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Economic Specificity in Narrative Design: The Business of Television Drama Storytelling

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the dimension of economic specificity within the context of US television. It distinguishes between the contrasting economic models of: (1) broadcast networks (primarily funded by advertisers); (2) basic cable channels (primarily funded by a combination of advertising revenue and carriage fees); and (3) premium cable and on demand streaming services (primarily funded by subscribers). Relying on six institutions from across these three different revenue-model categories as case studies—the NBC and ABC networks, the FX and AMC basic cable channels and the HBO premium cable service and the Netflix on demand streaming service, the chapter seeks to ascertain the conditions of narrative production that each of these institutional types imposes upon the construction of twenty-first century US serialised drama. It explores, over the course of three main case-study sections, how the specificities of each of these respective economic categories inform plot structure, visual style and storyworld elements within drama narratives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Amanda D. Lotz, ‘If It’s Not TV, What is It?: The Case of U.S. Subscription Television’, in Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting, ed. Sarah Banet-Weiser, Cynthia Chris and Anthony Freitas (New York: New York University Press, 2007), 87.

  2. 2.

    See, for example, ibid.; Mark C. Rogers, Michael Epstein and Jimmie L. Reeves, ‘The Sopranos as HBO Brand Equity: The Art of Commerce in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, in This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos, ed. David Lavery (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 42–57; Deborah L. Jaramillo, ‘The Family Racket: AOL Time Warner, HBO, The Sopranos, and the Construction of a Quality Brand’, Journal of Communication Inquiry 26, No. 1 (2002), 59–75; Avi Santo, ‘Para-Television and Discourses of Distinction: The Culture of Production at HBO’, in It’s Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era, ed. Marc Leverette, Brian L. Ott and Cara Louise Buckley (New York: Routledge, 2008), 19–45; Casey J. McCormick, ‘“Forward Is the Battle Cry”: Binge-Viewing Netflix’s House of Cards’, in The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century, ed. Kevin McDonald and Daniel Smith-Rowsey (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), 101–116; Chuck Tryon, ‘TV Got Better: Netflix’s Original Programming Strategies and Binge Viewing’, Media Industries 2, No. 2 (2015), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mij/15031809.0002.206/--tv-got-better-netflixs-original-programming-strategies?rgn=main;view=fulltext.

  3. 3.

    See Robert C. Allen, Speaking of Soap Operas (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), 70–71.

  4. 4.

    See ibid.

  5. 5.

    Robin Nelson, TV Drama in Transition: Forms, Values and Cultural Change (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), 31–34.

  6. 6.

    See Marc Dolan, ‘The Peaks and Valleys of Serial Creativity’, in Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks, ed. David Lavery (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 34.

  7. 7.

    See Hilmes, Only Connect, 186–187, 217–218.

  8. 8.

    See Dunleavy, Television Drama, 133–134. The networks’ combined audience share declined from 90 per cent in the late 1970s to 67 per cent by the end of the 1980s. Robert J. Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 36.

    The adoption of niche-targeting practices emerged in the 1970s on networks discovering that a demographic group of urban adults aged 18–49 were the primary purchasers of the majority of products featuring in commercial spots. Feuer, ‘MTM: Enterprises: An Overview’, 3–4.

  9. 9.

    Douglas Gomery, A History of Broadcasting in the United States (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), 266.

  10. 10.

    The ongoing primetime drama series format emerged in the late 1950s. By the 1960s the format had superseded the networks’ more costly live-anthology plays (which had prevailed through the previous decade). See William Boddy, Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 187–188.

  11. 11.

    Examples of seriality in primetime drama series during this period include: The Fugitive (1963–1967), Run for Your Life (1965–1966) and The Invaders (1967–1968), which, though ostensibly episodic dramas, were each built around a single, suspenseful overarching story thread; science fiction series such as Lost in Space (1965–1968) and Time Tunnel (1966–1967), which utilised cliff-hanger endings redolent of the adventure and science fiction film serials of the 1930s; and the medical drama series Ben Casey (1961–1966) and Dr Kildare (1961–1966), which, from their fourth seasons onward, began serialising distinct storylines regarding their respective doctors’ romantic lives. See Raymond W. Stedman, The Serials: Suspense and Drama by Instalment, second edition (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977), 403–406, 417.

  12. 12.

    Hilmes, Only Connect, 268–269.

  13. 13.

    In contrast, ABC’s Peyton Place (1964–1969), network television’s most successful primetime soap prior to Dallas, had failed to inspire sustainable imitations, with short-lived rival network projects either flailing in the ratings or failing to ever reach the schedules. See Stedman, The Serials, 409–412; Michael Z. Newman and Elana Levine, Legitimating Television: Media Convergence and Cultural Status (New York: Routledge, 2012), 83–84.

  14. 14.

    NBC’s attempt at a Dallas-emulative series, Flamingo Road (1981–1982), proved short-lived.

  15. 15.

    See Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age, 34–35; Newman and Levine, Legitimating Television, 85.

  16. 16.

    See Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age, 14, 30, 58.

  17. 17.

    For further discussion of Hill Street’s unconventional story elements, see ibid., 65–69.

  18. 18.

    See Nelson, TV Drama in Transition, 30–32.

  19. 19.

    Thompson notes that the use of ‘quality’ as a descriptor emerged within journalistic and scholarly discourse in the early 1980s in response to the emergence of this new type of hour-long drama. Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age, 12–13.

  20. 20.

    One example would be soap-style drama series targeted towards teen demographics, pioneering early examples being Beverley Hills 90210 (FOX, 1990–2000) and Melrose Place (FOX, 1992–1999).

