Thoughts, notes, observations on the everyday nonsense of American Pop Culture from one of the most not-hip people on the face of the planet...

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Saving syndicated cable

There’s talk out there that because of the staggering lack of quality (or even successful suck-ass) network television, the big, bad world of syndication is getting thinner all of the time. Need evidence? Note that they show “Will & Grace” in syndication…I mean, c’mon, that show shouldn’t have even gotten a second season, let alone syndication. This trend means that syndication networks (like FX, TBS, TNT, WB, UON, etc.) do not have any new shows to buy, so they will keep on playing “Friends”, “Seinfeld”, “The Simpsons”, “Everybody Loves Raymond” (gag) and such until someone cries “uncle” or something new gets tossed their way.

First of all, this leads to the obvious question: Will there ever be a day when we don’t want to watch these shows anymore? I’m afraid there may be, and I weep for the day that I roll my eyes when someone turns on the sixth ‘Seinfeld” episode of the day on basic cable. I want to always love some of these shows and I fear that without new shows to watch in the middle of the afternoon (when iI’m trying to avoid the sun and exercise) I may overdose on past comedy.

So what can they do? I have a few ideas…

1. I think TBS had the right idea: Go after shows that network TV hasn’t had before. TBS made a deal with HBO to get toned-down episodes of “Sex and the City” on its network. If its more shows the syndicates want, why not grab them from premium channels in a similar fashion? “Six Feet Under” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” are current shows that could be repackaged for basic cable. Or why not grab some of that old HBO goldmine and get a deal to air “Mr. Show” or “The Larry Sanders Show”?

2. Don’t be so snobby. Take a look at past basic cable shows that weren’t as mainstream. “Dawson’s Creek” just went into complete series syndication last week and I can bet that it will draw a big audience (like this girl right here who regarded it as a secret guilty pleasure). Why not extend that idea to include “My So-Called Life”, “Charmed”, “Melrose Place”, “Beverly Hills 90210”, “Beavis and Butthead” and “In Living Color”?

3. TV did not begin in 1994. Take a clue from Nick at Night, which (along with its extended cable addition TV Land) is the syndicated haven for shows from pre-1990 (imagine that! old TV!). The problem is that there’s so much good TV in there that it has to frequently remove shows from the rotation to mix it up a little. They have everything in their vaults, but not everything can be shown on Nick stations. Why not use other syndicate networks to bring back former Nick classics such as “Perfect Strangers”, “A Different World”, “Lavern & Shirley”, “Mork & Mindy”, “Welcome Back Kotter”, “Bewitched”, “Beverly Hillbillies”….and so on and so on. I *heart* old TV...we need more of it.

1 Comments:

Blogger Ed said...

Sorry for being late to the party, M.

On point one: THE SOPRANOS has been picked up for cable syndication already.

On point two: TNT has their "drama in the daytime" thing that airs lower-brow drama like CHARMED and THE PRETENDER in the early morning. I'm actually surprised that 90210 and MELROSE PLACE aren't syndicated, and I thought that IN LIVING COLOR was syndicated, but I'd have to check my resources at work. I think one of the reasons MY SO CALLED LIFE isn't syndicated is because it only lasted for one (or one half?) season. Typically, shows need to have around three or four seasons before they get picked up for syndication.

3. There's a package out there now that has THE COSBY SHOW and IN LIVING COLOR out in syndication. I'm not sure if any cable nets have picked up the syndie rights on that, but it's appearing in (I think) about 80% of the market, which isn't too shabby for an advertiser-supported show (meaning that the affiliates aren't paying for the right to syndicate it, but have less commercial inventory for local use).

The problem with the older shows, though, is that they're typically in cash-only packages (meaning the show doesn't come with any integrated commercial content). As older sitcoms tend to rank poorly (in comparrison) to the hot sitcomcs, it's not always a fiscally sound decision to pick up the rights to them. I'd image the same logic would apply to a cable net. I do know that the Hallmark Channel syndicates M*A*S*H.

8:53 PM CDT

 

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