1st / 2nd season transitions

[Armored Saint]

Are you saying the first Skippy series didn't revolutionnize Australian television?

 

[Lance]

^ Skippy revolutionized everything, whether it be on television or otherwise.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I still think it was Babylon 5, though, that pioneered the format of giving each season an overall arc that came to a climax in the finale. Before then, serialized shows just sort of kept their arcs going and going, and while they had cliffhangers in the finale, they weren't really plotted with each season as a distinct "chapter" or "volume" in the narrative with its own complete story. Buffy and Angel also did a lot to promote this approach; Whedon's tendency was to treat each season finale as a potential series finale and give the story closure just in case it wasn't renewed, while still setting things up for the future in case it was.

You may be right. The only series which predates B5 which did this that I can think of is the 1992 Canadian children's fantasy series "The Odyssey. The end of each season would resolve the main story but would still end on a cliffhanger which would set up the following season. As the series is barely known outside of Canada, though, it's unlikely to have influenced later American shows.

 

[Harvey]

You can see that sort of thing much further back if you look at comedies, though. Beginning with its fourth season, I Love Lucy more or less covered one larger story a year (Ricky's screen test and acting career in season four; the band's tour of Europe in season five; and the Ricardo's move to the suburbs in season six).

What I've read about The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955-61) suggests that it might have taken a similar approach, but I've never been able to see the series to confirm that. I'm sure it's still pretty episodic.

 

[Avro Arrow]

You may be right. The only series which predates B5 which did this that I can think of is the 1992 Canadian children's fantasy series "The Odyssey. The end of each season would resolve the main story but would still end on a cliffhanger which would set up the following season. As the series is barely known outside of Canada, though, it's unlikely to have influenced later American shows.

Hmm... I've never heard of this. So maybe not so well known *within* Canada either!

Although I just looked it up on Wikipedia. Apparently one of its actors was Ryan Reynolds. So, huh.

 

[Lance]

You can see that sort of thing much further back if you look at comedies, though. Beginning with its fourth season, I Love Lucy more or less covered one larger story a year (Ricky's screen test and acting career in season four; the band's tour of Europe in season five; and the Ricardo's move to the suburbs in season six).

^ Yeah, I think this does get underestimated by people. I've often thought that sitcoms trend more towards serialized tendencies as they progress, perhaps because there's a lot of comedy to be mined by recurring situations, although as with everything it isn't a general rule that applies to every sitcom. But I would say that it definitely is pretty common in sitcoms.

 

[Christopher]

Well, sure -- as I've said, serialization wasn't newly invented in the '80s or '90s, but had been part of broadcasting since the days of radio (and part of fiction since well before that, through adventure serials in magazines). It's just that it was originally seen as the purview of soap operas, kids' adventure programming, and comedies, while adult dramas aspired to be more like anthologies. We're talking about how TV drama, specifically, evolved to embrace serialization.