  21. 21.

    Jane Feuer, ‘HBO and the Concept of Quality TV’, in Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond, ed. Janet McCabe and Kim Akass (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007), 151.

  22. 22.

    Mittell, Complex TV, 32.

  23. 23.

    Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized.

  24. 24.

    Nate Anderson, ‘Nielsen Tracks DVR Data, But How Should It Be Used?’, Ars Technica, 13 February 2006, https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2006/02/6169-2/; Anon., ‘Milestone Marker: SVOD and DVR Penetration Are Now On Par With One Another’, Nielsen, http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2016/milestone-marker-svod-and-dvr-penetration-on-par-with-one-another.html; Cynthia Myers, TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013), 9–10.

  25. 25.

    Jennifer Gillan, Television and New Media: Must Click TV (New York: Routledge, 2011), 137–138.

  26. 26.

    Jonathan Storm, ‘TV Takes Dramatic Turn for Fall Season; Cinematic Style, Technical Advances—Out of 16 New Dramas, Not a Loser in This Dazzling Broadcast Lineup’, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 17 September 2006, A01.

  27. 27.

    ABC’s 1997–1998 line-up also included two short-lived MSS series, Push (1998) and Nothing Sacred (1997–1998).

  28. 28.

    The 2007–2008 line-up also includes the following MSS series: ER, Las Vegas (NBC, 2003–2008), Lipstick Jungle (NBC, 2008–2009), Big Shots (ABC, 2007–2008), Ugly Betty (ABC, 2006–2010), Pushing Daisies (ABC, 2007–2009), Desperate Housewives (ABC, 2004–2012), Brothers & Sisters (ABC, 2006–2011), Private Practice (ABC, 2007–2013), Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 2007–2009), October Road (ABC, 2007–2008), Boston Legal (ABC, 2004–2008), Men in Trees (ABC, 2006–2008) and Cashmere Mafia (ABC, 2008).

  29. 29.

    The 2016–2017 line-up also includes the following MSS series: Chicago Med (NBC, 2015–present), Chicago Fire (NBC, 2012–present), Shades of Blue (NBC, 2016–present), Midnight, Texas (NBC, 2017–present), Grey’s Anatomy, Quantico (2015–present), The Catch (ABC, 2016–2017) American Crime (ABC, 2015–2016), Emerald City (2017), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Secrets and Lies (ABC, 2015–2016), Designated Survivor (ABC, 2016–present) and How to Get Away With Murder (ABC, 2014–present).

  30. 30.

    Gary R. Edgerton and Jeffrey P. Jones, ‘HBO’s Ongoing Legacy’, in The Essential HBO Reader, ed. Gary R. Edgerton and Jeffrey P. Jones (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2008), 319.

  31. 31.

    Jethro Nededog, ‘5 Reasons Why TV Networks Are Ordering Shorter Seasons’, Business Insider, 18 June 2015, http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-tv-networks-are-ordering-shorter-seasons-2015-6.

  32. 32.

    Robert C. Allen, ‘Making Sense of Soaps’, in The Television Studies Reader, ed. Robert C. Allen and Annette Hill (New York: Routledge, 2004), 253.

  33. 33.

    The phrase ‘least objectionable programming’ is attributed to Paul Klein, vice-president for NBC from 1977 to 1979. See Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age, 38–39.

  34. 34.

    Matt Zoller Seitz, ‘TV’s Serial Drama Slump’, Vulture, August 2016, http://www.vulture.com/2016/08/serial-drama-slump-c-v-r.html.

  35. 35.

    John Horn, ‘Jill Soloway on Transparent and How Lena Dunham’s Success Convinced Her to Stop Pretending’, Vulture, 26 September 2014, http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/jill-soloway-interview-transparent-amazon-lena-dunham-girls-louie.html. Character behaviour within networks series is further constrained by the requirement of networks to conform to standards of decency imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Network protagonists are, for example, therefore not permitted to utter profanity.

  36. 36.

    Denise Martin, ‘Shonda Rhimes Talks Scandal’s Brutal Season 3 and the Issue of Likeability’, Vulture, 6 December 2013, http://www.vulture.com/2013/12/shonda-rhimes-talks-season-3-of-scandal.html.

  37. 37.

    Jason Mittell, ‘Lengthy Interactions with Hideous Men: Walter White and the Serial Poetics of Television’s Anti-Heroes’, in Storytelling in the Media Convergence Age: Exploring Screen Narratives, ed. Roberta Pearson and Anthony N. Smith (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 74–92.

  38. 38.

    Brian Steinberg, ‘Advertisers Embrace Gory Shows Like Walking Dead’, Variety, 3 April 2013, http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/advertisers-embrace-gory-shows-like-walking-dead-1200332162/.

  39. 39.

    Emily Steel and Bill Marsh, ‘Millennials and Cutting the Cord’, The New York Times, 3 October 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/03/business/media/changing-media-consumption-millenials-cord-cutters.html.

  40. 40.

    TV by the Numbers, ‘ABC Scores Series Highs Across the Board’, Screener, 7 December 2012, http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/network-press-releases/abcs-scandal-scores-series-highs-across-the-board/; Michael Schneider, ‘Scandal vs. The Blacklist: Here’s How the First Night of TV’s Thursday Face Off Fared’, TV Insider, 6 February 2015, https://www.tvinsider.com/1386/scandal-vs-the-blacklist-heres-how-the-first-night-of-tvs-thursday-face-off-fared/.

  41. 41.

    Michael Z. Newman, ‘From Beats to Arcs: Toward a Poetics of Television Narrative’, The Velvet Light Trap 58 (2006), 17.

