"Story Arcs" Series

[Almir]

\"Story Arcs\" Series

I don't know for sure but I think B5 was the first show with a direct "Story Arc" plot. There's some "Non Arc" episodes, but very few (and bad ones too ).
Before B5 I never had seen such way of telling a story.
There was X-files and some others that had a main plot or arc of 5 or 6 episodes spreaded out of 22.

Now we have or recently had a lot of scifi shows with a "Story Arc" like Odyssey 5, Stargate SG-1, Jeremiah, Alias and more recently Enterprise S3 wich I just started to watch (I'm in episode 7) and found very interesting so far.

I know the main problem of it, is that it makes more difficult for new viewers to jump in, but for the regular viewers, the story can be much better told.

It all started with B5 I think and I know many critics didn't like it at that time, but became a kind a new fashion on TV these days.

Once again JMS was ahead of his time.

Almir

 

[Recoil]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Out of all the examples you given, none were pre-planned story arc's that I am aware of. Even Alias, while being a story arc, isnt a completely planned one like B5 was.

X-Files I think introduced the idea of a "story arc" when they started their back-story plot about the alien conspiracy. Their difference was it wasn't planned, and they made it up as they went along. I still, however, think of the X-Files as the first story-arc oriented show where there was a definate background story taking place.

To this day though, I can't think of another series that is a "pre-planned" story arc, although some may be out there. (Not counting Jeremiah as it was a JMS show)

 

[hypatia]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Thanks to Netflix, I am seeing a lot more British series now. They tend to be much shorter than successful series in the USA.

Hard to say if "Blake's 7" had a pre-planned arc or not.
I would definitely say "House of Cards/To Play the King/The Final Cut" have a pre-planned arc, but they were based on books, I think, so you might not count that.

In a strange way "Coupling" sort of has a bit of a guiding story, doesn't it? (I know I'm pushing my luck seriously here ) Also "Coupling" came after B5.

 

[Elenopa]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

I believe 'Coupling' was based on the writer's actual relationships, so maybe that doesn't count either.

 

[Almir]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Out of all the examples you given, none were pre-planned story arc's that I am aware of. Even Alias, while being a story arc, isnt a completely planned one like B5 was.

I agree with you but, pre-planned or not pre-planned, my point is that we've seen more of this type of storytelling now.
At least more often than pre-B5 era.

Almir

 

[PillowRock]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Assuming that you discount soaps, and the satire of them Soap, the first significant moderately long-term story arcs that I am aware of in American series television was on the 1980's show Wiseguy. The central character was a federal agent in deep cover to bring down organized crime operations. Each mission was roughly a half season story arc, which was mapped out when they were preparing that particular arc.

The network was not at all sure about whether audiances would follow that kind of story telling in prime time. They were also very nervous about the show runner actually finishing the first case (and by extension getting rid of an extremely well received antagonist in Sonny Stealgrave) and starting up a new case with a new set of villains.

Their first couple story arcs were spectacularly good (the second one is where I first remember seeing Kevin Spacey; he really does play a wonderful extremely rich insane criminal genius). The next couple were pretty decent. Eventually they started having trouble coming up with new antagonists and scenarios that didn't feel like it was rehashing a lot of their previous cases and it went downhill.

 

[KoshFan]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

To this day though, I can't think of another series that is a "pre-planned" story arc, although some may be out there. (Not counting Jeremiah as it was a JMS show)

In a word: Firefly. Admittedly the show got axed before the arc had even really begun, but there was so much groundwork being laid in that show. There would have been a very, very big arc.

 

[Recoil]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

In a word: Firefly. Admittedly the show got axed before the arc had even really begun, but there was so much groundwork being laid in that show. There would have been a very, very big arc.

Was Firefly SUPPOSED to be a pre-planned arc? Just seeing the signs of one doesnt mean it was going to be one. Did Joss ever comment?

 

[TheInfection]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Dark Skies pops into my mind. It was a shame that we didn't get the chance to see where the story would've been heading after the first season finale. Same can be said about Firefly.

Regards,
Marko Marin

 

[GeoKuutio]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

John Doe? You know... that series that was axed after first season... It had all these "non-relevant" episoded, but even they had something to do with the main plot based on "who am I" question.

 

[PillowRock]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Well, if we're trying to name series that were clearly starting a large arc but never got to see it through .....

