TVSquad

The problem is most likely money and a season long committment. If there was three or four mini-series to go in the same time slot it might hold viewers, but then advertisers wouldn't know if the quality and viewership would hold out throughout the season.

In other words, no guarantee of viewership, no ad dollars, no ad dollars, no show.

In the early 70s, there was the "Movie Of The Week" and of course there was the rotating slot where "McMillan and Wife" rotated out with "McCloud" and the now famous "Columbo", collectively known as "Mystery Movie" of the week or some such. So, not a new concept, putting in different shows into the same time slot, but I suppose the main market for some of this might have gone to cable by now.

I mean, look at LOST. Hardly anyone is crying over the fact that LOST is going away while they shoot new eps and some other show is in that same time slot.

Of course, this didn't work out so well for Prison Break, but that's the risk you take if a show actually starts drawing an audience.

So this reduces everything to the real question of, if you want to put on a serial drama, why do you have to make it a season long story?

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Thirteen episodes were ordered originally anyway, so I guess it's a good thing that Fox is allowing the storyline to end in with a real conclusion instead of just cancelling the show outright. And Gale Harold's character was also supposed to be killed off, or at least the writers figured that out early in the story arc. Something about "edgy" storytelling. Whatever.

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The use of the term fired in USA Today was in direct contradiction to a long interview given by Berman to TV Guide. They also gave no source for that assumption.

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The British seem to do just fine with short seasons, sometimes as short as six or seven episodes. 'Doctor Who' in the last two years has been running only 13 episodes.

But the American networks are addicted to the longer season (and they used to be up to 30 weeks long back in the fifties!) because of ad dollars and the dream of big bucks from syndication. 100 episodes is still the magic number for that, I think, but a lot of cable networks will run shorter series, probably just to get airtime filler.

I also wish they broke free from the old tradition of beginning the season in September/October. In the old days it made sense when the advertisers basically ran the show and the car manufacturers premiered their new lines with the new shows hosting the commercials.

The TV network schedule is a idinosaur but won't lie down to die.

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I knew right from the start that Vanished will very soon vanish from the airwaves. It was poorly done even from a technical perspective right from the start and I'm no technical wiz. Though I will miss the fact that the show has an Asian female in one of the leading roles. That was pretty much the only reason why I even bothered with watching a few more episodes of that thing until it was just too boring to watch. There are many other better shows on (And I'm a big fan of Fox shows - 24, House, Justice, Bones, Standoff[more because a friend of mine works as a PA in that]). But yeah, sometimes an entire season to watch a mystery unravel is just too much for viewers...especially when there are so many breaks in the season. I think they finally got it right with 24. Go for a non-stop season. People are less likely to FORGET to watch the newest episodes, or worst, getting ready to sit down and watch a new episode and find out either a rerun is on or we get some sporting events.

But one thing really blows my mind is how Prison Break is still on. I guess it did survive the awful first season. Halfway through that thing of a first season I gave up. It was just not justified for them to do 22 episodes of them trying to break out of prison. But I guess this second season is a little more interesting. Though because of the bad taste the first season left in my mouth, I only was able see the season premiere. I wanted to watch more, but I just didn't want to invest myself in it and have it turn out like the first.

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Truthfully, the most interesting discussions on the boards have been about Gale Harold... Who cares what happened to Sara... remember her...she Vanished.

Well, lucky for Gale he was fired, it's the best thing that happened to him this year! In his interview he's happy and said "This has been one of the best falls [the season] in my life for a long time."

Read his playbill interview:
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/102890.html

Break a leg, Gale Harold!

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I happen to know know through some work orders and such for their production offices that they are gone. I have known for a few days and it makes me sad because I thought it was a decent good show, I like heroes more in it's current time slot but still oh well.

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It was a good show and the unfortunate thing is that they decided to replace gale harold -- if you look at the message boards on the Fox board for the show -- people threatened to quit watching if he was let go -- this is probably why Fox decided to ship it to Fridays. It's a bit of bad timing because they could have at least given Eddie Cibrian, a good actor under unfortunate circumstances, a chance in the monday slot for at least one episode. Anyways, it got decent ratings but the lead character switcheroo not only irritated me but made me lose even more interest in the show. Thank goodness that the show JUSTICE is replacing it on Mondays is a much better show.

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Gale was the only reason to watch the show. If the writing had been up to par, that would have been a perfect fit for him. The show was poorly done, and they were more interested in the color of the flashing lights on the police cars than in giving the actors interesting dialogue, or even expecting most of the actors to act.

Gale is certainly better off - he's working with a real script now, that's worthy of his talent. He was born for Tennessee Williams, and utterly wasted on the likes of Josh Berman.

And the story that he was supposed to be killed off all along is a lie. They treated Gale shabbily, and many of us are now boycotting anything connected to FOX.

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I personally don't believe Gale Harold was fired and Josh Berman has said he wasn't on record already. Personally, I think they were trying to do what the Lost producers tried to do - be shocking by killing off main characters. Sadly, it tends to backfire with the fans.

For me and everyone I know, we were only watching the show for Gale. It wasn't that great of a show and he was our only reason for tuning in each week. With him gone, we're left with making plans to trek to NYC and an extra hour on Mondays (oops, make that Fridays) to do something else now. So regardless of the reason WHY Gale is gone, we are still gone with him.

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It was a poorly written show to begin with... plus terrible acting except for Gale Harold..no point in watching now..he was the only interesting thing on there.

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Gale Harold, the "best thing on the show"? Puhleeze.

This may put me in the hate box, but I was actually flinching when he delivered a number of his lines, especially in the episode where he was killed.

Seeing Eddie Cibrian come in, in what seemed to be a hastily written convenience, was like watching a relief pitcher come in when the score was already 10-0 against.

Eddie is having a tough time. I like him, but he most recently had the rug pulled from under him in Invasion, which I also thought was a good show that died too young.

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THE HELL WITH THEM !!!

Gale Harold was the only reason to see this shit !!

Fox sucks !!

Gale Harold for ever !

French Gale Harold Fan

Gale Harold For Ever

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Well, I will truly miss this show and so will a lot of other people I know... I was pissed when i found out it was cancelled... Now I have no idea how it ends. I can't go to myspace.com at work and I don't have a working computer at home

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