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Nelson, TV in Transition, 33.

  44. 44.

    See Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film, 50.

  45. 45.

    Jonathan Lupo, ‘Just Three Cameras and We Shoot: Mode of Production and Televisual Style in Friday Night Lights’ (paper given at SCMS Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, 12 March 2011).

  46. 46.

    Lupo’s analysis of four sample episodes of 24 measures a median ASL of 3.5 seconds; Jeremy G. Butler’s analysis of nine sample CSI episodes records a median ASL of 4.1 seconds. See Lupo, ‘Just Three Cameras and We Shoot’; Butler, Television Style, 9–10.

  47. 47.

    See Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age, 68.

  48. 48.

    See Butler, Television Style, 143–144; Barry Salt, ‘Practical Film Theory and its Application to TV Series Dramas’, Journal of Media Practice 2, No. 2 (2001), 108–109.

  49. 49.

    Lesley Goldberg, ‘Scandal Hits 100 Episodes’, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 April 2017, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/scandal-hits-100-episodes-casting-secrets-trump-a-battle-abortion-revealed-dishy-oral-histo.

  50. 50.

    See Newman, ‘From Beats to Arcs’, 20–21.

  51. 51.

    Pamela Douglas, Writing the TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV, second edition (Studio City: MWP, 2007), 74.

  52. 52.

    Jane Espenson, ‘The Writing Process’, Fireflyfans, [no date given], http://www.fireflyfans.net/firefly/espenson.htm.

  53. 53.

    Kristin Thompson, Storytelling in Film and Television, 54.

  54. 54.

    See Nelson, TV Drama in Transition, 34.

  55. 55.

    See Jason Mittell, ‘Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television’, The Velvet Light Trap 58 (Fall 2006), 32.

  56. 56.

    Newman and Levine, Legitimating Television, 91–92; Mittell, Complex TV, 20.

  57. 57.

    Todd Van Der Werff, ‘How NBC’s This Is Us Became the Breakout Hit of the Fall’, Vox, 29 November 2016, https://www.vox.com/2016/11/29/13769520/this-is-us-ratings-nbc.

  58. 58.

    Jeffrey Sconce, ‘What If?: Charting Television’s New Textual Boundaries’, in Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition, ed. Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004), 97–98.

  59. 59.

    Simon Brown and Stacey Abbott, ‘Serious Spy Stuff: The Cult Pleasures of Alias’, in Investigating Alias: Secrets and Spies, ed. Stacey Abbott and Simon Brown (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007), 2–3.

  60. 60.

    Sean Axmaker, ‘Joss Whedon and the Vampire Detectives’, GreenCine, 29 October 2007, http://www.greencine.com/central/josswhedon.

  61. 61.

    Newman, ‘From Beats to Arcs’, 24–25.

  62. 62.

    Peter de Jonge, ‘Aaron Sorkin Works his Way Through the Crisis’, The New York Times, 28 October 2001, 42.

  63. 63.

    Newman, ‘From Beats to Arcs’, 24.

  64. 64.

    Ibid., 24–25.

  65. 65.

    Nededog, ‘Five Reasons Why’.

  66. 66.

    Gordon Kho, ‘The Changing Landscape of Television’, Star 2, 10 July 2015, http://www.star2.com/entertainment/tv/2015/07/10/the-changing-landscape-of-television/.

  67. 67.

    Mark Colvin, ‘Mad Men Creator on American TV’s Renaissance’, PM, 17 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2009/s2745489.htm.

  68. 68.

    Newman, ‘From Beats to Arcs’, 25.

  69. 69.

    Rose Maura Lorre, ‘Bryan Fuller on Hannibal, Fannibals, and Finally Having a Show Last More Than 2 Seasons’, Vulture, 16 September 2014, http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/hannibal-bryan-fuller-interview-finally-getting-season-3-mannibals.html.

  70. 70.

    Daniel Holloway, ‘TV’s New Normal: How Shorter Runs, Fewer Episodes are Revitalizing Primetime’, Variety, 17 May 2016, http://variety.com/2016/tv/features/primetime-shorter-seasons-fewer-episode-nbc-1201776172/.

  71. 71.

    According to Nielsen Media Research, the average number of channels available to a ‘typical’ US household escalated from 43.0 in 1997 to 96.4 in 2005. Gary R. Edgerton, ‘Introduction’ to The Essential HBO Reader, ed. Edgerton and Jones, 11.

  72. 72.

    Prior to Oz, HBO’s original fictional content had taken the form of sitcoms, TV movies and mini-series. For a detailed history of HBO programming, see ibid.

  73. 73.

    Quoted in Andy Meisler, ‘Not Even Trying to Appeal to the Masses’, New York Times, 4 October 1998, 45.

  74. 74.

    Quoted in Janet McCabe and Kim Akass, ‘It’s Not TV, it’s HBO’s Original Programming: Producing Quality TV’, in It’s Not TV, ed. Leverette et al., 84.

  75. 75.

    Quoted in Meisler, ‘Not Even Trying to Appeal to the Masses’, 45.

  76. 76.

    See Rogers et al., ‘The Sopranos as HBO Brand Equity’, 47–48; Jaramillo, ‘The Family Racket’, 59–75; Santo, ‘Para-Television and Discourses of Distinction’, 19–45; Christopher Anderson, ‘Producing an Aristocracy of Culture in American Television’, in The Essential HBO Reader, ed. Edgerton and Jones, 23–41.

  77. 77.

