Back in the day, there were some big budget shows like LOST and Heroes which did have ~20 episode seasons with only a few months in between seasons. After the 2007 writers strike and the rise of streaming, that seemed to stop and we got the 8-10 episode seasons with multi year gaps in between.
Since Game Of Thrones did it’s 10 episode seasons really. They pushed the budget up and the episode counts down and the industry went “Wait! What? You can do that?”
Lost and Heroes were not as big-budget as you think. Much of the money was spent on doing things quicker, as they only had 5-7 working days to shoot each episode. This meant simpler writing, simpler direction, simpler sets and very samey episodes. The cast and crew were simply fighting to get something in the can, regardless of quality.
Never watched Heroes, but Lost had a pretty noname cast aside from the one hobbit and maybe the guy who played Linus. OK, also Michelle Rodriguez of course but she didn’t last on the show a long time if I remember correctly? And Daniel Dae Kim had a bunch of roles before it but they were all side characters.
Most of the main cast that had to be there nearly every day of shooting consisted of folks who didn’t have to put off other major roles to do it.
And it was a season a year, wdym only a few months between seasons?
What I meant about a few months between seasons was that because there were 20 weekly episodes, the show would be on for about half of the year, and then the hiatus between seasons was only a few months. For example, the Season 2 finale of LOST was on May 24, 2006 and the Season 3 premiere was on October 4, 2006.
I watched like 20 minutes of Lost and that was more than enough. That show is known for being confusing and incomprehensible and imo thought it was being deep but wasn’t. Heroes also seems much inferior in quality to a show like Pluribus.
Back in the day, there were some big budget shows like LOST and Heroes which did have ~20 episode seasons with only a few months in between seasons. After the 2007 writers strike and the rise of streaming, that seemed to stop and we got the 8-10 episode seasons with multi year gaps in between.
Supernatural had 23 episodes per season, and only had 3 month delay per season. Shows now have 10 episodes and take years to make is bullshit.
Halfway through LOST, the show runners cut the episode count in half, because they didn’t like all the filler they had to include in season 3.
Since Game Of Thrones did it’s 10 episode seasons really. They pushed the budget up and the episode counts down and the industry went “Wait! What? You can do that?”
So after the writers protested against horrible work conditions, they got better work conditions, is what you’re saying. That’s a bad thing how?
Lost and Heroes were not as big-budget as you think. Much of the money was spent on doing things quicker, as they only had 5-7 working days to shoot each episode. This meant simpler writing, simpler direction, simpler sets and very samey episodes. The cast and crew were simply fighting to get something in the can, regardless of quality.
The Lost pilot was the most expensive episode of TV ever, at the time IIRC.
That doesn’t mean the whole show was expensive though. I guess wandering around forests in Hawaii isn’t that costly.
Once they bought a scrap plane, built sets and exteriors, ongoing costs were not huge.
Never watched Heroes, but Lost had a pretty noname cast aside from the one hobbit and maybe the guy who played Linus. OK, also Michelle Rodriguez of course but she didn’t last on the show a long time if I remember correctly? And Daniel Dae Kim had a bunch of roles before it but they were all side characters.
Most of the main cast that had to be there nearly every day of shooting consisted of folks who didn’t have to put off other major roles to do it.
And it was a season a year, wdym only a few months between seasons?
What I meant about a few months between seasons was that because there were 20 weekly episodes, the show would be on for about half of the year, and then the hiatus between seasons was only a few months. For example, the Season 2 finale of LOST was on May 24, 2006 and the Season 3 premiere was on October 4, 2006.
I watched like 20 minutes of Lost and that was more than enough. That show is known for being confusing and incomprehensible and imo thought it was being deep but wasn’t. Heroes also seems much inferior in quality to a show like Pluribus.