For me, the only real difference is that there's matches inserted in between scripted acting and the people doing it aren't members of the Screen Actors Guild.
Star Trek on tv and in General
- Thread starter James Wright
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For me, the only real difference is that there's matches inserted in between scripted acting and the people doing it aren't members of the Screen Actors Guild.
That's fine, but it isn't what one would call scripted programming under the general usage of the term, and it clearly isn't what the OP is after.
Splitting hairs at TrekBBS, ya don't say? 
Would you believe me if I told you that I haven't seen 1 episode of the Tonight Show? Some shows I haven't watched in years, 60 Minutes for example, hardly ever watch network tv and I can't stand wrestling!
James
James
Well, the German TV series/soap "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten" (Good Times, Bad Times) is at more than 4250 episodes after running for 17 years, according to wikipedia. This is a German version of the Dutch "Goede tijden, slechte tijden" (both based on an Australian soap) which has been running for about 20 years, but that one lists 3500 episodes currently.
^^^
The OP specified no soaps. And that would be far from the longest running soap anyway. The Guiding Light has over 15,000 episodes under its belt.
The OP specified no soaps. And that would be far from the longest running soap anyway. The Guiding Light has over 15,000 episodes under its belt.
^^^
The Law & Order franchise is the one we've come up with so far as having the most episodes produced to date.
The Law & Order franchise is the one we've come up with so far as having the most episodes produced to date.
The OP said no soup operas! All wrestling is a soap opera.
Also you come in here and say "I don't bash L&O and DW which I think is unwatchable" then you just stay here and bash the shows.
Returning to the original question, it's definitely between Star Trek and Doctor Who for SF, and which comes out top depends on whetehr you're talkign abotu number of episodes or amount of air time - Doctor Who, particulalrly if its TV spin-offs are included, comes out ahead by a good 100 episodes, but 80% of those episodes were roughly half the length of the average Trek episode.
Outside of SF... Casualty's got to be in the running: 22 seasons of the original series since 1986 at 10 to 40 50-minute episodes a year, closing on 700 episodes, plus nine seasons of spin-off Holby City (more than 350 episodes) and two season of Holby Blue, and 10 episodes so far of Casualty 1906(/1907/1909).
Could the Law and Order franchise maybe beat that? Wouldn't rule it out...
Edit: Another British possible would be Z Cars - 18 years on air, plus one spin-off that ran for 10 years (Softly Softly Taskforce) and another that ran for four (Barlow at Large). Not to mention a series of drama-docs that had the central characters 'investigating' notorious historical cases (Second Verdict).
Outside of SF... Casualty's got to be in the running: 22 seasons of the original series since 1986 at 10 to 40 50-minute episodes a year, closing on 700 episodes, plus nine seasons of spin-off Holby City (more than 350 episodes) and two season of Holby Blue, and 10 episodes so far of Casualty 1906(/1907/1909).
Could the Law and Order franchise maybe beat that? Wouldn't rule it out...
Edit: Another British possible would be Z Cars - 18 years on air, plus one spin-off that ran for 10 years (Softly Softly Taskforce) and another that ran for four (Barlow at Large). Not to mention a series of drama-docs that had the central characters 'investigating' notorious historical cases (Second Verdict).
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Where ? I didn't say a damned word.
I make a point of never saying a negative word about Doctor Who or any other show inside its own forum. Those places are for the fans of those shows. Those fans enjoy what they watch and it's not my business to tell them otherwise.
On the other hand, I get ignorant, hypocritical bullshit from you telling me wrestling is "soap opera" and that I shouldn't talk about Doctor Who or Law and Order when that doesn't have a damned thing to do with the indisputable fact that WWE Raw beats Doctor Who, Star Trek and Gunsmoke in terms of the number of episodes made and continues to beat them every Monday night. In fact, WWE Monday Night Raw is a single production. Star Trek and Law & Order are not, people are counting spin-offs. If we're doing that then I'm adding every episode of every WWF/WWE produced programme going back decades.
This is about numbers, not your opinion of the shows involved or mine. If you and Out Of My Vulcan Mind are allowed to criticise WWE programming then I'm allowed to criticise Doctor Who and Law and Order. You can't have it both ways.
I didn't say anything about the quality of WWE programming. My point was that it doesn't fall within the definition of scripted programming as the term is generally used and it isn't applicable to the sort of programming the OP is asking about.
And I showed you a link to a script. The over-scripting of WWE programming is a serious point of discussion for wrestling fans right now.
The OP makes no such distinction. All he asks is that no soap operas be counted.
As I said before, almost all television that is termed unscripted (news, talk shows, reality, sports) actually has some measure of scripting, but it's still termed as being unscripted for definitional purposes. The OP is clearly referring to scripted programming (meaning scripted drama shows and comedy shows). Otherwise we'd be talking about news shows and talk shows, which slay everything else in terms of number of episodes produced.
I realize that. It still doesn't fit within the definition of scripted programming as generally used in the television industry. The same goes for the late night talk shows, even though the monologues and comedy bits are scripted and the interviews are essentially planned out.
I didn't say anything about wrestling being fake in my post, just can't stand it.
James
James
There are lots of shows I can't stand, but I do not discount their existence because of that.
Professional Wrestling, to use completely the wrong word, is "fake". The results of matches are predetermined, often planned out months in advance. The mistake people make is treating wrestling fans like we don't know. We do. We're in on it.
There's a story Vince McMahon likes to tell. Up until a point, he and Ted Turner were once good friends. Vince's wrestling programming helped Turner get his first cable channel off the ground.
Then, Turner bought Jim Crockett Promotions, changed the name to World Championship Wrestling and then made a phone call to Vince McMahon. Turner said "I'm in the wrasslin' business". Vince simply replied "Congratulations Ted, I'm in the entertainment business".
Did I discount the existence of wrestling!? I don't think I did.
James
James
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