Everything new is old again!

[Barry]

Everything new is old again!
 
I am old enough to remember when Broadcast TV came into its own and dominated American’s evenings.
 
There was za time, in the late 1960s when Theatrical movies were very popular on TV. NBC had Saturday night at the movies and on special “ratings weeks” the network would put on big movies such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. Those movies were expensive and by the early 1970s, the networks started putting on their own movies.  They usually stared up and coming talent, or a “big” TV talent such as Patty Duke on John Travolta. Sometimes a former movie star would appear.  These movies are mostly forgotten, and cheaply made. but a few, such as “Brian’s Song” and “My Sweet Charlie” are remembered fondly and occasionally broadcast. They also enlarged TV dramas to two hours and made movies out of “Columbo, ” “Gunsmoke” and “McCloud.”
 
In the early 1970s mini-series were introduced on PBS beginning with “Upstairs Downstairs.” (Actually, I thought the first one was the “Prisoner.”)  Here, a major story was presented over 8 or 10 episodes. Broadcast TV followed with “Roots,” “Rich Man, Poor Man” and several others, often with the same casting as the TV movies.  Some were popular enough to come back as sequels.
 
Well, I now see a lot of this on Streaming. Let’s put aside the major movies that streamed because the movie theatres were closed.
 
There are a ton of “mini-series with former and current TV stars and a few movie stars.  There are a ton of low rent movies, such as Mila Kunis in Luckiest Girl Alive and Meet Cute (A rip off of Groundhogs Day) with Kaley Cuoco. Yes, there are some major productions, but those will be fading away because almost all the streamers are losing money.

[tripplej]

Good writeup Barry. Yeah, if it worked before, why not try again..

[SRW1000]

There was za time, in the late 1960s when Theatrical movies were very popular on TV. NBC had Saturday night at the movies and on special “ratings weeks” the network would put on big movies such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. Those movies were expensive and by the early 1970s, the networks started putting on their own movies.  They usually stared up and coming talent, or a “big” TV talent such as Patty Duke on John Travolta. Sometimes a former movie star would appear.  These movies are mostly forgotten, and cheaply made. but a few, such as “Brian’s Song” and “My Sweet Charlie” are remembered fondly and occasionally broadcast. They also enlarged TV dramas to two hours and made movies out of “Columbo, ” “Gunsmoke” and “McCloud.”

We must be close to the same age.  Those were the days before VHS or Beta, so other than the rare theatrical rereleases of movies like The Ten Commandments, and the early Disney movies, broadcast TV was the only way to see them.  The Wizard of Oz was an annual event, eagerly anticipated by kids each year.  I remember looking through the weekly TV listings printed by our local paper scanning for gems and making note of the date and time.  

For me, the made-for-TV horror movies of the 70s were always very special, and still hold a special place in my heart. They didn't have big budgets, but the writing and production values were really something special considering all of that.  Some of those that come quickly to mind were:

• Duel (1971):  Pretty well known now, since it was one of Steven Spielberg's first movies
• Gargoyles (1972):  The creature designs really stood out on this one, and I can remember them vividly.  No surprise that it won an Emmy for Makeup and one of the members of the team was Stan Winston
• The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973):  Starring the perfectly-cast Darren McGavin as cocky, persistent, and wily reporter Carl Kolchak investigating two different types of murders. This was the precursor to the short-lived TV series.  The tone and plot of these movies and the series would later be seen on the X-Files.  I've recently purchased these on Blu-ray, but haven't revisited them yet; this might just be the month to do that
• Trilogy of Terror (1975):  Three horror shorts, and while I don't remember anything about the first two, the last one featuring a Zuni doll will always be etched in my mind
• Spectre (1977):  This one came out near the end of the era, but is one of the best.  Written and produced by Gene Roddenberry the movie featured another X-Files like story, with Robert Culp playing a criminologist and believer, paired with Gig Young as a non-believing skeptical doctor (sound familiar?) out to investigate a case with occult overtones.  I don't remember seeing this when it was first broadcast, but saw it in syndication at some point the 90s.  It's remarkably risqué for a TV movie, and I've read that it was actually recut for foreign audiences with some added nudity.  I don't think either version is available on disc, which is unfortunate, since it the story was actually very well done and involving, with some pretty nice performances from the above actors along with John Hurt

That was kind of a little golden age for these types of movies, and also shows how much less-important broadcast TV has become since that time.  With so many other viewing options, starting with competition from cable stations and now with streaming, I would guess there just aren't the budgets or interest in that kind of programming anymore.

And it seems like the above sorts of horror movies are not only on streaming services, but also being shown in theaters, from companies like A24 and Blumhouse, where today's technology allows well-produced films to be made for smaller budgets, with casting similar to that of the 70s TV movies.  

Scott

[bmoney]

Saturday creature double feature was my favorite 

[Barry]

 Scott, we must be near the same age.
 
My concern is that, more and more Streaming TV will be more like the networks. Retreaded old shows, cheap movies and believe it or not, TV shows that were not good enough for Broadcast TV.  They already have put a few of those on.
I just read that Frasier is coming back on Paramount Plus.  We already have Star Trek, The Gilmore Girls, Star Trek, One Day at a Time, Lost In Space, even more Star Trek, and Full House.
 
Now that they have maximized subscribers they are cutting back and we will get more “TV Type Movies.”
 
And new they are mostly going introduced a cheaper monthly fee, but with commercials. I fear we will have “sponsor” control and censorship.
 
I looked at Streaming as enlarging broadcasting  but it may be shrinking it.  The NY Times reported, on Saturday, for example, the greatly shrinking audience for late night TV and it’s future.  For example, the Times wrote, “Executives (at NBC) have discussed a wide range of possibilities for Mr. Meyers’s (Late Night) show, including moving it to another time slot, reducing the number of people on its staff and shifting it to the Peacock streaming service …, two of the people said.)
The Times continued with:
“For decades, late-night shows have been an enormously successful franchise for network television. The costs of the shows were relatively low, and the number of programming hours they offered, as well as the profits they kicked off, was enormous.
 