    See Feuer, ‘HBO and the Concept of Quality TV’, 145; Jason Mittell, ‘All in the Game: The Wire, Serial Storytelling, and Procedural Logic’, in Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives, ed. Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 429–430; Anthony N. Smith, ‘TV or Not TV? The Sopranos and Contemporary Episode Architecture in US Network and Premium Cable Drama’, Critical Studies in Television 6, No. 1 (Spring 2011), 38; Newman and Levine, Legitimating Television, 4.

  78. 78.

    John Dempsey, ‘Netflix, Starz Strike Streaming Deal’, Variety, 1 October 2008, http://variety.com/2008/digital/news/netflix-starz-strike-streaming-deal-1117993139/.

  79. 79.

    Netflix, ‘Netflix, Inc. Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript’, Seeking Alpha, 27 January 2009, https://seekingalpha.com/article/116612-netflix-inc-q4-2008-earnings-call-transcript; Jason O. Gilbert, ‘Netflix Account Losses Much Higher Than Expected After Pricing Backlash’, Huffpost, 24 October 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/netflix-account-losses-q3-2011_n_1029269.html; Paul Bond, ‘What Hollywood Execs Privately Say About Hollywood’, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 January 2011, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-execs-privately-netflix-71957.

  80. 80.

    Gina Keating, Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America’s Eyeballs (New York: Penguin, 2013), 261; Tryon, ‘TV Got Better’, 110.

  81. 81.

    See Keating, Netflixed, 261.

  82. 82.

    See ibid.

  83. 83.

    Kevin McDonald, ‘From Online Video Store to Global Internet TV Network: Netflix and the Future of Home Entertainment’, in The Netflix Effect, ed. McDonald and Smith-Rowsey, 210–211.

  84. 84.

    Tryon, ‘TV Got Better’, 100.

  85. 85.

    Ibid., 110.

  86. 86.

    The clear exception to this rule is Game of Thrones, HBO’s adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s literary series of novels. The series scatters its cast over multiple storyworld settings, each separated from the other by great distance; the storyworld thus fails to provide its cast with easy opportunity to interconnect with one another. The ambitious scope of this setting, however, probably reflects less HBO’s economic specificity and more the fact that the source material was never conceived as an ongoing TV drama series.

  87. 87.

    Rebecca Hawkes, ‘Game of Thrones Now Costs Over $10 Million Per Episode’, The Telegraph, 30 March 2016, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/03/30/game-of-thrones-now-costs-over-10-million-an-episode/.

  88. 88.

    Sharon Waxman, ‘HBO’s Rocky Roman Adventure’, The New York Times, 21 October 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/21/arts/television/21rome.html; Kim Masters, ‘HBO’s High-Class Problems: $100m Vinyl Disappoints Amid Westworld, David Fincher Woes’, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 February 2016, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hbos-100m-vinyl-disappoints-westworld-868605.

  89. 89.

    Ben Travers, ‘How Marco Polo, Netflix’s Biggest Bet Yet, Could Forever Change Film and TV’, IndieWire, 10 December 2014, http://www.indiewire.com/2014/12/how-marco-polo-netflixs-biggest-bet-yet-could-forever-change-film-and-tv-67069/.

  90. 90.

    Hannah Hope, ‘The Crown: A Behind the Scenes Look at Netflix Drama That Has an A-List Cast and Cost £100 Million’, The Mirror, 3 November 2016, http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/crown-behind-scenes-look-netflix-9184237; Hilary Lewis, ‘The Crown Creator Disputes “Most Expensive Show Ever Made” Rumours, Teases Second Season’, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 November 2016, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/crown-not-expensive-show-ever-made-creator-says-as-peter-morgan-matt-smith-claire-foy-talk.

  91. 91.

    Bill Carter, ‘Weighty Dramas Flourish on Cable’, The New York Times, 4 April 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/business/media/05cable.html; Andrew Wallenstein, ‘Netflix Series Spending Revealed’, Variety, 8 March 2013, http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/caa-agent-discloses-netflix-series-spending-1200006100/.

  92. 92.

    Toby Miller, foreword in It’s Not TV, ed. Leverette et al., x.

  93. 93.

    James Hibberd, ‘Game of Thrones: How Producers Pulled off “Blackwater”’, Entertainment Weekly, 27 May 2012, http://ew.com/article/2012/05/27/game-of-thrones-blackwater-2/; James Hibberd, ‘Game of Thrones: Battle of the Bastards Director Speaks Out’, Entertainment Weekly, 19 June 2016, http://ew.com/article/2016/06/19/game-thrones-battle-director/.

  94. 94.

    See Marc Leverette on the importance of sex, profanity and violence to HBO’s original programming. Marc Leverette, ‘“Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits”’, in It’s Not TV, ed. Leverette et al., 125.

  95. 95.

    Steve Hewlett, The Media Show, BBC Radio 4 broadcast, 18 March 2015.

  96. 96.

    This observation is based on use of the Netflix UK platform on 9 July 2017.

  97. 97.

    Leo Barraclough, ‘Orange is the New Black: Picked Up by the Sony Channel in UK’, Variety, 24 March 2017, http://variety.com/2017/tv/global/orange-is-the-new-black-sony-channel-uk-1202015467/.

  98. 98.

    Jason Mittell, ‘The Scenic Rhythms of Game of Thrones’, Just TV, 5 June 2012, http://justtv.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/the-scenic-rhythms-of-game-of-thrones/.

  99. 99.

    Ibid.

  100. 100.

    Peter Biskind, ‘The Family that Preys Together’, Vanity Fair, 13 March 2007, http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/03/chase200703.

  101. 101.