The Lazarus Man, starring Robert Urich, is a prime example. It didn't even get to complete its first season because Urich had to pull out in the middle of the first season when he was diagnosed with cancer. It had been looking quite interesting. Urich wakes up and digs himself out of shallow (and not tamped down) grave where he had been left for dead immediately after the end of the Civil War (American). He has pretty total amnesia except things periodically bring back flashes of images, usually without much context. Renamed Lazarus by the family that nurses him back to health in the pilot, he starts trying to find his own past.

The direction that it looked like it was going was that he had been Secret Service and his attempted murder was carried out by some of his superiors and colleagues because he (unlike them) was not a co-conspirator in the Lincoln assassination and had stumbled onto the plot just before it was to be carried out.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Five year arcs have become popular in Science Fiction, now that JMS has shown how to do it. To a writer they are not difficult to develop - a 5 year arc is only 5 pages of writing.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Dr. Who certainly had story arcs that continued for quite a while, before starting a new one. The cartoon series Rocky and Bullwinkle definitely had continuing story arcs. These went on for months, or maybe a season, but not for five years, like B5. Some shows, such as Kung Fu and The Fugitive, had what I would call arc elements. There was a constant progression towards a goal, over years, and characters that recurred, and developed way more than usual TV shows.

 

[hypatia]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

...(snip)...The cartoon series Rocky and Bullwinkle definitely had continuing story arcs. These went on for months, or maybe a season, but not for five years, like B5.

I must applaud you.
I adore this series. It was fun.

You are absolutely right. Some might fit it in the "can't be counted for the soap-opera thing" but I do admit I hate soap-operas and loved Bullwinkle!

Some shows, such as Kung Fu and The Fugitive, had what I would call arc elements. There was a constant progression towards a goal, over years, and characters that recurred, and developed way more than usual TV shows.

Kung Fu is another one that might be considered. They rarely followed up on the arc, though did they? It was more a quest rather than an arc.

 

[Sindatur]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

What about the Invaders with Roy Thinnes, was that American or British, it had an arc.

 

[KoshFan]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

I've never seen 24, but I suppose we should include it.

 

[Sindatur]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

But 24 came considerably after B5. The first post in the thread is looking for Series prior to B5, that were Arc'ed in order to support that B5 changed the face of Scifi by breaking the Arc ground.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

Kung Fu is another one that might be considered. They rarely followed up on the arc, though did they? It was more a quest rather than an arc.

Kung Fu, and The Fugitive, yes, you could call a quest. I did say "a goal," and "arc elements." In KF, which I am most familiar with, Caine did go through many changes through the course of the series, and continued to pursue his goal of finding his brother, but it certainly wasn't the detailed, progressing saga that B5 is. I only watched The Invaders a bit, but it did have a thread running through it.

As to Rocky and Bullwinkle, they were definitely NOT a soap opera! Even though the quality of the art work was low, farmed out to Korea, I think... I still think it was the best written made-for-TV toon there ever was. Great satires... mostly too subtle for people today, and lots of outrageous puns. No doubt that's where I learned to love both. I think I have succedded in collecting all of them, by taping from TV. I should check, and see if the best ones ever became available on DVD. In the past, I couldn't find any of their best stories for sale commercially, because they were all too long for one tape, or LD. Remember Maybe Dick, the Wailing Whale? Mount Flatten? The Metal Munching Moon Mice, who ate up all the TV antennas in the US, so people had to start talking to each other again? The Lazy J Worm Ranch? The Ruby Yacht of Omar Kayham?

 

[Almir]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

But 24 came considerably after B5. The first post in the thread is looking for Series prior to B5, that were Arc'ed in order to support that B5 changed the face of Scifi by breaking the Arc ground.

Exactly!
I just mentioned a few that came up to my mind at the moment, but, yes there's a lot more and many of them are scifi shows like Firefly, Dark Skies (YES, what a great show) or mainstream with a few scifi elements, like Johm Doe for example.
I just curious because I think some critics said at the time B5 was running that that tipe of show was difficult for casual viewers to jump in but we can see how many arc story series were shown on tv after B5

Almir

 

[hypatia]

Re: \"Story Arcs\" Series

"The Metal Munching Moon Mice" is actually the only reference I recognize here.

It has been a long time since I've seen Rocky and Bullwinkle. Bullwinkle as "Mr. Know-it-all" I will NEVER forget, though.