Season (television production)
Season is a production section of several episodes in the television production of television series as soon as a break in production or a dramatic turning point has occurred.
General
The term squadron is borrowed from the military language, which refers to “units of a larger unit following one another at certain intervals”. The film lexicon defines the season as a “division into stages”. In the USA in particular, the season is called "season" based on a theater season. In British English , the term "series" is common for season. A season comprises several episodes or episodes, each of which is subordinate to a season. The Duden defines the season as a production unit of a television series consisting of several episodes.
division
A season consists of a number of episodes of varying sizes over a period of a few weeks or months, which are numbered consecutively (for example "Season 1, episodes 1 to 23"). It can contain one or more narrative strands ("arcs"). With a subsequent new season, the episodes are numbered again from the beginning ("Season 2, episodes 2.01 to 2.14"). Relays can differ significantly from each other due to exchanged staff, different camera and editing techniques as well as changed narrative styles without having to give up the overall character of a series. The episodes combined in a season were all created in the same production period. A production break is formally between the end of production of one season and the start of production for the next season.
In the USA, the so-called TV season is the period in which new episodes of a new season of most series can be seen on television. This TV season runs annually from September to May of the following year. The episodes of a season are broadcast over this period. The TV season can be divided into two parts: The period from September to the Christmas break is the first half of an American TV year, while the period from January to May forms the second half. Between the two lies the midseason , although the term occasionally also stands for the second half of the season.
In Germany the term season is mostly synonymous with season .
Breaks in production
Production breaks can be relatively short, such as with the sitcom How I Met Your Mother . The shooting took place between July / August and the end of March, so that the production is usually only a few episodes ahead of a broadcast. A series usually has 13 to 22 episodes per season when it runs normally, and if it is successful, an additional season will be produced for each television season in the USA. Series that are intended for daily use ( “stripping” ) at the same time slot have between 130 and 250 episodes per TV season. Regular seasons of a sitcom consist of 22 episodes per season. If a sitcom is canceled in the program, the last season (e.g. Mike & Molly or King of Queens) is shortened to 13 episodes. Each season of a series can end with a cliffhanger episode: This is known as the "Season Finale". The season finale will be resolved in the first episode of the following season.
With The Streets of San Francisco, on the other hand, the break lasted for several months. The last of the 26 episodes of the first season aired on April 12, 1973, while the first episode of the second season hit the screens on September 13, 1973. In Dallas , the first season was broadcast from April 2, 1978 and consisted of 5 episodes, the last of which was broadcast on April 30, 1978. The original series consisted of 14 seasons, of which the last was composed of 22 episodes. The last season aired over a period between November 2, 1990 and May 3, 1991.
Others
Exceptions to this counting system are the soap operas in Germany , in which the daily soap such as Gute Zeiten, Bad Zeiten or weekly soaps such as Lindenstrasse are not officially divided into seasons; rather, in this genre all episodes are counted. The contracts with directors and actors can also be based on seasons. Directors can be paid for the entire series, but also per season. If American TV series are shown in Germany, they usually wait a full season before they are dubbed and broadcast.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Season, published on Duden.de, accessed on August 11, 2017.
- ^ Author LK: Staffel , Lexicon of Film Terms of the University of Kiel of October 13, 2012, accessed on August 11, 2017.
- ↑ Information about the interruption of the 7th season on ProSieben on HIMYM-Fans.de, accessed on August 11, 2017.
- ↑ Eric Carstens / Jörg Schütte, Praxishandbuch Fernsehen: How TV stations work , 2010, p. 211.
- ^ A b T. Allen Taylor / James Robert Parish, Career Opportunities in Television and Cable , 2007, p. 56 f.