How do you watch a show for 10-20 years?

[Captain Craig]

DS9 easily could've gone 10. Taking 3 seasons to easily show the rebirth and fallout of the alliances from the final Dominion War.

In fact I'd rather have a DS9 movie than JJAbrams TOS prequel.
*sigh*

 

[RandyS]

DS9 easily could've gone 10. Taking 3 seasons to easily show the rebirth and fallout of the alliances from the final Dominion War.

In fact I'd rather have a DS9 movie than JJAbrams TOS prequel.
*sigh*

I'm looking forward to JJ's movie, but I agree with you, a DS9 movie would be great.

 

[I am not Spock]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: 7 seasons is about the maximum length for me. I think if a show goes much further beyond that, it is almost impossible for the writers to keep up the quality. In short, the show goes stale. DS9 ended at just about the right time. I'd rather 7 quality seasons than 20 progressively more mediocre ones. That's where Trek shows, Buffy and Angel, Bab 5, etc, got it right.

The Simpsons was great til about season 9 or 10, then it just went to pot. I can barely even watch the dire new episodes.

L&O I watch casually. There's no way I could go out of my way to see every single episode. It's just too formulaic.
Same with CSI.

Frasier was a great show, but I think even they were pushing it when they went for 11 seasons.

 

[I am not Spock]

^
Really? I actually felt it had gone on for too long. I certainly couldn't imagine more than the 7 seasons.

Agreed. I think more than seven years for any show is too much.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I ask the same question about sports fans; I guess to each their own.

 

[Captain Craig]

DS9 easily could've gone 10. Taking 3 seasons to easily show the rebirth and fallout of the alliances from the final Dominion War.

In fact I'd rather have a DS9 movie than JJAbrams TOS prequel.
*sigh*

I'm looking forward to JJ's movie, but I agree with you, a DS9 movie would be great.

I'm excited for JJ's TOS Trek prequel as well. I just wish the 24th century wasn't being swept away, specifically DS9.

 

[Timewalker]

It's easy to watch 10 or 20 years' worth of shows when they're syndicated 5 days a week on two or three different channels. That's how I caught up with Law & Order and CSI.

I've seen most of Doctor Who (all of the Classic Era and Eccleston; we haven't got all of Tennant's episodes here yet).

As for soaps... I started watching One Life to Live c. 1988, which makes it almost exactly 20 years. There was one year I missed, and I've missed quite a bit of the past couple of months... but that's what YouTube is for -- I can catch up on those lost storylines! Soaps let you do something most other kinds of shows don't -- you get to watch the actors literally grow with their roles, if they start as children. A few months ago the character of Starr Manning became pregnant. The character's age is 16; the actress is close to that age, perhaps a little younger. Her character's boyfriend is supposed to be a year older, but the RL actor is actually over 20 (that made more than a few viewers a bit nauseous... ). Anyway, this girl has been on the show since she was very young, about 6 or 7 years old.

 

[TGTheodore]

Once you get around seven seasons of any show it becomes a very gray area between if the show is actually lessening in quality, or the viewer is just getting bored with the premise and characters and is ready to move on to something less familiar.

--Ted

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I have a girlfriend who is in her late 30's and who has been watching Guiding Light her entire life - her mother (who got her into it literally from birth) has been watching that show for 50 years.

I think it was on radio before it made it to TV and Kelly's mom is also a lifelong fan.

Go figure.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, there are probably people who have been watching Coronation Street ever since it first premiered. Soap audiences are probably the most loyal.

I don't know if I've ever watched a single continuous show that's lasted longer than SG-1. And even then, I think SG-1 probably overstayed its welcome... but, watched it for lack of anything better on.

 

[Trekker4747]

Talk to almost any middle-aged housewife on the planet.

All of the soaps my mom watches have been on, and she's watched, for decades -since she was a teenager.