Sunday, November 4, 2012

Reading: Davies, Maire Messenger and Pearson, Roberta. “Star Trek - Network to Syndication;” Erickson, Hal. “Syndication in a 150-Year Nutshell.” Post thoughts about the reading here for discussion.

6 comments:

  1. ah, I finally have learned what syndication is. It consists basically of what I did all my childhood. Saved by the Bell, Charmed, Fresh Prince, Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Sure, these shows weren't as old as Star Trek, but they were mostly aired as reruns when I was watching them.

    I think more than just a story line, Star Trek, was a vision. I've never watched the show or the movies, but I do remember flipping through channels and seeing snippets of old episodes. Star Trek had a rough start, being told it needed more "life" rather than "death," but isn't that almost how it relates to real life? Sure, it's a sci-fi show...and yeah I've never watched it...but death, isn't that the most normal thing we humans endure? the one thing we ALL have in common? So taking a sci-fi story and adding a reality perspective probably took a long time and a lot of hard work. Which it did. But it was well worth it. It graced its presence upon several networks and appeased audiences for decades to come.

    I think seeing the business aspect of syndication was also fascinating. To see how people bounced shows off different networks, and passed up the $150,000 price for what became worth $3 billion. I wonder who is kicking themselves, now?

    Syndication sales went international and people all over the world of all generations enjoyed Star Trek. Shows were spun off of Star Trek and the show even changed the way of syndication. It was safe to say the show worked its way up.

    In terms of syndication and the evolution of print, radio and television, I don't think the online world is strong enough to eradicate the uses of radio and/or television. Sure, we can now listen to live streams of radio, or watch all our favorite shows on hulu...but this will not kill the other methods of media. However, I do believe the online form of media is quickly taking over the news industry as a method of "doing it all."

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  2. When I think of syndication, the first thing I think of is the famous scene in the movie "Back to the Future." The year is 1955 and everyone is gathered around the TV waiting to watch a new episode of their favorite show. Marty knew the episode and said it was a classic rerun. They had never heard of the term before and had no idea what it was. It is almost unthinkable for me to not know what a rerun is. Most television today is all reruns. Everything that we watch on the internet is syndicated as well and its totally ok.

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  4. Syndication in a 150 year nutshell
    I thought it was interesting that in the 60s, countries such as the BBC actually enacted quotas for the amount of imported American TV. Nowadays, international television is inundated with American programming. There are . America therefore has tremendous soft influence
    so while we may be trillion of dollars in debt, culturally America still dominates, partly thanks to TV and broadcast media.

    The Little Program that Could
    I am, admittedly, a huge Star Trek fan. Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and Capt. Janeway are heroes of mine.The author credits the show’s success “to its special relationship with the audience and its appeal to a young audience”. My dad was in that audience, and as an idealistic, albeit awkward nerd, Gene Rodenberry’s creation really made an impact upon him. He loved that show and passed that love onto to his children. While I had known about the socio-political context in which the original Star Trek was fostered and which it responded to, I did find it interesting that the different incarnations of star Trek reflected the various stages of TV history and not just national history. After finishing the reading, I am still surprise that the show was picked up . But to view as a piece of broadcast history, I must say that I am so very glad that . (Even if Enterprise was the worst series, ever).

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  5. Where would we be without syndication? Hundreds of stations without programming to fill. I love syndication, most of the shows I watched growing up were because of syndication. Even today, I can watch re-runs of How I Met Your Mother on FX (because really, who can get enough of that show?). I think it's great that syndication was originally used to produce news to cities unreachable during a live broadcast or today's paper, but like all good things, they evolve with time; and when time asks for hundreds of stations and a lack of creative today, insert the 21st century need for syndication. TVLand survives on syndication, and even thrive. Where would we be without syndication? Hundreds of stations without programming to fill. I love syndication, most of the shows I watched growing up were because of syndication. Even today, I can watch re-runs of How I Met Your Mother on FX (because really, who can get enough of that show?). I think it's great that syndication was originally used to produce news to cities unreachable during a live broadcast or today's paper, but like all good things, they evolve with time; and when time asks for hundreds of stations and a lack of creative today, insert the 21st century need for syndication. TVLand survives on syndication, and even thrive.

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  6. I really had no idea what syndication was until I read these articles. I think the whole concept is genius. I worked at an affiliated CBS station in DC two years ago. We would produce our evening newscasts around the network airtime and the rest of the day/evening was filled with syndicated content. We'd attract regional sponsors and that was how our money was made. However, I didn't quite understand that that was how the process worked until I read this article.

    I'm so glad that Star Trek can survive in syndication and that that is part of the reason we can enjoy TOS and its spinoffs today. As the article on Syndication History tells us, it is partially thanks to divided markets that this is possible. Once demographic areas were established, the affiliate and even some independant stations were able to broadcast content to their designated market areas and be successful. I am glad that I read these articles and learned how the whole process really works.

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