Re: Cancellation of "Joan Of Arcadia": Looking on the bright side....

>Some here will have seen me say this before, but: Dramatic
presentations
>have beginnings, middles, and ends. Trouble with series TV is that it
>gets into an eternal middle (and usually never gets to an end).

But it doesn't have to be this way. Television as an art form (stop
laughing, I'm serious) has matured to the point that there is
discernible predictability to how programming decisions are made:

1) If the show's going to die early (first 3,4 episodes) there's
nothing you can do about it except make those episodes the best you
possible can, network execs be damned.

2) However, if the show lasts beyond those first three or four
episodes, you'll likely get picked up for at least half a season (11-12
episodes). In those 11-12 episodes you can advance the plot and develop
to a point with a satisfying ending while leaving you an opening for
further developments in the story.

3) Probably by the time the 10th episode has aired you'll know if the
show's going to get a full season. Then you can work with existing
elements and characters from the first half of the season, introduce
new characters and situations and build toward ANOTHER climax for the
season finale.

The key idea is this: the three points I just made can probably be
charted for every successful and failed show of recent years with
enough precision that a producer could calculate a story line which
would be less likely to be cancelled before the fourth episode.

But, hey, what do I know?