With regard to the rant about when episodes are scheduled: We viewers are really to blame for this. Too many of us don't sit down reliably every week, and indeed there are certain diversions that are sure to distract us away from any routine television-watching, such as preparing for the winter holidays, the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, March Madness, etc. If we are going to get distracted away from a program, for some weeks, then it really makes no sense to present new episodes those weeks, and that's especially true of series that rely on folks watching each episode in order.
Something like '24' can afford to do the straight run because they plan on making a lot of money on the DVDs. It's the one bright spot in an otherwise really hazardous path that producers of serialized dramas travel. Generally, fewer people are willing to put in the extra energy necessary to invest themselves in serialized dramas. However, those that do do tend to spend more-than-average on the back-end. Also, such series do tend to do a little better overseas.
There is also another problem with presenting television series straight-through: The television season runs September to May; starting a little after the beginning of the school-year in most of the country and ending a little before the end of the school-year in most of the country. However, even if we could get people to be more consistent, week-after-week, there simply isn't enough money there to make the high quality programming that we've come to expect, for 39 episodes per program.