TV Tuesday: Looking Back

[yourlibrarian]

Many people would agree that TV shows have been increasingly well told and produced over the decades. Budgets factor into that as CGI has both raised and lowered certain costs (depending on the type of show) and the level of animation for series has also improved.

What shows do you think have benefited from the improvement in effects, sets, number of location shoots, and other changes from shows in the 20th century? Are there any shows you think were turning points for the industry?

Comments

[china_shop]

I feel like Sense8 set a really high bar for location shooting, and I really appreciated that aspect of it. It added so much richness to the story.

[yourlibrarian]

That's a great example, it really was spectacular to see all those locations.

[china_shop]

Yeah. Thinking about it more, I really liked how the storylines were integrated into the locations and cultures, too. It wasn't just James Bond swanning around against a lot of different backdrops, but a show that really engaged with its range of characters. ♥

[executrix]

The Gilded Age is the Nuke LaLoosh of period dramas*. I keep being drawn back by the stunning filming of gorgeous sets and costumes, but as soon as there are actual Words, I'm throwing things at the screen. Everything looks much better than Upstairs, Downstairs but everything sounds worse.





*Million-dollar arm, five cent brain

[yourlibrarian]

Not the best tradeoff there. Although it reminds me of how I got a friend to try out Miss Fisher by telling her she could just enjoy the outfits alone. (She ended up loving the show and named her cat after her)

[jo]

I think the Star Trek franchise is a great example of how these various things have improved over the decades. Well, maybe not on the location shoot-front as they don't do that much outside of the studio, but in terms of everything else, you can see how much everything has improved from the days of TOS.

[yourlibrarian]

Good example! I noticed the same has been true of Dr. Who -- in fact there was talk in reviews about how Disney money has upped the SFX budget for the show.

[ravengown]

Honestly I really think of LOST with questions like this - although arguably what LOST did was not wholly good. It feels like that kind of location shooting isn't that common anymore, where it's just like "OK guys we are all going to THIS PLACE and shooting a ton of it at once."

Actually, I haven't ever really watched anything on how it was filmed though, I just know that ... most of it was filmed in Hawaii. Maybe I should go and actually learn about that :D.

[yourlibrarian]

I think LOST did change a number of things though, certainly in terms of cast size and ongoing stories. I think that -- outside of soaps -- there weren't many shows with that kind of sprawling storyline and cast (and at least in the early stages of S1 there was also a CGI brought in.

However the going and shooting on location for the whole period wasn't that common. Right now I'm thinking of Death in Paradise does the same but it came later and has a much smaller cast and a simpler setup.

[ravengown]

Oh, true! Whenever I think about "prime time soaps" I always think about Grey's Anatomy too.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Dinosaurs. Anything with dinosaurs has gotten dramatically better over time. There are some documentaries that are basically all CGI dinosaurs with a nature-show voiceover. Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous is another fun example.

Re: Thoughts

[yourlibrarian]

SO. TRUE. I've seen those documentaries and they set it in actual landscapes. It's amazing work. 4 year old me was already fascinated by stop motion. These would have been so convincing.