    Peter Bogdanovich, ‘David Chase interview’, bonus feature in The Sopranos: The Complete First Season DVD box set, HBO video, 2002.

  102. 102.

    Dana Polan, ‘Cable Watching: HBO, The Sopranos, and Discourses of Distinction’, in Cable Visions, ed. Banet-Weiser et al., 278.

  103. 103.

    David Simon, audio commentary for ‘The Target’, in The Wire: The Complete First Season DVD box set, HBO video, 2004.

  104. 104.

    Sarah Le, ‘Beautiful Florida Keys is a Major Star in Netflix’s New Series Bloodline’, Locations Hub, 10 April 2015, http://www.locationshub.com/blog/2015/4/10/beautiful-florida-keys-is-a-major-star-in-netflixs-bloodline.

  105. 105.

    Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized, 89.

  106. 106.

    Ibid., 88–89.

  107. 107.

    An exception to this trend in HBO scene plotting and style is True Blood, which typically possesses a frantic pace of editing and performance.

  108. 108.

    Quoted in Steven Hullfish, The Art of the Cut: Conversations with Film and TV Editors (New York: Routledge, 2017), 118.

  109. 109.

    Quoted in Neil Landau, TV Outside the Box: Trailblazing in the Digital Television Revolution (New York: Focal, 2016), 391.

  110. 110.

    See ibid.

  111. 111.

    Kristin Thompson, Storytelling in Film and Television, 54; Smith, ‘TV or Not TV?’.

  112. 112.

    James Hibberd, ‘Game of Thrones Showrunners Season 7 Interview: “The War is Here”’, Entertainment Weekly, 28 June 2017, http://ew.com/tv/2017/06/28/game-of-thrones-showrunners-season-7/.

  113. 113.

    Amy Dawes, ‘Orange is the New Black Creator Jenji Kohan Aims for “a Real Ride”’, Los Angeles Times, 21 November 2013, http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/21/entertainment/la-et-mn-jenji-kohan-orange-new-black-20131121.

  114. 114.

    Jill Golick, ‘The Sopranos Finale’, Running with my Eyes Closed, 11 June 2007, http://www.jillgolick.com/2007/06/the-sopranos-finale/.

  115. 115.

    The use of standalone storylines within The Sopranos is, according to Chase, a consequence of his own storytelling preferences. Bogdanovich, ‘David Chase Interview’.

  116. 116.

    Ryan McGee, ‘Did The Sopranos Do More Harm than Good?: HBO and the Decline of the Episode’, A.V. Club, 20 February 2012, http://www.avclub.com/articles/did-the-sopranos-do-more-harm-than-good-hbo-and-th,69596/.

  117. 117.

    Chapelle and Pelecanos, audio commentary for ‘Middle Ground’, in The Wire: The Complete Third Season DVD box set. HBO video, 2007.

  118. 118.

    Meghan O’Rourke, ‘Interrogation: Behind The Wire, David Simon on where the show goes next’, Slate, 1 December 2006, http://www.slate.com/id/2154694/pagenum/all/.

  119. 119.

    Despite this writing practice, however, individual Wire episodes are, nonetheless, not without some consistency, achieving a sense of unity, Mittell argues, through both a persistent ‘mood and tone’ and the occurrence of ‘thematic and character-related parallels across plot-lines’. Mittell, Complex TV, 31.

  120. 120.

    Lauren Laverne, The Culture Show, BBC 2, 15 July 2008, http://www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/videos/2008/07/s5_e7_wire/.

  121. 121.

    Stuart Levine, ‘HBO brings in the big guns’, Variety, 11 July 2008, 3.

  122. 122.

    For example, while HBO’s first transmission of the Game of Thrones season two premiere attracted 3.9 million viewers, The Leftovers’ season two premiere attracted a mere 713,000 viewers. James Hibberd, ‘Game of Thrones Returns to Biggest Ratings Yet’, Entertainment Weekly, 3 April 2012, http://ew.com/article/2012/04/03/game-of-thrones-ratings-season-2/; Lisa de Moraes, ‘The Leftovers Opens Season 2 With Early 713k Tuned Into Premiere in L+SD’, Deadline Hollywood, 6 October 2015, http://deadline.com/2015/04/game-of-thrones-logs-series-best-opener-despite-leak-of-first-four-episodes-1201408949/.

  123. 123.

    Cynthia Littleton, ‘The Leftovers Renewed for Third and Final Season at HBO’, Variety, 10 December 2015, http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/hbo-the-leftovers-season-3-end-1201658594/.

  124. 124.

    Rogers et al., ‘The Sopranos as HBO Brand Equity’, 54.

  125. 125.

    James Poniewozik, ‘TV 101: They’re not TV numbers. They’re HBO numbers’, Time, 10 October 2007, http://time-blog.com/tuned_in/2007/10/tv_101_theyre_not_tv_numbers_t_1.html.

  126. 126.

    Josef Adalian, ‘Westworld Is Shaping Up to Be an Early Ratings Success for HBO’, Vulture, 4 October 2016, http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/westworld-premiere-ratings-early-success-for-hbo.html; Nellie Andreeva, ‘Westworld Sets Ratings Highs in Week 3’, Deadline Hollywood, 18 October 2017, http://deadline.com/2016/10/westworld-ratings-high-week-3-1201838478/.

  127. 127.

    Jason Lynch, ‘Here’s the Recipe Netflix Uses to Make Binge-Worthy TV’, Quartz, 20 March 2015, https://qz.com/367117/heres-the-recipe-netflix-uses-to-make-binge-worthy-tv/.

  128. 128.

