Are babies on TV shows a ratings disaster?
by Carder
In real life, the arrival of a baby is cause for joy and celebration. On a TV series, however, a birth marks not the beginning… but the beginning of the end.
In many cases, the addition of a new baby to the cast has been the show’s “jump the shark” moment — the turning point after which the series begins to experience a noticeable decline. It can’t be a coincidence that a number of once-popular shows left the air just a season or two after a baby’s arrival.
~ Kelly Woo, introducing 15 TV shows that experienced low ratings after the introduction of a baby in the series, including “Mad About You” (pictured) Yahoo!TV, February 10
Feb.11, 2015 6:00 am |
Pop Culture |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
The current generation of Hollywood writers rely on sexual tension to drive their comedy and drama. They have forgotten the techniques that used family tension to drive the hit shows.
Dick Van Dyke and Lucille Ball wrote family life and pregnancy into their shows as a natural development, and then children became supporting characters.
The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family were enduring hit shows driven by child characters and family situations.
Anyhow, it’s not the baby’s fault that modern writers have forgotten how real life works. They have to understand family reality before they can create entertainment from it. In Hollywood, all they know is sex.
I think this is a stretch.
In modern TV, it seems that by the time babies are introduced into plots, writers have essentially run out of material and think, hey, I know! Let’s add a baby into the mix! That’ll keep us for another season, at least!
But it doesn’t work, because typically the show is already on its way out.
An exception? Soap operas. Soaps thrive on babies being added to the show, and yet, they’re full of sex, too. Hmm. It’s a mystery.
But correlation does not necessarily equal causation.
Also, I think the author is kind of confused about at least one show – Bones. The addition of a baby into the mix certainly has not pushed that show from TV.
Soap opera babies are soooo easy to raise: they go from infant to toddler in a season, then jump up to 5 years old, get sent off to boarding school, and come back in a year as a teenager! Think of the money those soap families save on food and clothing, lol! But the birthing process is always very long: beginning at the end of Friday’s episode, dragging all through the next week, and finally the baby is born the following Monday. Ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking. Too many soaps as a kid. I was just keeping Mom company ;>).
Great point Del!