(For those listening on the Odiogo podcast feed you might want to just read this post on the website instead. I don't know how it will play.)

Now that that the networks have released their fall schedules (http://www.thefutoncritic.com/guide.aspx?id=fall_2009), I can now make some tentative plans on what I'll watch in the fall. These are tentative because it will all depend upon any changes the networks make in their programming. It's also dependant upon what new shows catch my interest.

I'm just listing the prime-time shows. I'm so use to watching The Tonight Show at 11:35pm, but after watching Leno at 10pm--which I might tape and watch after 11pm--I don't know if I'll want to bother with Conan.

Monday

Since I've decided to drop Heroes I'll probably skip it this year, however I will watch Chuck when it returns. I'll also check out Trauma, but I'm not going to stick with it if it's just another ER. With the possible exception of Bones, which is more a crime drama, I've had my fill of medical dramas for a while. At ten I'll watch Leno.

Tuesday

I started watching JAG part way through the first season and I watched it until it finished. That got me into NCIS and I'll probably watch it and it's spinoff series from 8pm until 10pm. Since none of the new shows at 10pm interest me, I'll likely watch Leno at 10pm.

Wednesday

Nothing at 8pm or 9pm interest me, although I am interested in Human Target when it starts after Christmas. I'm also curious about Eastwick which airs at 10pm. If I like it then I'll watch that, otherwise I'll just watch Leno.

Thursday

As I've said before, I'm a fan of Bones and it seems that I'll have it for another two years at least. So that's what I'll be watching at 8pm. I've generally lost interest in Supernatural, although I would like to check out the season premiere to see where they plan to take the season. However Fringe is also on at that time. While both shows are marginal for me, I have been warming more to Fringe. It seems my decision to pick it over Eleventh Hour was the right one. I also like The Mentalist so I'll most likely watch that at 10pm. There is some chance of taping other shows. This appears to be the busiest night for me.

Friday

This really, really, really is suppose to be the last season of Smallville. And aside from Leno it's about the only thing on that night of any interest to me. But lately I've been watching a lot of recorded stuff on Fridays so I'll just tape Smallville and watch it sometime over the weekend. If I'm not feeling up to watching anything recorded at 10pm I'll watch Leno.

Neither Saturday nor Sunday holds any shows of interest to me, so I'll be watching recording those evenings if I'm not busy with something else.

Of course this schedule is really about shows I'd like to catch and since I record almost all the shows I watch, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'll be watching them at those times.

Excluding Leno, which I don't have to watch and will most likely just watch when it's convenient, I'm looking at about five to nine shows. This is a comfortable level and about half of what I was watching this past year. I've also got a lot of stuff recorded to catch up on, so I don't mind the spare time. Although there could be as many as four or five hours of Leno on top of that. Still, I have a feeling it could seem sparse after this past year and the desert of summer broadcasting.

My Toystore: http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com

Lately there's been a major crackdown by the movie companies to control the distribution of torrents of their material on the Internet by either shutting down or forcing the portals listing torrents to implement restrictions. These restrictions, while not very popular with those downloading, are necessary to control video piracy.

Right now one of the main ways video pirates get the material is to download it. Although it might have some effect on theatrical sales, it's really the DVD sales that concern the distributors. When one goes to buy a DVD on-line they may often wind up with a cheap pirated version made from a downloaded torrent. This results in a significant loss to the industry and a disappointment to the customer.

But television torrents work a little differently. These will often appear after the program has already aired in a country. So for many the torrent then becomes like a virtual VCR, allowing one to watch a show they may have missed the night before.

However, a problem occurs when a show is downloaded in a country it has not yet aired in. Then people are bypassing stations to get access to shows they may have to wait years to see—if at all. Of course one could argue that they could wait, and many do, but if one waits and the show doesn't appear, they may never get to see that show.

There has long been a belief in North America, at least the US and Canada, that television should be free. It is not the viewers that pay for TV but the advertisers. In exchange for putting up with ads, viewers get free TV.

Although the TV that people get isn't necessarily free. To truly get free TV one would have to receive all their TV via off-air broadcasts. When one pays for cable, satellite or some other system they're paying for their TV.

While paying some fee for easy access is reasonable, exactly how much should one really expect to pay for? Cable specialty channels are suppose to sustain themselves from customer subscriptions, yet they run ads. So in effect, the customer is paying twice; once for the subscription and once in having to watch ads.

Furthermore, these specialty channels are suppose to offer something more than what network or basic channels offer, yet very often that may be only one or two decent shows. In the past many of these shows would have aired on network television or at least been syndicated. But now the viewer is expected to pay for an entire channel just to get one show. Multiply this by forty or fifty channels, each with their own shows, and it's not long before one is paying for over a hundred dollars just to get the shows they want—and watching those shows filled with ads.

In such an environment it's understandable why many would turn to the Internet to get their TV. The television industry is likely try to counter this by doing as the movie industry does and eliminating torrents. But there is a better possibility.

