tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post6900833290093846144..comments2024-03-17T18:19:49.076-04:00Comments on It's About TV: When TV series say goodbyeMitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-29107969070979753302014-04-17T02:50:35.723-04:002014-04-17T02:50:35.723-04:00I wasn't kidding about going back over these p...I wasn't kidding about going back over these past blogs ...<br /><br />The whole business about wrapping up series is a comparatively new phenomenon, and I've got gangs of notions about it.<br />But your passing mention of Rex Stout's <i>Nero Wolfe</i> books reminds me ...<br />SEMI-SPOILER WARNING:<br />The final Wolfe novel, <i>A Family Affair</i>, was published in 1975, just prior to Stout's death.<br />Don't know if you've gotten to it yet, so I won't say here how it ends - except that the ending shocked Stout's regular readers; when he passed not long afterward, many speculated that Stout (who was 88 at the time) had perhaps intended to end the series then and there.<br />No one knows for sure, Stout's family included; still, there you are.<br />I mention it here as an example of the effect of long-running fiction, whether prose or pictures, on its audience.<br />It's a quarter to two am as I'm writing this, so I'll quit while I'm behind.Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-34923766983971976162014-04-07T16:41:14.992-04:002014-04-07T16:41:14.992-04:00"Lost In Space" should have been able to..."Lost In Space" should have been able to film a final episode in which the Robinson Family, Major West, and Dr. Smith either came home to Earth or reached their destination, a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri.<br /><br />One reason why many series never did a finale that wrapped-up the show's premise was that sales of syndicated reruns would have suffered.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-32084624238155324942014-04-02T00:05:30.791-04:002014-04-02T00:05:30.791-04:00In daytime dramas, there is the rise of "rapi...In daytime dramas, there is the rise of "rapid aging syndrome". You wonder when the original "Dallas" storyline ended in 1991, the story was literally What if John Ross Ewing, Jr. had never been born?. Of course that episode could have been self-contained, but the controversy over the two reunion movies (which for some reason Cynthia Cidre didn't even integrate into "Dallas: The Next Generation" storyline) was part of why Cynthia Cidre's "TNG" is about two Dallas minor characters who were in school and was just an imagination of how the Ewing kids grew up.<br /><br />In a way, that was both a "spinoff" and a "sequel" in that the story has split to two cousins, and the sequel angle is how Kristin Shepard's son (raised by Bobby) and JR's eponymous son battle each other.<br /><br />But you wonder if television's main problem is the popularity of the telenovela in both Latin America and Asia, and why television wants to adopt the genre that's loved in both areas.Bobbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02366544608847776006noreply@blogger.com