Thursday, November 6, 2014

Why Shows End

All shows end eventually. Cultural icons like The Ed Sullivan show were cancelled. How I Met Your Mother aired its last episode this past year -- the creator knew it was coming, but it still ended. Hollywood made 7 Police Academy films, but they didn't make 8. JK Rowling stopped writing Harry Potter novels. Cats ran on Broadway for years, but it closed. So did Les Miserables, even though it was revived. Phantom of the Opera is still running, but it will close someday too. Why does it happen? The simple answer is: shows close and series are canceled when they ceasroducers will close Phantom of the Opera. The deeper question for content creators is why does the audience go away? How can something that was once so vital that fans structured their day around watching it become so insignificant to them? The fact is, tastes change. My parents loved Big Band music and hated rock. I loved rock in the 60s and 70s but didn't love Nirvana in the 90s. I thought "Gilligan's Island" was very funny when I was a kid in the 60s; I recently watched an episode (it's still on cable somewhere) and can't believe I found it amusing. When we find a new program or movie that we like, the thrill of discovery adds to our pleasure. After the 20th or 30th or 100th episode, we find ourselves losing interest. In television, we say that a show that lost its freshness and is flailing away to try to attract an audience has "jumped the shark." That's from a famous episode of the series "Happy Days," when Fonzie, wearing his trademark leather jacket, water skis over a shark-infested part of the ocean. Many people don't realize that was in season five -- the series lasted six years after that famous incident. Increasingly, creators and networks choose to end shows while they are still popular. Perhaps the first series to do that was "The Fugitive" in the 1960s, which ended with Richard Kimble finding the one-armed man. In the 1970s the Mary Tyler Moore show memorably said goodbye with the cast all huddled together singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." Some shows do better than others -- I thought "Seinfeld's" last episode was just odd, and I still am mad about "The Sopranos'" cut to black. But whether you end your show on your own terms or your studio, producer, or network ends it for you, understand that every show ends eventually. Enjoy it while it lasts. Dedicate yourself to making each piece of content you create as good as possible. Keep working on multiple projects so that, when one ends, you can move on to something else. When the show does end, reward yourself. You deserve it for creating something that entertained people and made a difference in their lives.

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