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Where Does the Money Come From?

post #1 of 3
Thread Starter 
Everytime I hear this excuse for 90 shows being cancelled like "The Flash" I wonder why things like that didn't happen today when the companies are spending 200 million bucks to sell bad movies like Superman: Returns or 10 millions to produce a single LOST episode...

I mean, think about it. Take a look at that excuse (from Babylon 5/TV show):

Quote:
The widescreen conversion thing was executive short sightedness at it's finest!!! We offered to do ALL of Babylon 5 in widescreen mode if Warner Bros would buy us a reference monitor so we could check our output. (only $5000 at the time) Ken Parkes (the "Business affairs" guy) and Netter (penny wise, but pound foolish) said no! So we did everything so it could be CROPPED to be widescreen! Each blamed the other by the way. Doug Netter said, "Ken Parkes said no". Ken Parkes said, "Doug Netter said no". SHEESH!!! So for $75 an episode they could have had AWESOME near Hi-Def. Bet Joe never heard about that!!
Read the entire discussion here.

And still some crappy shows like Heroes are getting many seasons and some guys are complaining the Flash suits were 25K bucks...

Quote:
"The Flash" had high production costs from the amazing special effects. They even hold up well today in the digital age! The cameras and optical filters to give the "Flash" his zoom and blurred speed trail, the expensive costumes for the characters, and the excessive amount of film for the super-speed effects all added up. At least the series was done exceptionally well if for only one year.
CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN HOW WARNER, FOX, PARAMOUNT, UNIVERSAL, AND ALL OTHER COMPANIES ARE SO RICH TODAY? THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.
post #2 of 3

Re: Where Does the Money Come From?

It's all apples to oranges. A show with "The Flash"'s production values today would never make it on the air. I'm not talking about the special effects either; the sound, the production quality, etc. just scream "TV!" in a way that shows don't today. That higher production quality costs quite a bit of money.

At the same time, the optical special effects were much more time-consuming and much more expensive (relatively speaking) than their digital equivilants today. A show like "Smallville" can be produced more cheaply than a show like "CSI", which is a big difference from when "The Flash" cost substantially more than the rest of the schedule.

The quality of Superman Returns is a matter of opinion. Many like it a great deal in spite of its flaws, myself included. Either way, I don't think it's fair to compare a $200 million tentpole blockbuster to a 1990 TV series that was frequently preempted by Gulf War coverage.
post #3 of 3

Re: Where Does the Money Come From?

-- Please ignore this post. I think I misunderstood.
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