BritComs : Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

I'm American, so I can only compare them to shows from the U.S. but why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others? For ex. the Britcom, "Absolutely Fabulous" only produced 18 episodes throughout its entire initial 3-year run, compared with the US sitcom, "I Love Lucy" which would have produced about 80-plus episodes within the same amount of time; that's a pretty big difference!

So, I am looking for answers to these questions:

*Why do the British produce so few TV episodes? [does it have something to so with a limited budget and small population?]

*With so few episodes being produced over such lengthy periods of time, how to Brit TV stations fill their programing schedules? Do they just air a whole lot of re-runs? Or, is it that while they produce relatively few episodes of a single show, they have a wider variety of shows than average, so that no one has time to miss their favorites? Or, do the stations fill in the gaps with international programing?

I ask these questions because knowing how US TV typically works (new episodes of one's fav show, every single week, except for some seasonal breaks), it boggles my mind how the Brit stations can get by on so few episodes, because it seems that the programing would get redundant and boring very fast.

Yhis has been a real curiosity for me, ever since I became a Bitcom fan. And, it has been driving me crazy wondering how it all works. So, I would appreciate any info on this topic!

As a side-note, I guess American TV has spoiled me, because when I finished "Waiting For God" after just 45 episodes, I got mad and thought something like "We don't even have that few episodes on some of our two-year shows!" I mean no disrespect; I love Britcoms, I just wish their were more of them.

I am the movies I love! (^_^)

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

I think that one of the major reasons is that comedy shows in the UK are usually written by one person or a duo. This generally means that the humour is quirkier because it comes from a single brain or friendship or brains, but then the material is necessarily less abundant; writing three hours worth of quality comedy material for a six-ep series is very hard work when you're on your own, writing thirteen hours worth and keeping up the quality might be considered well-nigh impossible.

When you have a large team of writers applying itself to the task, as is apparently common in the US, it's far easier to produce an abundance of material (hence the 26 ep series). To my knowledge, and I'm by no means an expert, this method has been used only once in the UK and we have famously ended up with a dreary never-ending poor-quality sitcom that should have been stopped several years ago.




Apologies for typos, this was typed with the help of two kittens, Lara and Oz.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?


To my knowledge, and I'm by no means an expert, this method has been used only once in the UK and we have famously ended up with a dreary never-ending poor-quality sitcom that should have been stopped several years ago.


Interesting... what sitcom are you referring to, by the way; It might be amusing to see that.

Typically, I adore the quality of Britcoms. Of the ones I like, they are so real and cozy-feeling to them. I can see how that would be difficult or near-impossible to replicate for so long.


I am the movies I love! (^_^)

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

I'm talking about "My Family" which was as bland as wallpaper paste, and about as hilarious, and was apparently axed a year ago.

Here's a quote from The Daily Telegraph which reported at the time: My Family has a large team of writers working on the scripts. Despite this Wanamaker and Lindsay (both highly respected) admitted in an interview in 2009 that they've occasionally refused to perform because the material was so poor. "Out of 100 episodes maybe we've done 10 that you can say are really good shows," said Lindsay.

Zoe Wanamaker, Kris Marshall and Robert Lindsay, who are all first class actors, must have been paid a monstrous sum to appear in it.

Apologies for typos, this was typed with the help of two kittens, Lara and Oz.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

I think there's also the TV licence factor - everybody who owns a TV pays it (or is supposed to, the system is far from perfect as any uni student in halls of residence will tell you!) so a big chunk of funding comes from that, but because everybody pays it the BBC (and, I suppose, everyone else - the license is/was a BBC thing but effectively their thinking is, you either have one or you must be watching TV illegally) is really meant to try to divide their income from that to cover lots of different programme types.

So, for instance, it is a wiser move to make one six-episode costume drama, one soap and one six-episode factual series (i.e. Coast) and one six-episode comedy series than to just say they'll make one eighteen-episode comedy, because they're sort of obliged to cater for everyone. (Especially given that the license isn't popular with everyone.)

Or at least, that's my take on it.


"If we go on like this, you're going to turn into an Alsatian again."

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?


