Subject: Re: ABC did not kill Twin Peaks
From: webb@CS.CMU.EDU (Jon Webb)
Date: 1991-05-15, 05:47
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <5ZJy22w164w@halcyon.uucp>, halcyon!hikaru@seattleu.edu
(Demosthenes) writes:
|> webb@CS.CMU.EDU (Jon Webb) writes:
|> > I think what really killed Twin Peaks was its serial nature --
|> just
|> > didn't fit television's schedule -- and the ambivalent artistic
|> 
|> So, basically what you are saying is that people shut their brains
|> off 
|> when they watch television, and are consequently unable to understand
|> |> anything that is not resolved within an hour, or half an hour, or
|> however 
|> long the episode is supposed to last.
|> 
|> Okay, I'll go along with that. Unfortunately, it's true. 

Geez, you have such contempt for the majority of America.

The problem is not with people's stupidity, but with their lack of deep
committment to be home to watch a TV show, or to set their VCR up to
record it while they are away.  With a strongly serial program like Twin
Peaks, if they miss one episode, they've lost quite a bit.  They can't
catch up later, or can do so only with difficulty.  This is not bad in
itself, but it doesn't fit in well with the nature of US television,
where shows are broadcast only once at a certain time each week, and
occasional interruptions throw the schedules off.  I think one reason
for the success of Twin Peaks in other countries is that the shows are
shown more than once -- at least, that's how I understand they are
showing them in some places.

-- J