Television

Most shows like that though didn't "cram" much into most of their episodes though. They were often at least partially episodically designed where the cast just solved a weekly crime, or case or slayed some monster and then soft-reset at the end with only small effects to the wider season/series arc.

One of the problems these days is that that they take a good concept for a movie, and stretch it into an entire series full of slow spots and too much exposition, when the whole story could have been tightly told in a 2 hour film.

Then there's the acoloyte where they had a flashback episode even though the season was only 8 episodes long.

Ive been watching through Workaholics lately and I like their model of starting out with 10 episodes for the first couple seasons and then cranking it up to 20 once they become popular. This seems like a great solution all around since you can give a show time to grow and not cancel it just as it's gaining traction a la Netflix, while giving the fans more to see once it's become successful. If a show turns out to be unpopular, studios don't have so much upfront investment and can cancel it after 2-3 seasons.

The problem with a lot of those shows from back in the day is they were filled with a lot of filler, and I don’t mean the “monster of the week” in between larger arcs counting as filler. Writers said they didn’t have time to really care about all 22-24 episodes, so many were half assed. Then you have the budget constraints, which would lead to bottle episodes, because there never really was enough budget to make 22-24 episodes a season. Every once in a while you’d get people who try, and you’d get something like the famous Breaking Bad Fly episode.

When Netflix started doing their own shows at 13 episodes, you’d get people complaining that they were just stretching it out to fit 13.

Personally I think 12 or 13 episodes is a good balance and I liked that we got a higher number count on something like Andor. 6 episodes of something is often way too short.

After not watching them for at least a decade, I'm going back through the old Star Trek seasons (specifically Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager), and each season is between 22 and 26 one hour episodes. So much great stuff!

It used to be 1 year for 20 episodes now it's 2 years for 8

Not only 8 episodes but sometimes the entire 8 episode season on one day which can be watched in an afternoon. The new season comes out 1.5 years later and you have absolutely zero recollection of what happened previously.

Yes and no I miss filler episodes in sitcoms and nonsense like star trek and comedies like IASIP.

I detest making docuseries longer than 90 minutes unless it is outrageous and twisty.

I did like non standard episode counts because I told myself they werent beholden to a certain number and could just tell the story but GoT ruined that theory.

Counter-counterpoint, movies don't have limits to their time, but they are still edited down. Having a tight, concise story is still important. As well, I'd personally prefer longer seasons instead, 16 episodes over 10.

I point to Snyder's JL cut as an example against lack of restraints for artists in general. That guy clearly had no one to reign him in and it shows.

Imo, working within restraints is what makes art/media pop. Obviously shoving everything into a single mold isn't the answer, but I don't think letting artists meander endlessly will result in anything particularly interesting.

This is a great example of a show that keeps the runtime down but still carries the story forward and has some terrific moments.

Sometimes I wish it was longer, but I'm satisfied with the current episode lengths. They get enough done.

Exactly. It’s like a book with no editor.

Disagree. I think a much more common problem is that there isn't enough good stuff to fill all of the available time, so the writers have to put more filler in and it makes the show terrible

Not even that, just have a nice arc that actually fits into a single episode rather than it be a chapter in a 10 hr movie. I consider most episodes filler because they can’t stand on their own and only make sense in the bigger picture which is frustrating if you actually want to want an episode in isolation and don’t want to binge a whole series in one sitting.

I prefer 26 episodes per season. ST:TNG has more episodes and length than any other modern series, and they will never top that because modern Hollywood wants to spent too much money per episode for it to shit the bed on the second season.

Also, actors don't live long enough for these five-year hiatuses per season.

This right here. If something is good it can be as long or as short as it wants to be. Forcing something to a constrained time isn't going to make a show better. Letting any shit show go on and on in length isn't going to make it good.