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Buffy: An Appreciation and a Ranking!
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8165838" data-attributes="member: 7023840"><p>That is what I was alluding to at the beginning of the OP. Unless you lived through it and experienced, it is genuinely hard to describe. </p><p></p><p>For the most part, the only shows that had continuing plot lines were "soaps," either of the daytime variety (General Hospital, etc.) or the nighttime variety (Dallas and its ilk). Occasionally, you would have shows that had continuing plotlines that weren't true nighttime soaps, but were "soap-y" lawyer/police/hospital dramas, such as your St. Elsewheres, Hill Street Blues, or L.A. Laws. </p><p></p><p>But the idea that you would have characters change and evolve from episode to episode, season to season, that actions would necessarily have impacts later on (even several seasons on), that people would study shows for hints of what would come ... none of that was occurring, especially with "genre" TV.</p><p></p><p>The 90s was exactly that bridge point. At one end, you had the pervasive three-camera sitcoms with laughtracks and the "case of the week" shows (the case could be a legal case, a mystery, a crime, or a medical case, but ... it was a case, and it would be resolved). At the other end of the decade, you had the Sopranos and the Wire and the dawn of Prestige TV (the Sopranos debuted in 1999, the Wire in 2002, and Deadwood in 2004 ... so this period is usually considered the dawn of prestige television).</p><p></p><p>But the sea change was occurring with shows like Buffy (debuted with a season-long arc in 1997, season 2 also was in 1997), Babylon 5 (first season of 1994), DS9 (begins more heavy arc-dependent plot with Dominion war in 1997), and, of course, X-Files (hate them or..., um.... hate them, the mythology episodes that eventually folded in on themselves in a confusing black hole of nonsense provided a continuing plot line).</p><p></p><p>It was a wild transitional time for TV, and Buffy is, arguably, the transitional-est. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarf Zagyg, post: 8165838, member: 7023840"] That is what I was alluding to at the beginning of the OP. Unless you lived through it and experienced, it is genuinely hard to describe. For the most part, the only shows that had continuing plot lines were "soaps," either of the daytime variety (General Hospital, etc.) or the nighttime variety (Dallas and its ilk). Occasionally, you would have shows that had continuing plotlines that weren't true nighttime soaps, but were "soap-y" lawyer/police/hospital dramas, such as your St. Elsewheres, Hill Street Blues, or L.A. Laws. But the idea that you would have characters change and evolve from episode to episode, season to season, that actions would necessarily have impacts later on (even several seasons on), that people would study shows for hints of what would come ... none of that was occurring, especially with "genre" TV. The 90s was exactly that bridge point. At one end, you had the pervasive three-camera sitcoms with laughtracks and the "case of the week" shows (the case could be a legal case, a mystery, a crime, or a medical case, but ... it was a case, and it would be resolved). At the other end of the decade, you had the Sopranos and the Wire and the dawn of Prestige TV (the Sopranos debuted in 1999, the Wire in 2002, and Deadwood in 2004 ... so this period is usually considered the dawn of prestige television). But the sea change was occurring with shows like Buffy (debuted with a season-long arc in 1997, season 2 also was in 1997), Babylon 5 (first season of 1994), DS9 (begins more heavy arc-dependent plot with Dominion war in 1997), and, of course, X-Files (hate them or..., um.... hate them, the mythology episodes that eventually folded in on themselves in a confusing black hole of nonsense provided a continuing plot line). It was a wild transitional time for TV, and Buffy is, arguably, the transitional-est. :) [/QUOTE]
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