There should be a clause in the contracts that states upon cancellation, they get a small budget for a 1 or 2 hour wrap up finale to make the series more enticing for DVD and streaming sales.
It probably makes more sense just to try to give the writers a heads-up on cancellation prior to the production of the last few episodes. Inserting an extra 1 or 2 hour loophole into a contract sounds like a mess for the scheduling of writers/actors/producers (especially as you're essentially messing with their ability to find new projects right after their being told their contracts won't be renewed).
You do realize there is more than one person on this website who has never seen Game of Thrones, right? In my case it would require subscribing to a premium service I simply can't afford. The last time I subscribed to extra channels was for Doctor Who, and I felt cheated because the stories were so profoundly awful. I've been pleasantly surprised with The Handmaid's Tale; and it turns out that there are a couple of other shows on that channel that I like (it's rerunning Relic Hunter, for one), so I may keep that one after The Handmaid's Tale is over. If I had a few hundred million $$$$$$$ lying around I'd adapt Robert Silverberg's Up the Line (Greg Cox co-wrote a YA novel based on that book). A couple of things would have to be changed for modern audiences, as the original had some racist and sexist references that didn't go over well with the Time Travel Novels reading group I was part of; one person bailed near the end and I kept telling her to stick with it, as the end of the novel was definitely worth it). There is scope there for many stories - in which the main character is a Time Courier who escorts groups of wealthy tourists into the past to see major and minor historical events and get a vacation in the past - in the novel the Courier's specialty was Byzantium. Of course there are other Couriers, and a Time Patrol to step in when someone tries to change history deliberately (or does so by accident). There's no sinister shadow organization, just lots of time travel and immersion in various historical settings. Years ago I even kicked around a list of actors I'd cast in the lead roles. Alternatively, I'd adapt Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series. There are several sets of villains in that one, scope for romantic stories, and not everything happens in some costume-drama past (unless you count the 1980s as "the past").
Add me to the list of people who have never watched Game of Thrones. My wife loves it, though, so I'll probably watch it (or, at least, one episode) eventually.
Not to derail the thread and completely random, but I've got a few slots left to share my VUDU library with. If anybody wants to watch Game of Thrones. I've got all the seasons.
I think the advantage Legends of Tomorrow has over Timeless is that LoT doesn't really strike as trying to be super intelligent, it's pretty much just goofy fun. Timeless on the other hand seemed to be like it really wanted to be this big deep intelligent story, but the writers just weren't up to it.
I never got the impression that it was trying to be particularly intelligent or deep. It hardly ever stopped to do much introspection about the ideas it tossed at us. There was some nice social commentary, but that was about it.
Timeless just got uncancelled. NBC will bring it back for a second season. Might be scheduled for spring or summer 2018.
OK, that was unexpected. According to IGN the new season will be "family friendly" and will be airing two hours earlier. It will be interesting to see how different it is.
Weird. I wonder if they'll ever tell us what happened. It's pretty unusual to uncancel a show a few days after you cancel it. Did fans send the Timeless equivalent of hot sauce (ala Roswell)?
It's all about the Benjamins... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...-nbc-reverses-course-season-2-renewal-1003568
I disagree with you on so many levels. I'm a major fan of both "TIMELESS" and "LEGENDS OF TOMORROW", despite their different styles. There is no damn law that a time travel series or movie has to be "just goofy fun". I do get tired of people claiming that a certain topic for a movie or TV show has to be written in a certain style. I find that kind of mentality unoriginal. One last thing, thank you NBC for reversing the cancellation. Although I suspect that you will treat it just as CBS had treated "JERICHO".
I was going to joke that somebody must've gone back in time and undone the cancellation, but it looks like several people have beaten me to it, including Matt Lanter on Facebook. What worries me is, what does "family friendly" mean? If it means toning down the violence and cussing, fine -- and it's not like the show had much sexual content anyway. If it means making it more educational, doing better historical research, hooray. (Although the thought of a "family friendly" revival of a cancelled sci-fi show reminds me of Galactica 1980.) But if it means shying away from confronting the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. of history in favor of a more sanitized, grade-school version of things, boo. There they go again. Another instance of Travelers being left off the list of freshman time-travel shows. If they'd said "the lone network time-travel show," that would've been more accurate.