Do you think TV writers know how a series will end?

[nkereina]

Its probably hard to plan out because no one knows how many seasons they will have to tell the story in. Though I imagine most writers have an idea for a story and leave room for the evolution of it.

I recently watched the series finale of Homeland and thought it was really well done. Wrapped everything up nicely and ironically, most questions answered. But then there's a show like Bloodline that was forced to stop production during the third season and had to rush to wrap everything up. The storyline during the third season really went off the rails because of that. I will also be interested to see how the Walking Dead ends - not sure if they have a plan. They loosely followed the comics as their guide for the story, but its my understanding the comics don't have an "ending" so to speak, so the show will need to devise their own whenever they're ready to end it.

 

[Moliphino]

Depends on the series. Chris Carter had no idea how to end X-Files once he got talked into renewing for season 6 (originally the first movie was going to be the end of the show). I believe Supernatural was also supposed to originally be done with season 5 as well. I believe Lost was always going to end the way they intended.

Yeah, Supernatural had a 5 year plan that they did complete. Then they just kept going for another ten years because they could.

 

[_19disnA]

I would imagine mini-series type shows will probably have more of a plan where they are going then shows that last for years. With all of the ongoing TV doctor/lawyer/detective/police shows, I think their bigger challenge is finding new/different ideas for weekly scripts to keep the concept going and getting viewers to stay interested. If a show goes on for several years, probably many of the original cast members are gone from the show. Doubt the producers would have anyway to know or plan for that when they first started.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I always wondered why studios don't use superfan sites as a crowd sourced lottery system for new talent growing wild. My son often shares fantastic alternatives for many stories, esp Marvel & Star Wars, it's already there, why not use it - everyone wins. It's always sad when things get stale, the superfans remember everything & can really keep things going.

 

[tvguy]

In the case of St. Elsewhere, the writers HAD to be doing drugs when they wrote the last episode.

 

[tex1989]

The problem with most series are that no one knows how long they will last. So if you are involved with writing one you can have a story arc in mind but since the end is based on ratings, and network contracts your never sure how much time you have to tell your story. I also think writers, producers, and directors sometimes get tired of the project if it does too well and basically at some point just phone it in. To me Lost and GOT are two good examples. In Lost fan suggested that the whole thing was purgatory and the producers "promised" it was not that, only to end the series basically telling you it was purgatory. GOT got past RR Martin's material and got lazy and said let's just get this thing over with and HBO while loving the ratings was paying through the nose for it so they said 7 episodes for the last season is okay by us! So all the character development and story telling got mushed, thrown out the window and the goal became, let's get this over with.

So to answer the question, yeah they have an end in mind, the question is are they going to make it long enough to get to the end, and are they going to care enough at that point to do it right. Most of the time the answer is no.

 

[Moliphino]

Spartacus was pretty well planned out from the start, but that was elaborating on a real historical event so the main plot points were already defined. Even then, they had to alter plans. When Andy Whitfield got sick, they quickly put together the prequel season (which was awesome, even when completely unplanned).

 

[RamblingMad]

Most don’t.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I think social media is playing a role in how shows are written. Writers/producers can get immediate feedback from fans after each episode. If they have a particular story line planned and see a lot of fan push-back, they might reconsider where the story is going. For example, if you watch soap operas, I think the writers have a basic idea of where a story is heading and how it will end. If they see a lot of outrage from fans ("I will stop watching if the custody trial goes a certain way"), they might rethink it. They certainly don't want to lose viewers over a story, but they don't want to give in to fan opinions too easily either. There has to be a balance between the original vision for the story and going too far and losing viewers.

 

[chickapin parterre]

No....on BiG Bang Theory...just not possible for Sheldon to have foresight to acknowledging peers.....should have been Bob Newhart waking up....again!!!