TV Discussion Official Live Action Series Discussion Thread

Being trigger-happy about pulling the plug on promising shows before they have a chance to grab an audience, is also irrational. Taking a position that any new show has to be a MASSIVE hit RIGHT NOW or it's gone is a recipe for turning your network into a cesspit of lowest-common-denominator garbage. And that's exactly what we've got - a network schedule full of cookie-cutter retread cop/lawyer/medical shows, carny sideshow-level fake "reality" TV, and vaguely sadomasochistic singing competitions. At which point, what exactly is the differentiator between a network and a cable channel? As much as I like OUAT, for example, it's basically in the same class of show as Eureka and Warehouse 13, both of which were produced by a cable network. And if you're going rutting in reality TV, why not just go all the way and watch Honey Boo Boo, also on cable?

If the people who ran networks really wanted to differentiate themselves, they'd rebrand (at least in their primetime) as premium, prestige operations who have the money and influence to produce the absolute highest quality shows on television, and to stick with them until they find their audience. Trade on, and build on, their long and venerable history in bringing quality comedy and drama to the screen for six decades. Instead, they've totally ceded that territory to the likes of HBO, Showtime, and AMC. Almost all of the shows that those premium cable operations have built their reputations on could have been created by the networks instead, with a little bit of toning-down for the broadcast market. Instead, they've just churned out more of the same low-quality pablum. In a world where people have more (a lot more) than three choices of what to watch, this is not a formula for long-term success.

 

Yes, but I think this highlights the importance of effective marketing and branding

DOCTOR WHO
DOCTOR WHO: Torchwood
DOCTOR WHO: The Sarah Jane Adventures

This type of branding would have probably gotten old, if not for the diehard WHO fan then for the general consumer.

In the same vein:

STAR WARS: Episode VII - Blah Blah Blah
STAR WARS: The Clone Wars
STAR WARS: Rebels
STAR WARS: Underworld

The emphasis is on the main brand, not the focus of the story, so people tend to generalize it as more of the same (I'm talking normal consumers here, not Star Wars nuts like me ). This type of thing almost killed the Star Trek brand.

For content outside the main episodic films, the emphasis should be put more on the focus of the narrative in terms of marketing.

Think "The Empire Strikes Back" or "Return of the Jedi" as they were originally marketed with the words STAR WARS wrapped around the logo.

"Rebels" and "Underworld" with the same sort of understated Star Wars branding would help stave off Star Wars fatigue for the average folk IMO

And I REALLY hope they put the emphasis on episode NAME rather than episode NUMBER when it comes to the marketing, so very 1999. Time to move forward people!

 

I'm reminded of what a friend who works at Pixar once said about their relationship with Disney. He said that when the first Toy Story came out in 1995, the title card was:

DISNEY
Presents
Pixar's

But by the time of The Incredibles, it was:

PIXAR
Presents
Disney's

A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but you get the idea. Branding and name recognition are crucial.

 

Yes but those are the TITLE CARDS inserted within movies, not the way in which the movies themselves are sold to the general public.

And I'm not disagreeing that the name Star Wars should be used for name recognition, especially in the case of the movies. It just bugged me that the emphasis was more on "EPISODE II" instead of "Attack of the Clones" etc.

I was alluding more that the TV projects need more subtle Star Wars branding.

Google Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Take a look at the logo and see what I mean. Same concept. MARVEL is there but not plastered all over the screen.

Still has the MARVEL branding but the reader isn't being slapped in the face with it.

 

Say what? You don't need Force-users because it's aimed at adults? When I was a kid Han Solo and all the battle scenes were my favorite and it's only as I got older that the Force and Force-users became my favorite thing about Star Wars.

 

I want a good tv series that bridges the gaps between each of the sequel movies and meshes with an animation like avengers assemble. I'm going to take a different ground here. I want the sequel movies, the spin offs, a new animation set in the sequel trilogy, and the live action tv series to mesh as together like Leeland said at Celebration Europe. One we get the bonus content minus or plus a couple of extras and the rebels series, I want out of the first 6 movies and onto something new. We preserve what came before with maybe a change or too, but we push the star wars timeline forward. Hopefully into Episode 10-12. I think star wars has a chance to have all mediums work together in a way that was never done before. This is what most people on the boards complain about. Micro series not working with Labyrinth of Evil or Dark Horse's Obsession comic etc.. Now, we get it all to fit together from the get go. I'm not trying to copy a Marvel approach, but, I don't want more of the same thing in the past. We've had GL's era from 1977-2012, I which we saw a lot of things, now with Disney 2012-.......I want to see star wars 2.0, better and improved without changing the past, but moving in the future. I don't even think I want TFU 3 video game, just move forward and leave the past.

 

sorry for the typos, but I'm tired. By the way, enough with the star wars animation spoofs and adding it into other animated properties. Let's get some real good 2- star wars animation out there like the rest of the animation series. Those that come out with 26 episode seasons like Marvel's Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes.

