TVSquad

There's an interesting article online about the networks' attempt to combat the recession. It suggests cutting the number of episodes per season, following the British model for scripted fare.

The writer is referring more to the British scripted dramas rather than comedies. In England, comedies are (usually) written by the creator(s). As a result, a British comedy usually has only six episodes per season. This both helps keep costs down and presents no haggling over ownership rights since there are fewer writers.

Reducing an episode order in the United States would reduce costs, and if it resulted in an increase in quality then I doubt people would mind so much. It could also give the networks more broadcast time to experiment with new types of programming. Perhaps we would even see the return of the mini-series.

Since DVD sales represent a huge chunk of the profit of a given series, it would even help DVD profits by reducing related costs. The American public has already had a taste of the reduced season size during the writer's strike. So what do you think? Would you watch a network show if it had 13 episodes instead of 22?

Starz Entertainment is getting into the scripted sitcom biz with two new comedy series slated to kick off in January.

The first, Hollywood Residential, focuses on the problems facing a home-makeover show geared toward celebrities. The other new series, Head Case, is about a psychotherapist whose clients are all big Hollywood celebs.

The "celebrity" angle of both shows is not a coincidence: Mike Ruggiero, Starz VP of programming, says it's a way of getting viewers used to seeing scripted shows on the channel by featuring some of the celebrities also seen in the movies that originally made up Starz's programming. I don't quite understand that logic, since HBO seemed to do just fine when it started airing original programs without any big names attached.

MTV may finally be backing away from its plethora of reality programs, which are all beginning to see a decline in ratings. The network has given the greenlight to - gasp! - a drama. It's the first scripted series for the network in five long years.

The half-hour drama is called Kaya and it's about a teen-age girl who, along with her band members, becomes a rock star. This is a little more along the lines of the whole music television theme, unlike the mid-1990s teen angst drama, My So-Called Life. In case you were wondering, the last scripted series to air on MTV were 2002's Undressed and 2001's 2Gether.

Danielle Savre has signed on to star in Kaya. You may remember her as 'Jackie Wilcox' from her brief run as the cheerleader-who-got-killed-instead-of-Claire on Heroes.

My Boys, the TBS comedy that I keep meaning to watch, was just picked up for a full season. The comedy, about a sports-loving girl with a bunch of guy friends, is the network's first attempt at an original, scripted comedy. It premiered with about 1.8 million viewers, which is enough to make TBS happy. The network ordered nine more episodes, bringing the total first-season order to 22. Production on the additional episodes will begin in early 2007 and they will air this summer. The first thirteen episodes will play out before the end of this year. And, if you're like me and you haven't seen them, you can watch on TBS.com. I think the presence of Jim Gaffigan as a co-star is what has me intrigued. No word yet on the fate of TBS's other original scripted comedy, 10 Items or Less.

Is anybody watching this? What do you think?