Instead of trying to eliminate the distribution of their shows in the Internet, they should be trying to provide legal means of distribution. And many already are. Unfortunately, the system they use often does not allow for access by those outside the country of origin. This is a major problem with the show may be aired about the same time in more than one country. This is an extremely common problem with American shows being broadcast through American sites which don't allow access to Canada, even though those US stations are legally accessible in Canada.

The typical means of distribution used for television networks is some form of video streaming. These sites often provide lower quality content with sometimes awkward players. They don't allow one to really enjoy the show the same way it would appear on TV. As such, while many do use them and wish to support a legal system, they aren't sufficient to eliminate the torrent problem.

What broadcasters need to do is to provide legal torrents of their material for free. But unlike the illegal television torrents right now, they don't need to provide them commercial free. By providing torrents of their shows with ads included, they can provide the show the way many wish to see it while still making money from the ads.

Granted, there's many who have been spoiled by the ad free illegal shows, downloaders would likely be willing to accept the ads if it meant they could get the show without breaking the law. Depending upon the player, it would be possible to fast forward through the ads, but as long as the ad breaks were kept short—say one minute long—many would just as easily watch the ads than to bother skipping through them.

Of course this wouldn't eliminate the television broadcasts for the simple reason that the television and the Internet reach different markets. If anything it would help the show to reach a larger audience. And as long as there's a legal torrent available, there's less chances of illegal ones being offered. In the future we could even see some shows being provided via Internet only.

Torrenting is a cheap way to distribute material. Broadcasting use to be a cheap way to get material. Merging the two only seems natural. But it's not something that producers can ignore. If they don't provide legal material for torrenting, someone else will.

Patrick J. McNamara's Webstore is at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com

With the networks about to announce their new fall shows, this is a good time to look back on what shows had less than successful runs. Although there's many ways a TV show can be considered a failure, I've decided to group them into three categories.

Failure to Air

It can be difficult to name shows that fall into this category since the vast majority of those shows are never heard about. This failure can cover anything from never making it past the first script--or even the initial concept--to a complete pilot being filmed but never being shown. And in a few cases the show may be included as part of the network's fall promotions even though it winds up never airing.

Although in most cases, if a pilot is made it usually gets aired one way or another, often as a TV movie or special.  It's common to see many of these failures work their way onto summer TV. A few even wound up in circulation as movies that appear on TV once and a while. And in some cases, a show that is initially passed on the first time around may be picked up a year or two later as some shows did this past year.

There's a couple of TV specials that talk about failed pilots made a few years ago: The Best TV Shows That Never Were and it's follow-up, The Greatest TV Shows You Never Saw (And Some You Have). Both do a great job of showcasing these failures and can be nostalgic for those who did see many of the failed pilots. It's hard to believe that some of these shows were ever given serious attention.

Failure to Complete a Season

This is the sort of failed TV series that most think of. About the most notable are the two Bronson Pinchot failures, The Trouble With Larry which lasted only about three episodes and Meego which lasted only one. In both years they managed to be the first shows of the season to be cancelled. And as far as I know no other actor has managed to achieve that status, at least for shows in which they were the lead character. Needless to say, although he's appeared on TV, he's never been the star of any TV series since.

While the season length has been growing shorter, for prime-time TV it's usually considered to be at least 20 episodes. So that leaves a large range of shows which would fall into that category. The ones people tend to remember best are the ones that might disappear after about six to thirteen episodes since those get the attention and because they tend to get cancelled while fans are in the middle of the season.

Failure to Get Renewed

Of all the shows that are considered failures, a large number are those that don't make it to second season. These shows don't always get much attention since most have forgotten about them by the time the fall rolls around, and if they do get cancelled after their first season the announcement usually comes just as the season is wrapping up so fans don't feel as cheated.

Because of the writer's strike last year, many shows that wouldn't have been renewed were. However, as in the case of Pushing Daisies, in many cases it only allowed them to complete a season's worth of material. As such this past year isn't really typical.

Whether these shows are successes or failures really depends upon whether they managed to complete the story well enough. For example, Even though the US version of Life on Mars only ran 17 episodes, it did have a satisfactory conclusion and could be thought of more as a mini-series. More typical would be the recent Knight Rider series which ended in a way that could permit a second season but could also be treated as a series finale.

But unlike in the past, the failure of any TV series doesn't mean it will never be seen again. With DVDs now a common release platform for TV shows, even a series only 6 episodes long could get a DVD release.

And the normal length for a TV show does seem to be shrinking so that many shows are getting only 13 episode orders rather than full season orders. This isn't that unusual, since the normal pattern is for networks to order the pilot, then 5 more episodes (making 6), then 5 more episodes (making 13 in total) and finally ordering 7 or more to make a full season.

There are a number of shows that should not be considered failures, even if they did get cancelled in the middle of a second or third season. The original Star Trek did have enough episodes to air in syndication and is now considered a success, even though it was cancelled in or after it's third year. And most shows that make it past their first year tend to survive a few years. So, with the possible exception of this past couple years (since shows that only had about 9 episodes last year were renewed), anything surviving it's first year should be considered a success.