Producing a TV series is difficult and it is very costly.
Generally, these shows start with a pilot, a few episodes and if viable they are scheduled.
Next, comes the real test; if they can keep the audiences inclined to watch and tune in each week.
Most fall flat and only the best can make it into a second season.
The writers are stressed, the actors are working hard, and the producers attempt to stay on schedule through the holiday season, it's tough.
Of course series are a lot easier to produce than a series of one-offs where each one is unique, different, and a produced from a completely original screenplay.
Okay so then I dare to ask this question now; could a modern day studio today with all the lawyers, bureaucracy, regulations, unions, rules, and restrictions produce a weekly "twilight zone" type Sci Fi series today, one each week forever, a series of "one-offs" all new, unique, and different? I believe it is possible, but I don't believe the way the modern studios are set up today they could pull it off.
I think I could, and that it is possible to develop a sharp kick-ass team that could do it.
One of the benefits is that if the one-off of any given week is not so good, the programming continues and hopefully the viewers will hang tough and watch the next week.
Of course, too many shows which are uneventful and the whole thing would fall flat just like the old sit coms or TV series which were unable to make it through subsequent continued seasons.
You can see the positives and negatives, along with the challenges.
Consider all the changes of the set, alone that is a huge challenge in and of itself.
Is it possible that a movie studio could run more like an incubator think tank? Could we create a new type of movie studio without all the unions, bureaucracy, and huge cost structure? Have the movie studios become so big, so monopolistic, and so overwhelming that they cannot change? If so, isn't it time to challenge that norm? It doesn't cost as much these days to create things using digital processes rather than the old way of film, everything now is more efficient, easier to use, and easier to digitize for view.
There is a thirst in our population to be entertained, there is definitely a market for a new way of doing things, and maybe it's time that we introduce new ideas and concepts through some sort of movie of the week one off series.
It's been done before, but that was before the cost structure got out of control, and the unions took over, and the networks and movie studios got too big for their britches.
We live in a new age, an information age, one that matches the virtual world with the real one, it's time to start thinking differently, and I believe it's time for such a new concept to come to fruition.
Please consider all this and think on it.
If you'd like to discuss this at a much higher level you may shoot me an e-mail.