I think there's also the TV licence factor - everybody who owns a TV pays it (or is supposed to, the system is far from perfect as any uni student in halls of residence will tell you!) so a big chunk of funding comes from that, but because everybody pays it the BBC (and, I suppose, everyone else - the license is/was a BBC thing but effectively their thinking is, you either have one or you must be watching TV illegally) is really meant to try to divide their income from that to cover lots of different programme types.

So, for instance, it is a wiser move to make one six-episode costume drama, one soap and one six-episode factual series (i.e. Coast) and one six-episode comedy series than to just say they'll make one eighteen-episode comedy, because they're sort of obliged to cater for everyone. (Especially given that the license isn't popular with everyone.)

Or at least, that's my take on it.
IridescentTranquility, your reply to me was almost a year ago, but I have got to say that this is a most interesting reply! Wow, I never knew you in the UK pay a monthly bill just to own a TV and that that money goes to fund the TV stations! Do I understand right? If so, wow!

So, if the Brits pay to own a TV every month, does that mean that if they stop paying, they lose their TV (someone comes in and confiscates it)? Or, does it just mean that they no longer get TV programs, even though they get to keep the TV (in other words, it renders the TV useless)?

And, do Brits get any free channels, like we in America can get, on an antenna?

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

The TV Licence fee funds the BBC's TV, radio and internet services, none of which carry advertising. And yes, it's a per-household levy for every home that has a TV, and a long-time bone of contention in the UK between the pro- and anti-BBC lobby. You don't have your TV confiscated if you don't pay it, and neither do you lose services, but you can be fined.

However, the commercial networks like ITV, Channel 4, etc are funded in the standard way, by selling advertising space. And yes, in the UK there are dozens of free channels via your antenna. (But you still have to pay the licence fee, whether you watch the BBC channels or not.)

Make tea, not war.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Sweden has the same licence as the UK. Technically you are not allowed to own a TV withour paying it every third month. Our equivalent of BBC is called SVT. But we also have an equivalent for Channel Four: TV4. And I've never thought about this before, but our TV shows also tend to have fewer episodes per year than many American shows.

Intelligence and purity.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?


Sweden has the same licence as the UK. Technically you are not allowed to own a TV withour paying it every third month. Our equivalent of BBC is called SVT. But we also have an equivalent for Channel Four: TV4. And I've never thought about this before, but our TV shows also tend to have fewer episodes per year than many American shows.
This is all very interesting! And I thank you all for replying to this thread, I've learned so much. I've been telling everyone that in the UK, you have to pay for a TV in order to even have one in your house. That's incredible to me, because here, in the US, we can only TV weather we pay for cable or not.

It's just so interesting how different things can be, in different places.

But I rather like the short seasons. I think it does lend a quality to the show, to not drag it on for too long.

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Our system is based directly on the British one, so it's no wonder that it's so similar. As a matter of fact, people here in Sweden are often not that keen on commercial breaks, because we're used to SVT, which still to this day won't have any. And we also only had one channel until 1969, only two channels until 1988 and only three until 1990.

Intelligence and purity.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

You can own a TV without a licence in the UK, just so long as you don't have an aerial or sky box to hook it up to. You can still use one for gaming or DVD/blu rays. It does mean that along with the commercial channels we get the BBC, which genuinely does cater for all tastes across its channels and remains pretty much neutral, so no real left or right wing agenda, especially for its news. It also does so without the need for adverts which is great, especially during films.

With regards to shorter series, I've no doubt that some of it comes down to cost. However, more than that I think there's a greater desire to make a show with a definite end in site and/or finishing off on a high note, as opposed to a lot of American shows which seem to get renewed when they're popular so start to drop off in quality which is always a shame. I'm especially looking at the likes of Heroes or How I Met Your Mother, for example, which seemed to very much lose sight of what they were doing and run out of interesting storylines the longer they went on.

Of course there's always counterexamples to this but it seems to be the general consensus I think.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Another factor is the availability of the cast - British actors don't limit themselves to television - they are often multi-tasking, rehearsing and/or appearing in a play at night while filming a movie or television show during the day - British actors have to be versatile because stars aren't paid there the way they are here in the U.S., where they generally limited themselves to one activity at a time. I think I read that Hugh Laurie was getting several hundred thousand dollars a week for HOUSE - he could never, ever get that in England, or anything close to it.

