Hi everyone, good to meet you all. I'm active on Quora, and there was a recent question posted:
In an alternate universe where all the successful 1970s and 1980s TV pilots failed, and the ones that failed instead succeeded, how would this have affected the TV stars' careers? For example, "Cheers" would have not lasted beyond the pilot.
I answered the question but my take on things was not the effect on individual careers, more about what ramifications the change might have had on the television industry and on a wider scale. My basic premise is that the number of shows piloted far exceeds the number that made it to series, ergo the television industry would have vastly expanded with accompanying vast technological and cultural changes. I haven't so far considered the effects of specific TV shows not making it to air or specific pilots becoming series.
There's also the issue that some TV shows were commissioned without a pilot so would be directly unaffected (though the technological/cultural effects of the main premise might change them indirectly?) and I'm not sure how it's possible to identify which shows were piloted and which weren't.
Given the timeframe, Star Trek (TOS) is safe, but major landmark series such as Miami Vice, Star Trek : The Next Generation (and if it failed all subsequent Star Trek shows?) and others are in the frame.
I'd like to expand on my answer and/or invite others to perhaps to post their own answers to the question. The original question and my answer can be found at https://www.quora.com/In-an-alterna...Cheers-would-have-not/answer/Brian-Langford-4
Thank you for reading, I hope this is at least an intriguing premise for discussion.
In an alternate universe where all the successful 1970s and 1980s TV pilots failed, and the ones that failed instead succeeded, how would this have affected the TV stars' careers? For example, "Cheers" would have not lasted beyond the pilot.
I answered the question but my take on things was not the effect on individual careers, more about what ramifications the change might have had on the television industry and on a wider scale. My basic premise is that the number of shows piloted far exceeds the number that made it to series, ergo the television industry would have vastly expanded with accompanying vast technological and cultural changes. I haven't so far considered the effects of specific TV shows not making it to air or specific pilots becoming series.
There's also the issue that some TV shows were commissioned without a pilot so would be directly unaffected (though the technological/cultural effects of the main premise might change them indirectly?) and I'm not sure how it's possible to identify which shows were piloted and which weren't.
Given the timeframe, Star Trek (TOS) is safe, but major landmark series such as Miami Vice, Star Trek : The Next Generation (and if it failed all subsequent Star Trek shows?) and others are in the frame.
I'd like to expand on my answer and/or invite others to perhaps to post their own answers to the question. The original question and my answer can be found at https://www.quora.com/In-an-alterna...Cheers-would-have-not/answer/Brian-Langford-4
Thank you for reading, I hope this is at least an intriguing premise for discussion.