Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-25123326-20140708033021/@comment-4091815-20140710040145

I'm not assailing your right to complain - I am destroying your central thesis.

I've given you two examples of show runners/creators who don't bow to audience reaction.

They happen to have created the best shows of the past decade which destroys the idea that creators/writers who don't pander to the audience are destined to fail.

When shows are run by committee or by audience survey (I'm on Fox's Viewer Panel and you'd be surprised the crap want to know) they will fail most of the time - 60 to 70%.

I'm interested to see what happens to Sleepy Hollow when it returns. It had very little network interference during the writing of the first season. They started doing surveys about midway through the run "Which actor is most important to your enjoyment of the show?" "Which of the following best describes Nicole Beharie? Smart__ Interesting__ Boring___ Silly(in a good way)___ Depressing___"

That kind of crap can kill a show. It killed United States of Tara. They started surveying at the end of the first season and by the time the mid point of the second season rolled around it was a completely different (much worse) show. It then limped into a 3rd Season and fell apart.

My counterpoint would be that great shows are often killed by listening to the audience.

As for Teen Wolf being based on the movie - "in name only" is the type of remake. It's less of a remake than Battlestar or any of the other examples you can name.

It is an original show - it may be part of a well trod genre but so was TVD after Twilight and Buffy - which was a retread of a Movie and yet one of the most original and exciting series of the past 20 years.

When Buffy worked it was because Josh had his hands deep in the episode. When it didn't work was when he was busy doing something else.

I just binge-watched Season Six, which had been one of my least favorites - it was remarkably good in retrospect. Season 4 is now my least favorite because that's when they went off to college and everything changed. Plus, Adam was lameass Big Bad. But I want to watch it now to see if I was wrong.

Bottom line, since I'm rambling, creator-driven is far better than anything else on TV.