"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified."

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Brits show their programs only as long as they're good. No nostalgy and no repetition, but some new shows in stead.

Okay, The Benny Hill Show...


"Play it again, Ingrid, I don't give a Dajm."

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?


I've lived in the UK all my life (nearly forty years) and have never seen "The Benny Hill Show".


Apologies for typos, this was typed with the help of two kittens, Lara and Oz.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

To Gideon_again: this is OT, but I love your signature!

Thanks for the informative replies, everyone! I figured money and population-count might have something to do w/ it.

I am the movies I love! (^_^)

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

you're not missing much


Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

I think it mainly is due to quality of the show.

Brits feel it's better entertainment value that we get 6 episodes crammed with top quality comedy rather than 13+ where the comedy is spread across and is basically watered down. Quality over Quantity.

That's not to say US sitcoms aren't funny, that ties in to what a poster above has said, US sitcoms have several writers all pitching in. Brits usually only have one or two writers maximum.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Episodes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1582350/) explain it pretty well in the first episode I think

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

What I really want to know is, since the Brits make so few episodes of their shows, what do they fill their schedules with the rest of the time---international programming? Or, is it that although they produce fewer episodes, they create more individual programs? I ask this because I can't imagine that they keep rerunning the same 6 episodes of a show until new ones are produced, do they? Cause people would burn out on it pretty quick that way.

I am the movies I love! (^_^)

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

There are a lot less channels! And international stuff. But I don't have sky or any pay tv so I don't know what happens on the other channels

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Most channels have a very broad range of programming, and there are fewer channels, mostly all run by a small group of companies (BBC, ITV and Channel 4). BBC, for example, has a lot of documentaries, some films, a small amount of comedy, some trashy 'docudrama' type teen shows, soaps, news, light entertainment, a mix of factual and fiction programmes, sports, panel shows etc. They don't really show a lot of repeats except late at night (or on another channel, Dave, which is almost all repeats) BBC do not seem to show a lot of US programmes anymore - they used to show a lot more but get pipped to the post by Channel 4 which is a commercial channel and is able to bid more money for American shows and shows a lot of the US comedies. They show more repeats, but again usually not until later on (Father Ted tonight at 11pm for example) I don't really watch much ITV, most of it looks like rubbishy light entertainment or soaps so I ignore it unless they have a film on. The Sky channels (subscription based) gets most of the really popular US programming, I don't watch any Sky channels so I don't know what they are like - way too many adverts for my liking!

A lot of the prime time schedule is taken up with one off documentaries, the news, films, panel shows like QI stuff. I would say it is very varied and not at all repetitive apart from late at night and during the day when viewing figures are down, but for evening TV every week is different. Here is a TV listing so you can get an idea http://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings?ref=tvGateway.tvNow.

Hope that explains it a bit

The lute is the coolest of all medieval stringed instruments.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Wonderful reply! Thanks, pupnik! This explains a lot!

I am the movies I love! (^_^)

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

hi MymovieRomance, I've just stumbled across your question - which is obviously uite old now, and read a few replies....there's one thing that i hadn't seen explained in much detail in reply (although may be in there somewhere)....

That is the fact that british shows in general (not just sitcoms) have much smaller budgets attached to them (which someone did touch on), the reason for this is fairly simple, its because the scope for buyers and the price they are willing to pay is vastly smaller. American shows reach huge audiences both in the states and all round the world, whereas british shows are usually shown in the UK or if they make it big then sold to Europe or tucked away on a smaller channel in the US or i guess at a non-prime time slot....with less revenue there is less budget to produce a long run of shows....also bbc shows have no backing from advertising in the UK so there is no one but the general public putting money into them, the bbc is always under pressure to distribute funds to a wide variety of shows....so they will never be able to put vast sums into Ab Fab for example.

the exception which will help elaborate is Dr. Who, which has c14- 20 eposides in a series currently I believe, compared with the standard 6 in a sitcom. Dr. Who is one of the most exportable british shows and correct me if I'm wrong but one of the most popular british shows in america (for a long time)...they producers know they can always rely on a big global audience and there is a lot of money to be made off the back of merchandise, which a sitcom will never have.

hope this helps somewhat!


