Wonderfalls: Proof That TV is Broken

Over on complex superior there's an article about Wonderfalls, a very-short-lived mid-season replacement that appeared on Fox for a few weeks this past spring. While it was no M*A*S*H or All in the Family or even Cheers, it was entertaining. It was about a young woman who hears inanimate objects (shaped like animals) telling her to do things, and when she (against her better judgment) does what they tell her, it has a remarkable impact on the course of people's lives. Of course she's the only one who hears them, and she's not sure she's not crazy... but assuming she's not, she wants to understand who/what is behind it and what their agenda is.

I enjoyed it. So of course it got cancelled after four episodes. And we viewers were all left twisting in the wind, with no hope of ever finding out.

But wait: there's more. Nine more, to be exact. Apparently all 13 of the episodes Fox ordered were made. And somebody's been leaking them, with the last of them - the season (and series) finale - now available through the usual legally-questionable channels.

This speaks volumes about the insanity that pervades the entertainment industry. Not just the fact that a good TV show got canned after four episodes, but the fact that so many people worked so many hours and put so much creative effort into producing nine episodes of entertainment... which then got put on a shelf. It was finished. It was paid for. So it wasn't a question of whether it was cost-effective to employ overpriced directors, and writers, and actors. They just needed to broadcast it. And they didn't, because somehow they could make better advertising money showing America's Funniest Home Videos or whatever.

And this isn't an isolated case. Every year, all six commercial broadcast networks launch new programs, and invariably some of them get cancelled after a few weeks. Granted, many of them deserve to die (and never should have been carried to term in the first place), but nearly all of them die with episodes on the can, that aren't even (financially) worth showing.

This isn't a completely new phenomenon (though it has gotten worse in the past decade). But there's a new twist that's developing: dead series can rise from the grave. There have been several series in recent years that got cancelled by one network then got picked up by another. But Wonderfalls is reportedly going to see a temporary revival on home video. So instead of the traditional advertiser-supported broadcast model (where it isn't financially viable), it'll be released to the public via the buy-it-and-keep-it model.

Maybe that isn't especially "viable" either. It could be just an attempt to recoup some of the costs by getting the hardcore fans who really loved the show to pony up some cash to see the rest. But there seems to be a growing market for TV programming on home video (whether VHS or DVD).

Personally I've never really understood that. There have been a handful of TV series that I would bother to watch more than once, but most of them really only stand up to a single viewing. (Not that there's anything wrong with that; even the best-prepared food is only good the first time you eat it.) So it makes more sense to me to see it in a disposible format (broadcast) than in a permanent format (DVD). I studiously recorded every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5 when they were being broadcast, but I've only re-watched each series once or twice. Buying the DVDs instead would be quite excessive; even renting them would be iffy. Same with most movies.

But if the increasing inability for broadcast TV to make money bringing programming to the viewing public is any indication, the buy-it model may be where we're headed. Subscription-based TV channels like HBO are another possible home of future programming. Either way, it looks like I'm going to be watching less TV (of whatever kind).