    Steve ‘Frosty’ Weintraub, ‘Beau Willimon talks House of Cards, the Different Production Schedule of Season 2, “Hyper-Serialized” Storytelling, the Show’s Directors, and More’, Collider, 11 August 2014, http://collider.com/beau-willimon-house-of-cards-interview/.

  129. 129.

    Emily Buder, ‘Beau Willimon on House of Cards, Bad Television and His “Crazy” Next Project’, IndieWire, 15 September 2014, http://www.indiewire.com/2014/09/beau-willimon-on-house-of-cards-bad-television-and-his-crazy-next-project-22198/.

  130. 130.

    Daniel Feinberg, ‘Interview: Orange is the New Black Creator Jenji Kohan Talks Prison, Netflix and Jodie Foster’, Uproxx, 10 July 2013, http://uproxx.com/hitfix/interview-orange-is-the-new-black-creator-jenji-kohan-talks-prison-netflix-and-jodie-foster/DRVY6vZLH2OQqJxl.99; Jethro Nededog, ‘Orange is the New Black Creator on Getting Renewed Ahead of Debut: “Netflix Has Balls”’, The Wrap, 3 July 2013, http://www.thewrap.com/orange-new-black-creator-talks-early-season-2-renewal-netflix-has-balls-101166/.

  131. 131.

    Linda K. Hughes and Michael Lund, The Victorian Serial (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991), 8.

  132. 132.

    An obvious exception to this convention is the Fox drama 24; a given season’s plot concerns a mere day’s worth of storyworld time.

  133. 133.

    Buder, ‘Beau Willimon on House of Cards’.

  134. 134.

    Josef Adalian, ‘10 Episodes is the New 13 (Was the New 22)’, Vulture, 12 June 2017, http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/10-episodes-is-the-new-13-was-the-new-22.html.

  135. 135.

    Jaramillo, ‘The Family Racket’, 63.

  136. 136.

    Dean J. DeFino, The HBO Effect (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), 122.

  137. 137.

    Brian G. Rose, ‘The Wire’, in The Essential HBO Reader, ed. Edgerton and Jones, 83.

  138. 138.

    David Simon, audio commentary for ‘The Target’.

  139. 139.

    Lynch, ‘Here’s the Recipe Netflix Uses’; Axel Alonso, ‘Cup O’ Joe Returns!’, Comic Book Resources, 9 May 2014, http://www.cbr.com/cup-o-joe-returns/; Nathan Mattise, ‘House of Cards: The “13-Hour Movie” Defining the Netflix Experience’, Ars Technica, 1 February 2013, https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/house-of-cards-the-13-hour-movie-defining-the-netflix-experience/.

  140. 140.

    In contrast to HBO, many of Netflix’s series are produced by external companies; with regard to such series, Netflix is unlikely to be receiving significant DVD revenues.

  141. 141.

    Mittell, Complex TV, 39.

  142. 142.

    This is according to the movie business data site the-numbers.com.

  143. 143.

    The success of The Sopranos, for example, enabled HBO to expand its subscriber base from 24 million households when the mob saga debuted in 1999 to 28 million in 2005. Michael M. Epstein, Jimmie L. Reeves and Mark C. Rogers, ‘Surviving “the Hit”: Will The Sopranos Still Sing for HBO’, in Reading the Sopranos: Hit TV by HBO, ed. David Lavery (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006), 16.

  144. 144.

    Rogers et al., ‘The Sopranos as HBO Brand Equity’, 47–48.

  145. 145.

    Concepcion Cascajosa Virino, ‘The Derivation of a Television Crime Drama’, in Interrogating The Shield, ed. Nicholas Ray (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013), 12.

  146. 146.

    Ibid., 13.

  147. 147.

    Alan Sepinwall, The Revolution was Televised (New York: Touchstone, 2012), 139–140, 145.

  148. 148.

    Ray Richmond, ‘AMC serious about its series’, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 July 2008.

  149. 149.

    Alex Witchel, ‘Mad Men Has Its Moment’, The New York Times, 22 June 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22madmen-t.html.

  150. 150.

    McCabe and Akass, ‘It’s Not TV, it’s HBO’s Original Programming’, 84.

  151. 151.

    Quoted in Gary R. Edgerton, ‘The Selling of Mad Men: A Production History’, in Mad Men: Dream Come True TV, ed. Gary R. Edgerton (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011), 8.

  152. 152.

    See Lorna Jowett and Stacy Abbott, TV Horror: Investigating the Darker Side of the Small Screen (London: I. B. Tauris, 2012).

  153. 153.

    Each episode of Mad Men and Breaking Bad cost, on average, $3 million to produce, placing their budgets at the high end of expenditure in basic cable drama. These per episode spends fail, however, to match HBO at its most extravagant. Cynthia Littleton, ‘AMC, Sony Make Bad Budget Work’, Variety, 13 June 2010, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118020572; Brian Steinberg, ‘Why Mad Men Has so Little to Do With Advertising’, Advertising Age, 2 August 2010, http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=145179.

  154. 154.

    See Edgerton, ‘The Selling of Mad Men’, 12.

  155. 155.

    See Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized, 247; for more on the provocative storyworlds of FX series and the controversies they have ignited, see Michael Curtin and Jane Shattuc, The American Television Industry (London: BFI, 2009), 134–135.

  156. 156.

    Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized, 184–185, 228; Tony Kelso, ‘And Now No Word from our Sponsor: How HBO puts the Risk Back into Television’, in It’s Not TV, ed. Leverette et al., 56–57.

  157. 157.