"And you wanna be my latex salesman?"

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Yes, it does. Thanks for your nice reply, Never_where. I think the smaller budget causes them to use it more wisely, to produce quality episodes, even though they have less quantity. Si, if that's the case, I can't complain too much!

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?


*With so few episodes being produced over such lengthy periods of time, how to Brit TV stations fill their programing schedules? Do they just air a whole lot of re-runs? Or, is it that while they produce relatively few episodes of a single show, they have a wider variety of shows than average, so that no one has time to miss their favorites? Or, do the stations fill in the gaps with international programing?

I ask these questions because knowing how US TV typically works (new episodes of one's fav show, every single week, except for some seasonal breaks), it boggles my mind how the Brit stations can get by on so few episodes, because it seems that the programing would get redundant and boring very fast.


You really can´t compare a UK 6 episode ´series´ to a 20 plus USA ´season´. These UK sitcoms are more like a 6 week mini-series. They are not stretched out over an entire TV season (for instance from September to May) like a US sitcom is. Instead, they are shown for six weeks in a row and after that the time slot will be take up by completely different program for another six week run. This would usually be another sitcom, but not necessarily.

Usually, about six months or a year later, a six episode season of any given series is repeated before they announce that a new series of the same show will be broadcast later that year (or the start of the next year). This is why there is often a gap of at least a year, sometimes a year and a half between each season. Look at the release dates of Absolutely Fabulous, the first series was broadcast in 1992, but the second did not appear until 1994.

So to sum up, when one series ends it is followed by a different TV show or the repeat showing of another series, but usually not by reruns of the same TV show.
Of course not every series has 6 episode seasons. Sometimes itÂ’s between eight, and thirteen. Thirteen weeks is about half a TV season, meaning you can fit two series of thirteen episodes between September and May. In the case of 6 episode sitcoms, you can fit in four different shows in one television season whereas in the US they would only broadcast one show in this timeslot.

The war time sit-com ‘Allo, ‘Allo! actually did a 26 episode season once in a bid to sell it to US broadcasters. They went back to doing much shorter seasons a year later.

Chip

"I think that Amish Robot was drunk"

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?


You really can´t compare a UK 6 episode ´series´ to a 20 plus USA ´season´. These UK sitcoms are more like a 6 week mini-series. They are not stretched out over an entire TV season (for instance from September to May) like a US sitcom is. Instead, they are shown for six weeks in a row and after that the time slot will be take up by completely different program for another six week run. This would usually be another sitcom, but not necessarily.

Usually, about six months or a year later, a six episode season of any given series is repeated before they announce that a new series of the same show will be broadcast later that year (or the start of the next year). This is why there is often a gap of at least a year, sometimes a year and a half between each season. Look at the release dates of Absolutely Fabulous, the first series was broadcast in 1992, but the second did not appear until 1994.

So to sum up, when one series ends it is followed by a different TV show or the repeat showing of another series, but usually not by reruns of the same TV show.
Of course not every series has 6 episode seasons. Sometimes itÂ’s between eight, and thirteen. Thirteen weeks is about half a TV season, meaning you can fit two series of thirteen episodes between September and May. In the case of 6 episode sitcoms, you can fit in four different shows in one television season whereas in the US they would only broadcast one show in this timeslot.

The war time sit-com ‘Allo, ‘Allo! actually did a 26 episode season once in a bid to sell it to US broadcasters. They went back to doing much shorter seasons a year later.

Chip
Wow, this answers almost everything I could want to know on the matter! Thank you so much for this, Chip!

On another note though, how many TV channels are on a typical British TV? Here in the States, we have up into the hundreds. But, I imagine it is far fewer for the U.K., due to budget constants and all. And, that would help to explain how very useful the 6-week run of a show is---since there are fewer channels, a 6-week run of a show frees up channels space/time-slots for more shows to be shown on one channel. In the US, with our shows going on so long, there isn't much time to show many other programs on the same channel.

Also, are British channels 24-hour a day channels? Or, do they have 12-hour blocks of programming that simply repeats twice?

