Patricia Reilly of Pittsburgh, "to get to know the characters and their back stories. I tend not to invest the time these days. It's so much easier to watch a close-ended type show _ "CSI" or "Law & Order" _ that doesn't carry over to the next week."
While network executives acknowledge they don't like to disappoint viewers, several said they don't believe most viewers decide whether to watch a show based on whether it features close-ended or continuing stories.
"I don't think viewers are going to sit down and say, 'I'm not gonna watch (NBC's) 'Heroes' because (ABC) pulled 'Invasion,'" said Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal Television Group.
Maybe they won't discriminate by genre, but they might by network.
"I was hooked on 'Invasion' on ABC," said Kim Kelley Anderson of Pittsburgh. "(When) I found out ABC was truly cancelling the show ... I vowed never to watch a new show on ABC again. You get so involved with what is happening to the characters, and then they're gone."
Zucker said genre is irrelevant.
"They'll go to 'Heroes,' and they either like it or they don't, and if enough people like it, they will come back and it'll stay on the air," he said. "Good programs work no matter what form they are. These things go in cycles ... and television is very much a copycat business."
That's certainly part of the reason for the swing toward serials. Network executives uniformly said they did not pursue more serials, but more were brought to them by writers.
"If there are things that are working," said ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson, "you get a lot of things in that area pitched to you."
"24" begets "Kidnapped," which follows a kidnapping case. "Prison Break" leads to "The Nine," about hostages who survive a bank robbery.
Some show runners said they'd always wanted to make serialized shows and sensed the climate was finally right for them to pitch serials to network executives.
"I did not want to do another procedural," said Hank Steinberg, one of the creators of "The Nine," who previously created CBS's hit procedural "Without a Trace."
"I've been wanting to do a character drama. I wanted to stretch. I've been saying that for three years. It just happened to turn out that by the time I got around to doing it, it's been happening (more) in TV."
An entire network devoted to shows with ongoing stories, My Network TV, launched last week, airing two series five nights a week, like a daytime soap.
CBS Corp. president Leslie Moonves cautioned that serials have a harder time sustaining ratings than close-ended series.
"In year two, 'Desperate Housewives' was down. 'CSI' wasn't down until year five," he said. "'Lost' was down a little last year, too. I'm not knocking these shows. They're terrific shows. I wish I had them both, and I'd take them today, but serial dramas are harder to stay with over a long period of time."
And when they do fail, particularly without offering a resolution to an ongoing story or mystery, viewers get upset. It's gotten to the point that network executives are brainstorming about ways to give fans closure.
"You'd love to have an episode that does wrap it up," said Peter Liguori, president of Fox Entertainment. "Even if we did a conversation with the show runner and the creator and put that out online and had text on it, I do think the audience deserves some closure. Frankly, as an industry on the whole, we all have to start thinking about that.
"If some of these serialized shows are canceled and there's no explanation, there's no satisfaction, I'd have fear for next year when a bunch of serialized shows come out," Liguori said.
While trying to remain optimistic about his network's serials this fall, ABC's McPherson also sounded a note of caution in light of past failures.
"It raises the bar for how good serials have to be," he said. "People are only going to make an appointment and a commitment to a certain amount on the air."
Fox's Liguori agreed.
"I just don't know what the appetite is for the audience to commit to that. I want Fox to win, but I also feel what our competitors do reflects on us. We'll learn a lot this year as to how much of this the audience can handle."
(Rob Owen can be reached at rowen(at)post-gazette.com)