 

I say let the films have their Jedi and Sith who throw the force at each other. Leave this series to the Smugglers, Bounty Hunters and other non-superhero type characters.

 

Bottom line: Disney didn't buy Star Wars to not make money off it. They'll do as much as they can with it, and extract every dime they can from you with it.

 

I feel like if the rumors are true that Star Wars might be looking at Marvel's model, that this will become necessary. Hell, even Marvel's TV show is going to explore the non-super part of a world of superheroes. And superheroes (and villains) are the whole appeal of the Marvel universe. The Jedi and the Force are a big appeal to Star Wars, but they are not the only appeal IMO. There are soldiers, smugglers, bounty hunters, spies, politicians, pilots, etc. all existing within thousands of years of history. Jedi need not be at the forefront of them all. The Jedi, compared to Marvel's superheroes, are also way more homogenous. They all essentially have the same abilities. It's not like comparing Thor to Hulk. It's individuals belonging to the same Order, capable of the same telekinetic feats.

 

It amazes me how often people on this site will take the tiniest bit of information (that often times means very very little) and blow it out of proportion and a big thread ends up getting formed based only on such words as 'somebody has a glint in their eye.'

Who knows. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Star Wars fans went about 10+ years without having any information at all about future projects and thinking that there was a good chance that the universe they had grown to love was over.

 

It will be interesting to see how much appeal that new tv show has about the marvel universe when it really is about regular people and not superheroes. Also remember just because an idea was conceived doesn't mean it will last long.

 

Punisher is part of the MU and he doesn't have any superpowers. He has lasted decades as a comic, and the movie wasn't bad either. (The one made in the 2000s I mean.)

Which reminds me... the funniest thing ever to happen with Punisher was when Garth Ennis (Punisher) got PO'd after a couple of other writers had him humiliated by Wolverine among others wailing on him in a run of episodes... the response was "Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe" a one-off comic in which Punisher did just that. He killed every other major character in the MU, including all the big name superheros. It was hilarious.

 

I think Agents of Shield will do fine. I don't think it's going to be mind blowing, but I don't think it's going to get cancelled for low ratings.

The non-Jedi aspects of Star Wars are more interesting to me than the non-Superhero aspects of the Marvel Universe. I think the latter will still find its success, so I would not want to see everything Star Wars saturated with Jedi and Sith.

 

Like others have mentioned I hope that this possible series focuses mainly on bounty hunters and smugglers and just excludes any Jedi and Sith related stuff.

You know, I can picture a Star Wars show aimed at adults either being rated TV-PG or switching between a TV-PG and a TV-14 rating depending on the episodes. And I can somewhat picture a TV-14 rated Star Wars show.

But a TV-MA rated Star Wars show? Eh no. Sorry, but that just seems weird to me.

 

No TV-MA Star Wars but Maul decapitating Pre Visla was pretty darn close. And that was on the cartoon network.

 

Dooku was decapitated in ROTS. As long as you don't show the head and there's no blood, you can get away with it.

Nowhere near TV-MA.

Heck, Luke-Vader was decapitated in Empire, and that's way creepier than both of those prior examples.

 

Yeah, that whole "Deadwood in space" thing Rick McCallum talked about was iffy to me. Honestly, the concept art for 1313 seemed off... because, if you notice... the hologram of the Twi'lek in one of those concept paintings... well, it's actually explicit enough that I couldn't even link it here once I'd pointed out the part I'm talking about. I'm not talkin' Oola's fishnet nips, but even more explicit, and it's official art. And I mean, heh, that's cool with me, but... weird. And you'd have people cursing, and probably not using EU replacement words, which would totally fly in the face of everything we know. I dunno. At that point, why even call it Star Wars?

 

That's why I said decapitations are "pretty close" to TV-MA. I don't see many TV-14 shows having an all-decapitations happy funtime hour.

 

The guy in the cantina who threatened Luke had his arm chopped off, with blood.

 

"Up next, it's the All-decapitations Happy Funtime Hour! Stay tuned!"

 

I totally agree. At least with the first part of your post, that is. I just hope we don't get recycled ideas and storylines — especially if they're going to reuse the same freakin alien races and creatures to death, like the EU and video games has done in the last twenty years or so.

 

What, no Rodians in the live action TV series? For shame!

 

I'll believe this when I see it

 

I've been hearing about a potential live-action TV series ever since Summer 1999, when a thread on this board mentioned that a potential Rouge Squadron live-action TV show was in the very early planning stages. Obviously this never came to pass, and I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the extreme expense involved in the production (effects, etc.) of a live-action TV show.

I think a cartoon series is the way to go with SW, rather than live action. At least a cartoon series will be able to stand on it's own, whereas a live-action show will ineveitably be compared to the films...