14 Feb '09 06:00>
It would seem that if a US TV series runs for 7, 8 or 10 or more series, it is without doubt considered a hit. Hill St Blues, Frasier, West Wing, Monk, Cheers, ER. At the other end of the scale is something like Firefly where they didn't even air all the episodes of series one that they'd shot. Star Trek (the original series) was considered somewhat of a flop after being cancelled after only three series (although it was hit in syndication later). Deadwood, on the other hand, appeared to have told the story it had set out to tell in its three series. But take a series like "Shark" with James Woods: cancelled after two series. Is that considered to be a relatively 'unsuccessful' series, or does getting commissioned to make a second series indicate that the TV series was a success. We're talking Accumulated Mass Subjectivity here. How many series need to be made before people consider it to be good solid, successful TV series-making?