    Forty-nine per cent of the first season’s audience was earning in excess of $100,000 per annum. Bill Keveney, ‘Success suits the Mad Men brand; Distinctive drama about the ’60s ad game reaches out to today’s style’, USA Today, 14 August 2009, 1D (LIFE Section); BMW has acted as sole sponsors for multiple commercial-interruption-free Mad Men episodes.

  158. 158.

    Tom Lowry, ‘How Mad Men Glammed Up AMC’, Business Week, 24 July 2008, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_31/b4094034647265.htm.

  159. 159.

    Stella Gaynor, ‘Made for TV Monsters: Aesthetic Disposition and Socio Political Comment in Contemporary Horror Programming’ (paper given at Fear 2000: 21st Century Horror Conference, Sheffield, 1 April 2016).

  160. 160.

    Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized, 229.

  161. 161.

    See Mittell, ‘The Scenic Rhythms of Game of Thrones’.

  162. 162.

    Narrative designers working within the HBO context have occasionally taken a similar approach to plotting. The second half of The Sopranos episode ‘Whoever Did This’ (4:9), for example, is devoted entirely to a sequence in which Tony and Christopher dispose of a corpse, while The Leftovers episode ‘Guest’ focuses throughout on a single intense storyline concerning Nora’s attempts to deal with the grief she endures for her lost family.

  163. 163.

    David Carbonara and Tim Hunter, audio commentary for ‘Long Weekend’, in Mad Men Season One DVD box set, Lions Gate Home Entertainment, 2007.

  164. 164.

    Style within these particular scenes is similar to that within corresponding scenes in Forbrydelsen (2007–2012), the Danish drama series that The Killing adapts.

  165. 165.

    Randee Dawn, ‘The Killing: Quiet, Slow, Methodical and, yet, Popular’, Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2011, http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/16/news/la-en-the-killing-20110616.

  166. 166.

    Alan Sepinwall, ‘How Rubicon Became Much More than a Conspiracy Thriller’, Hitfix, 10 September 2010, http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/how-rubicon-became-much-more-than-a-conspiracy-thriller; Tim Goodman, ‘The Killing: TV Review’, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 March 2011, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/killing-tv-review-171764.

  167. 167.

    Christine Fell, ‘Q&A—Michael Slovis (Director of Photography)’, amctv.com, 14 April 2009, http://blogs.amctv.com/breaking-bad/2009/04/michael-slovis-interview.php.

  168. 168.

    Josh Gajewski, ‘Breaking Bad: Michael Slovis, a Visual Storyteller’, Los Angeles Times, 16 May 2010, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/05/breaking-bad-michael-slovis-a-visual-storyteller.html.

  169. 169.

    Todd Van DerWerff, ‘Interview: Rubicon Executive Producer Henry Bromell’, A.V. Club, 15 October 2010, http://www.avclub.com/articles/rubicon-executive-producer-henry-bromell,46389/.

  170. 170.

    The three episode ASLs I measured were: ‘The Outsider’ (1:4, ASL: 6.0), ‘Look to the Ant’ (1.6, ASL: 8.2) and ‘Caught in the Suck’ (1.8, ASL: 4.9). In comparison to Rubicon, Butler’s analysis of Mad Men’s cutting pace reveals a higher editing tempo; but its median ASL of 5.2 seconds (for the first season) is, relative to most contemporary ad-supported drama series, unhurried. Jeremy G. Butler, ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’: Historicizing Visual Style in Mad Men’, in Mad Men: Dream Come True TV, ed. Edgerton, 67–68.

  171. 171.

    Butler, Television Style, 144.

  172. 172.

    Graeme Virtue, ‘A Trippy, Decadent Fever Dream: Why Legion is the Best Superhero Show on TV’, The Guardian, 27 March 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/27/noah-hawley-legion-marvel-x-men-dan-stevens.

  173. 173.

    Hugh Hart, ‘Extreme Contrast: DP Shoots FX’s Fargo and Legion’, Where to Watch, 10 July 2017, https://www.wheretowatch.com/2017/07/extreme-contrast-dp-shoots-fxs-fargo-and-legion.

  174. 174.

    Ibid.

  175. 175.

    Mittell, Complex TV.

  176. 176.

    Christina Radish, ‘Noah Hawley Talks Fargo, Showing the Total Story to the Audience, Input from the Coens, Changes in Storytelling, and Possible Second Season Ideas’, Collider, 10 June 2014, http://collider.com/noah-hawley-fargo-interview/.

  177. 177.

    Scott Tobias, ‘Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’, A.V. Club, 27 July 2008, http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/mad_men_creator_matthew.

  178. 178.

    David B. Wilkerson, ‘AMC uses original shows, scheduling to expand audience’, MarketWatch, 8 April 2009, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amc-uses-original-shows-scheduling.

  179. 179.

    Madeline Berg, ‘The Walking Dead Returns to Impressive Ratings’, Forbes, 25 October 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2016/10/25/the-viewers-of-the-walking-dead-are-very-much-alive/#66f79c42516b; Brian Steinberg, ‘TV Ad Prices: Football Hikes, Walking Dead Stumbles, Chicago Fire, Goldbergs on the Rise’, Variety, 17 October 2016, http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/tv-ad-prices-football-walking-dead-empire-advertising-1201890660/.

  180. 180.

    Steinberg, ‘Why Mad Men Has so Little to Do With Advertising’.

  181. 181.