“But as streaming has ascended, and network TV audiences and advertising revenue has dwindled, worries that late-night shows could be the latest genre affected by sweeping change are hitting virtually every corner of the entertainment world.”
 
“Revenue has fallen for the late-night shows. Through the first six months of 2021, the four late-night shows on network television took in a total of $301 million in advertising revenue, according to Kantar. Through the first six months of this year, that figure fell 16 percent, to $253.6 million. Mr. Meyers’s show generated $24.6 million in advertising revenue through the first six months of 2021, compared with $19 million in the first six months of 2022, Kantar said.”
 
I fear that we will eventually wind up paying for cheaper versions of what we used to get for free…

[SRW1000]

I think you're spot on, Barry, and it's really hard to tell where streaming is going.  It was once seen as an alternative to cable, but as more and more providers started to see the potential for direct profits and started up their own services, the cost advantage over cable has been falling.  Not to mention that the amount of content is increasing, and the number of talented creators has remained stable (or one could argue that it's shrinking), and the result is that the percentage of quality has decreased as measured over everything that's available.

The amount of content needed to satisfy demand and differentiate product from competitors, and it creates a problem.  Maybe that's part of the reason for so many reboots and retreads?  There's already a framework there, so they figure it just needs a little remodeling and some cleaning up and they're good to go.  No need to show any real creativity.

There are also free services out there competing with the paid streamers.  There's actually an amazing amount of product out there to be had for free.  The number of movies available on Tubi is incredible.  Sure, you have to watch ads, and the video and audio quality may be somewhat lacking.  But for consumers using it as background noise, casual viewing, or using their phones, tablets, or smallish TVs, does it matter?  It's free, and available from a number of other services, such as Peacock and Pluto.

And then there's YouTube.  We find ourselves spending more time watching special interest shows on there than any network or paid service.  Who could have imagined channels devoted to our hobby 20 years ago?  Now there's a bunch, such as Audioholics, Youthman, Spare Change, Joe N Tell, and many more.  The same can be said for any number of topics, including food, sports, news, you name it.  They also show ad-supported movies for people to watch.

The quality can vary from channel to channel, as with any TV show, but it can also target a much smaller audience.

Part of this reminds me of what happened with comic books back in the late 80s through the 90s.  There were always other comics publishers before that, such as Archie, Dell, Golden Key, and others, but until that time sales were dominated by DC and Marvel.  All at once a bunch of new publishers started showing up, such as Image, First, Valiant, Aircel, Bongo, Caliber, Malibu, CrossGen, Dark Horse, and so many others. 

The competition for talent went up, prices went up (there weren't any free options out there), and the percentage of good quality to middling, churned out content went down.  Series were started and ended after less than a dozen issues.  Mini-series and one-shots became increasingly popular among all the publishers as a way of limiting costs and risks.

Soon there were bankruptcies, mergers, acquisitions, and a contraction of the market.  Some of them are still around today, but many have left us. (As a side note, there's still a lot of good-quality, non-Marvel or DC material out there that would make a great basis for TV or movie franchises.  Can you imagine if we'd finally see an animated Nexus TV show?)

On the TV side, we see the same pattern of new series being announced, and then canceled after just a single, shortened season.  There's a fight for creative talent, with options being quickly signed for "hot" producers. Studios are being bought up and merged.  Disney already made a move in that direction by buying 20th Century Fox.  Warner and Discovery merged.  Amazon buys MGM. 

This does put a lot of pressure on the entertainment system.  All of their costs are rising.  The pool of available talent hasn't grown to meet the perceived market demand so there's a supply shortage.  In the meantime, free options for consumers, which was once limited to broadcast TV, have also increased.  Now add the effects of a shaky economy to all of that which affects both production companies looking at their bottom lines, and consumers looking at monthly increases in all aspects of their budgets.

The next few years will be interesting to watch.  We may see a drastic implosion.  If it means reducing some of the absolute dreck that we're being handed these days (See the Munsters remake, for a case in point), I think I'm OK with that.  Maybe that will leave us with fewer, but higher quality products, but things could get ugly while that process works itself out.  See what's been going on at Warner/Discovery lately as an example in both management and stock price.

Scott

[David Vaughn]

If streaming can get to the point of doing lossless audio (Dolby Atmos at full bitrate) then things will change for me. Right now streaming is second class for the audio alone...the video is damn good due to H.265, but the crippled audio kills it for me. I have one friend who says I ruined streaming for him when I did A/B testing comparing the streaming of a movie versus the 4K disc version...the video was very close but as he said...he can't "unhear" what he heard with the audio--it's not even close. 

[bmoney]

There have been a few cases of the streaming atmos to be outstanding. But the few outliers

[Paul Heroy]

A few weeks ago I played the opening sequence of the recent Dune on my 4K disc, then via HBO Max stream. Once I normalized volume (by ear so it wasn't even accurate), it was hard to tell a difference. That's a pretty good audio demo scene with a good bit of Atmos activity. It surprised me that it was that good on the HBO stream.

[Barry]

If streaming can get to the point of doing lossless audio (Dolby Atmos at full bitrate) then things will change for me. Right now streaming is second class for the audio alone...the video is damn good due to H.265, but the crippled audio kills it for me. I have one friend who says I ruined streaming for him when I did A/B testing comparing the streaming of a movie versus the 4K disc version...the video was very close but as he said...he can't "unhear" what he heard with the audio--it's not even close.

David, I feel exactly the same way. The audio is just not good enough