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<blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 356493" data-attributes="member: 27"><p>During the period of time they were batting around concepts for a reunion (around 1995 and 1996), I recall someone suggested that instead of a mini-series format, they ought to have produced a six-episode &quot;midseason replacement,&quot; a self-contained series that would be inserted into CBS&#039;s schedule when/if they cancelled one of their new fall shows.&nbsp; I liked the idea of hour-long episodes once per week (like the old days) rather than a TV-movie format.&nbsp; The format they ultimately chose---two, two-hour blocks---seems to encourage writers to write too many subplots, attempt to &quot;do too much&quot; in the longer allotted time.&nbsp; In a weekly format, they could set up fewer plots and spend a few minutes of each successive episode doing recap/exposition in case the viewer missed the previous episode.&nbsp; Instead, it felt like the first hour of the four was spent setting up a myriad of plots, and when picking up the second half they had no time for exposition because they had to focus on unravelling all those stories they&#039;s set up.&nbsp; It also left no time to &quot;ruminate&quot; over what was happening, something a weekly format would have allowed in the six days we&#039;d wait for the next episode. Instead of a &quot;journey&quot; with the characters, it was more of a rollercoaster ride.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Daniel Avery, post: 356493, member: 27"] During the period of time they were batting around concepts for a reunion (around 1995 and 1996), I recall someone suggested that instead of a mini-series format, they ought to have produced a six-episode "midseason replacement," a self-contained series that would be inserted into CBS's schedule when/if they cancelled one of their new fall shows. I liked the idea of hour-long episodes once per week (like the old days) rather than a TV-movie format. The format they ultimately chose---two, two-hour blocks---seems to encourage writers to write too many subplots, attempt to "do too much" in the longer allotted time. In a weekly format, they could set up fewer plots and spend a few minutes of each successive episode doing recap/exposition in case the viewer missed the previous episode. Instead, it felt like the first hour of the four was spent setting up a myriad of plots, and when picking up the second half they had no time for exposition because they had to focus on unravelling all those stories they's set up. It also left no time to "ruminate" over what was happening, something a weekly format would have allowed in the six days we'd wait for the next episode. Instead of a "journey" with the characters, it was more of a rollercoaster ride. [/QUOTE]

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