A slightly longer ranty comment on American Torchwood

[neadods]

This is in my feedback to Staggering Stories, but I thought I'd elaborate here.

In the announcement that Fox wasn't picking up an American version of Torchwood, it was said that BBC or Davies (or both; I'm unclear on this) was insisting on a 13-episode commitment.

I was cynical about Davies' and Gardener's move here in the first place, and if that announcement is true, I've just lost my last shred of sympathy. Who in their right mind does not research the requirements of their own profession in a new area?

American TV boils down to one of three things:
- 4-6 episode miniseries
- 12 episode midseason replacements or summer series
- 22 episode full seasons.

We don't do 13 episodes here. Our schedules aren't set up for 13 episodes. Our syndication deals aren't set up for 13 episodes. No network is going to change their lineup for a single show - especially one whose best ratings were still, in this country, comparatively tiny.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

......because the entire Hollywood system is going to impulsively decide to change how it does things, for him? Rusty, you really are a never-ending source of entertainment, though not necessarily via your writing.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Again, I do not know this for a fact, nor am I clear that it was his idea or the BBC's....

But suffice it to say that from everything I've heard about Writer's Tale, everything I've seen in his interviews (especially the defensive ones), he hasn't heard "no" in a long time.

And I will even admit that he has done some amazingly good things - he did, after all, rehabilitate Who. But Hollywood is NOT kind to its own and less kind to outsiders, and people with egos and a couple of excellent credits to their name are a dime a dozen there.