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Those who subscribe to satellite or cable TV services in the UK have access to hundreds of channels catering for all tastes: movies, sports, drama, general entertainment, comedy, arts and music - pretty much what you have in the States. Those who don't have to make do with the free-to-air channels, of which there are around (I think) 40, including the various offshoot channels of the main networks.

The length of time the channels broadcast varies according to their budget. Most of the main channels are 24 hour, although the BBC's main channels generally go to a feed of its news channel when their regular programming ends (around 2am), and other networks fill their early hours schedules with reruns.

Make tea, not war.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

This is a few years old, but to answer the question of "how many channels?", as a minimum nowadays people will have the "Freeview" digital terrestrial TV system - some people may be unlucky to live in a remote area that has fewer multiplexes on their local transmitter, but if they get coverage from a major regional transmitter like I do, they get around 130 TV channels (I just counted mine) and around 30 radio channels. On the TV side there's some duplication between standard definition and high-def channels (10 HD channels); there's also a trend for "+1" channels (repeating a channels' output 1 hour later) - I can see 11 +1 channels in my list, oh yeah, there's around a dozen "adult" channels that only broadcast late night. There are a few channels of what you might call a limited audience - there's Al Jazeerah Arabic, as well as Al Jazeerah English, there's a channel in what looks like Hindi, RT for the Russian governments' slant on the news, over in the 200-channel numbers internet connected TVs can get more specialised channels like a horse racing channel on channel 231, or CCTV on channel 226 if you want to see what Beijing thinks.

If you have satellite TV (Sky) or broadband, obviously you can get hundreds more channels.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

John Cleese once said that every minute of Fawlty Towers took him 6 hours to write. That's a huge input, but the results seem worth it. I'd rather have much less of something high quality than have the good stuff spread over many episodes (which is how most American series seem to be). e.g. how many episodes of Frasier, Friends, etc. were there? Far too many with same the jokes being repeated and repeated; occasionally great but filled with far too much padding.

b l u e
r e d

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

Just to add to the discussion, as Gideon_again had said, the number of writers really is the key factor.

For starters there isn't anything comparable to a pilot season. Most programmes are commissioned for a full set of episodes or not, based on scripts or raw footage. Audience testing is rare.

Sitcoms are written by small teams or individuals, with duets probably being most common. Check the writing credits for most britcoms and you'll find these writing couples. The advantage of this is that the writing is more personal and more coherent, by which I mean that you don't have the problem of trying to match styles.

The flip side is burn out. For instance the two writers for Father Ted were responsible for writing enough material for 10 shows in 1996, so 5 each, whereas something like 'The McCarthy's' has 11 writers listed for 11 shows that made it to air or one each.

The better comparison for the way Britcoms are written is to compare them to what's happening on cable. Aaron Sorkin away from the demands of network TV wrote only 25 episodes of The Newsroom over 3 years despite a large writing team. This gave Sorkin better control without burn out.

The 10-13 episode per season framework is becoming more popular and is well deployed in programming such as OITNB, House of Cards, Sopranos, Homeland & Game of Thrones.

The 23 episode run is a staple of US network TV and will be for some time, but the more intense shorter runs that are becoming more popular else where may eventually get the networks looking to go with back to back 'half' seasons more often!

Against regional coding, US websites blocked in UK & staggered global broadcasts!

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

You have to consider most British actors are stage actors, and limited time to film.

Re: Why do Britcoms have so few episodes compared to others?

British sitcoms tend towards being about trapped, domestic or domestic like relationships with typical British traits or stereotypes such as class differences and differences in attitudes to sex. As such, they often suit being tightly written around a hook or two per show rather than having long running continuing storylines. However Only Fools and Horses and Red Dwarf in particular, and arguably to an even surrealler extent Reginald Perrin, broke their original mould as they progressed. American shows tend to be less about melancholic Hamlet types of character surrounded by those who fail to grasp their full significance and more about genuine team dynamics that comes from the very different style possible to make popular in positive minded , broad church, movie wisecracking America which is about 50 times the size of the UK, has many traditions, old or modern, that are older than UK counterparts. (Often because yesterday's innovation is today's classic). America has the emotional, spiritual and intellectual broadness and confidence to not have to be cynical and self pitying on a small scale to get laughs.
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