>"...back when shows had to refresh viewers' memories on continuing plotlines on the fly..."
Oh, yes! I remember phoning my local station to ask when they intended to air the episode they'd pre-empted when a sporting event ran long. They probably wondered at this strange girl, who not only watched their throw-away syndicated programming, but bothered to look up their phone number and bug them about it. Tape-tree days...
As you say, TPTB feared continuity back then, because they felt it would be bad for syndication sales; they wanted standalone episodes that could air in any order. Sometimes people today, who discover FK on DVD, criticize its lack of sustained development; they don't understand that even HL's level of continuity (nothing compared to today's) was innovative and daring at that time... and HL had some advantages on that score that smaller, less well-funded, less internationally-famous shows did not.
>"Actually, in general, I don't get the "just watch the Methos episodes and nothing else" attitude that I've run into so often in the fandom."
I don't understand that at all, and it's so very widespread -- and sometimes dispiriting.
It's not just that the first two seasons of HL are my personal favorites. I don't underrate Methos! But while Methos is a very nice addition to the HL universe, reconceiving that universe as Methos-driven and Methos-based unendingly confuses me. Sometimes, some people seem to end up honestly supposing that the de Valincourts are more important in canon than Charlie, or they can tell you everything the Horsemen ever said but don't have a clue who Angie is... it seems to me to often lead to an insupportable childishness in some renditions of Duncan, as if he first came into being in "Methos," if not "Deliverance" or even "Prophecy"...
>"Regarding FK, though, I'm definitely in season three denial. *g* I acknowledge that it exists and I'm just fine with some of the fandom loving it, but the season one & two era will always be "my" FK."
Season one (and the sixteen-month hiatus between seasons one and two) is my home in FK. I do love season three in its own way, on its own terms, though. I just don't rewatch it much. ;-)
(FK seasons are like HL movies: each happens completely independently in its own separate parallel reality. ~g~)
no subject
Oh, yes! I remember phoning my local station to ask when they intended to air the episode they'd pre-empted when a sporting event ran long. They probably wondered at this strange girl, who not only watched their throw-away syndicated programming, but bothered to look up their phone number and bug them about it. Tape-tree days...
As you say, TPTB feared continuity back then, because they felt it would be bad for syndication sales; they wanted standalone episodes that could air in any order. Sometimes people today, who discover FK on DVD, criticize its lack of sustained development; they don't understand that even HL's level of continuity (nothing compared to today's) was innovative and daring at that time... and HL had some advantages on that score that smaller, less well-funded, less internationally-famous shows did not.
>"Actually, in general, I don't get the "just watch the Methos episodes and nothing else" attitude that I've run into so often in the fandom."
I don't understand that at all, and it's so very widespread -- and sometimes dispiriting.
It's not just that the first two seasons of HL are my personal favorites. I don't underrate Methos! But while Methos is a very nice addition to the HL universe, reconceiving that universe as Methos-driven and Methos-based unendingly confuses me. Sometimes, some people seem to end up honestly supposing that the de Valincourts are more important in canon than Charlie, or they can tell you everything the Horsemen ever said but don't have a clue who Angie is... it seems to me to often lead to an insupportable childishness in some renditions of Duncan, as if he first came into being in "Methos," if not "Deliverance" or even "Prophecy"...
>"Regarding FK, though, I'm definitely in season three denial. *g* I acknowledge that it exists and I'm just fine with some of the fandom loving it, but the season one & two era will always be "my" FK."
Season one (and the sixteen-month hiatus between seasons one and two) is my home in FK. I do love season three in its own way, on its own terms, though. I just don't rewatch it much. ;-)
(FK seasons are like HL movies: each happens completely independently in its own separate parallel reality. ~g~)