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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1303540" data-attributes="member: 177">If you don't assume the audience has seen A, when you refer to it you must retell the entire story of A, comic-book style, the way they tell you every other issue how Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, and his Uncle ben said &quot;With great power comes great responsibility&quot;.If you make only partial reference, say by having a plot point relate to A, but you don't explicitly say it, and instead expect the audience to remember it, any viewer who didn't see the previous episodes gets lost.&nbsp; You wanna see what happens when you try to write a show that doesn't assume you've seen previous episodes?&nbsp; Look at &quot;Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda&quot;.&nbsp; Started out with some of the greatest character development, some of the most interesting plots you've ever sunk your teeth into.&nbsp; But some folks felt that long, involved sotryline depended too much on the audience having seen previous episodes.&nbsp; And honestly, it did.&nbsp; They simpley didn't have time to explicate all that had gone on before each time it became relevant, since there was a lot going on.&nbsp; If you didn't watch regularly, you got lost.&nbsp; It was felt that made the show &quot;inaccessible to new and part-time viewers&quot;, and that would severely limit the show's growth and longevity.&nbsp; So, all that plot and development was scrapped, and the show turned to mush.&nbsp; Mind you, last time I checked (which IIRC was back at the beginning of this season), Andromeda was still the #1 syndicated genre show, still making money.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 1303540, member: 177"] If you don't assume the audience has seen A, when you refer to it you must retell the entire story of A, comic-book style, the way they tell you every other issue how Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, and his Uncle ben said "With great power comes great responsibility". If you make only partial reference, say by having a plot point relate to A, but you don't explicitly say it, and instead expect the audience to remember it, any viewer who didn't see the previous episodes gets lost. You wanna see what happens when you try to write a show that doesn't assume you've seen previous episodes? Look at "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda". Started out with some of the greatest character development, some of the most interesting plots you've ever sunk your teeth into. But some folks felt that long, involved sotryline depended too much on the audience having seen previous episodes. And honestly, it did. They simpley didn't have time to explicate all that had gone on before each time it became relevant, since there was a lot going on. If you didn't watch regularly, you got lost. It was felt that made the show "inaccessible to new and part-time viewers", and that would severely limit the show's growth and longevity. So, all that plot and development was scrapped, and the show turned to mush. Mind you, last time I checked (which IIRC was back at the beginning of this season), Andromeda was still the #1 syndicated genre show, still making money. [/QUOTE]

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