    Brian Steinberg, ‘Simon Who? Idol Spots Still Priciest in Prime Time’, Advertising Age, 18 October 2010, http://adage.com/article/ad-age-graphics/american-idol-spots-priciest-prime-time/146495/; John Lafayette, ‘The Mad Men Lesson: Buzz Lights Up a Network’, Broadcasting & Cable, 19 July 2010, http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/mad-men-lesson-buzz-lights-network/36595.

  182. 182.

    Steinberg, ‘Why Mad Men Has so Little to Do With Advertising’.

  183. 183.

    Ibid.

  184. 184.

    Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized, 248.

  185. 185.

    Marc Berman, ‘Why Advertisers Still Love Fargo After Fans Have Changed the Channel’, Campaign, 21 June 2017, http://www.campaignlive.com/article/why-advertisers-love-fargo-fans-changed-channel/1437111.

  186. 186.

    Wilkerson, ‘AMC uses original shows’.

  187. 187.

    The unorthodox narrative style of AMC’s series sometimes strengthens these associations. In the case of Rubicon, as Bromell acknowledged, DP Gordon Willis’ meditative shooting style on the 1970s Hollywood conspiracy thrillers The Parallax View (1974) and All the President’s Men (1976) proved an important influence on the series’ visual aesthetic. David Zurawik, ‘Homicide Producer Takes on a Political Thriller’, The Baltimore Sun, 30 July 2010, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-07-30/entertainment/bs-ae-zontv-rubicon-20100730_1_political-thriller-henry-bromell-cia-officer/2.

  188. 188.

    Robert Marich, ‘FX at 20: Cabler’s Revenue Soars on Movies, Original Series’, Variety, 15 May 2014, http://variety.com/2014/tv/features/fx-revenue-soars-on-movies-original-series-1201182522/.

  189. 189.

    On Legion’s connection to the X-Men cinematic universe, see Josh Wigler, ‘Legion Premiere Previewed at NYCC: A Look Inside FX’s Upcoming X-Men Series’, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 October 2016, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/legion-premiere-previewed-at-nycc-936647.

  190. 190.

    On the anticipation for Legion that developed prior to its series premiere, see Alex Welch, ‘Legion Does Not Take Place in X-Men Movies Continuity’, ScreenRant, 17 January 2017, http://screenrant.com/legion-tv-show-x-men-movies-no-connections/.

  191. 191.

    The extended episode running times could be a further factor enabling the decelerated storytelling to be found within many Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul scenes.

  192. 192.

    Lafayette, ‘The Mad Men Lesson’.

  193. 193.

    Steinberg, ‘Why Mad Men Has so Little to Do With Advertising’.

  194. 194.

    Lafayette, ‘The Mad Men Lesson’.

  195. 195.

    The extent to which AMC marginalises the commercial value of its air-time during the hours in which original series air has limits, as the case of Rubicon suggests. According to Bromell, the difficulty AMC endured trying to sell advertising time during Rubicon’s slot factored into the series’ cancellation following the airing of its first season. Jon Weisman, ‘Holes in Basic Cable’s Safety Net’, Variety, 14 December 2010, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118028452.

  196. 196.

    Adam Davidson, ‘The Mad Men Economic Miracle’, The New York Times, 4 December 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/magazine/the-mad-men-economic-miracle.html.

  197. 197.

    Lafayette, ‘The Mad Men Lesson’.

  198. 198.

    Robert Seidman, ‘Is Mad Men Worth it for AMC?’, TV by the Numbers, 1 September 2009, http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/09/01/is-mad-men-worth-it-for-amc/26024.

  199. 199.

    Adam B. Vary, ‘Four-Ward, Cylons’, EW.com , 27 March 2007, http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20015932,00.html.

  200. 200.

    Newman and Levine, Legitimating Television, 80–81.

  201. 201.

    Hilmes, Only Connect, 253.

  202. 202.

    Anon., ‘Better Call Saul: Season Three Ratings’, TV Series Finale, 27 June 2017, http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/better-call-saul-season-three-ratings/; Anon., ‘Legion: Season One Ratings’, TV Series Finale, 30 March 2017, http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/legion-tv-show-fx-season-one-ratings/.

  203. 203.

    George Szalai, ‘The Walking Dead Coming Exclusively to Netflix Under Multi-Year Streaming Deal’, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 July 2011, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/walking-dead-coming-exclusively-netflix-245539; Mallory Locklear, ‘AMC Premiere Will Let You Stream The Walking Dead Ad-Free’, Engadget, 29 June 2017, https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/29/amc-premiere-stream-walking-dead-ad-free/.

  204. 204.

    Anthony Crupi, ‘FX is the Edgiest and Most Prolific Drama Producer on Ad-Supported TV’, Adweek, 2 March 2014, http://www.adweek.com/tv-video/fx-edgiest-and-most-prolific-drama-producer-ad-supported-tv-156028/.

  205. 205.

    Colvin, ‘Mad Men Creator’.

  206. 206.

    Adalian, ‘10 Episodes is the New 13 (Was the New 22)’.

  207. 207.

    AMC’s approach to The Walking Dead is an exception here. The channel’s commissioning of sixteen episode seasons of the series is no doubt the channel’s attempt to fully capitalise on the series’ extraordinarily high desirability to advertisers.

  208. 208.

    Todd Van Der Werff, ‘Vince Gilligan Walks Us Through Season Four of Breaking Bad (Part 1 of 4)’, A.V. Club, 10 October 2011, http://www.avclub.com/articles/vince-gilligan-walks-us-through-season-four-of-bre,63013/.

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    Anthony N. Smith

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Smith, A.N. (2018). Economic Specificity in Narrative Design: The Business of Television Drama Storytelling. In: Storytelling Industries. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70597-2_3

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