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Should EE go back to 3 days a week?


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Old 22-09-2004, 21:27
lala
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Many here, including i now believe that the current scheduling of soaps nowadays is just too much to handle. But there is also another point of extra episodes that affects everyones enjoyment of them, and that is the more you extend a soaps scheduling, the more the quality degrades.

I mean heres a quote from the former Eastenders Executive Producer Louise Berridge-

It had just gone to three episodes a week. I started as script editor and became story editor. The first big story that I did was 'Sharongate.' Now we have four episodes a week. It's almost just too much for one script editor to cope with comfortably. It's too much for one writer to write all four episodes. It's pushed everything just beyond the breaking point, so we've had to add far more personnel than we've ever had to before. When we were doing three episodes we could do it, only shooting five days aweek with only one team shooting. That made life really easy in terms of scheduling.

But four episodes means that sometimes we need to use Saturdays, and people must work six-day weeks, which makes them very tired. It also means that four days a week we have two teams shooting simultaneously, and that means we're all fighting over the same sets, the same actors.

So we have to be really clever how we construct the scripts, so we don't have characters talking to each other who are in different stories. It can be done, but it's much harder.
For me this is prove that 3 days a week is just about fair and balance. But others could argue that Corrie and Emmerdale have done it and are still good, so can EE. However Corrie and Emmerdale are both funded and organised by a independent television company and they get their money from commercial brands, therefore they both have the money to spend on getting extra writers (sometimes even British film writers, who often write an episode as a guest writer and do ask for a big sum in return). But because EE is on the BBC, and though yes they do have a hell of a lot of money, they can't spend £££££ on one special guest writer and loads on unknown writers. Even though they can gladly spend £200,000+ on a medicore actor like Lesie Grantham . Anyways you get my point.

So if i were Katherine, i would gladly sacrifise one extra episode if that means keeping up the quality of the soap, keeping us fans happy and also putting less stress upon the actors, which is also another important factor.

So what do you think?........Should it......or should it not go back to 3 times a week?

P.s. Oh and by the way here's the interview in which that quote was taken from:-

http://www.wgazette.com/aut02-louise.html
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Old 22-09-2004, 21:29
5 a day
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Yes it should, but they'd never allow it, as it would (rightly or wrongly) be construed as admitting there were problems.
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Old 22-09-2004, 22:01
Safra
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Yes it should!
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Old 22-09-2004, 22:07
TheWalfordOne
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I think, and I have no political knowledge to say whether this were even possible, that there ought to be some sort of legislation restricting the number of episodes of all soaps. You know, i'd feel fine if it were 2 episodes a week of the lot: then they'd be a treat; the production people would need to completely cut the crap out, because there'd be no time for the likes of the Ferreira's to fester; and people wouldn't feel they were such a burden. Also, this'd give new soaps a look in: how can a new soap launch against the schedule muching Corrie, Enders or E'Dale? Plus, blanket soap opera may be good for us on here, giving us more to talk about (although we do seem to talk about the same thing from all angles much of the time), but I think the overall standard of television has dropped, because execs secure audiences with just more and more of the same. If that Jowell woman came out and said soaps were all dropping episode down to two per week, i'd be perfectly happy.
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Old 22-09-2004, 22:17
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I don't think it will go to 3 nights a week either. It's the only soap that is'nt on 5 times a week to start with so i can't see them going back to 3 nights a week!
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Old 22-09-2004, 22:22
lala
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Originally Posted by Mick H
I don't think it will go to 3 nights a week either. It's the only soap that is'nt on 5 times a week to start with so i can't see them going back to 3 nights a week!
But DO YOU want it to go back to 3 nights a week?

Never mind those silly producers, we know what they think .
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Old 22-09-2004, 22:35
WalfordWill
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Well Corrie and Emmerdale do a lot more episodes per week and they are both flying! I don't see why EastEnders are finding it so difficult, its basically down to primadonna actors, shit writers and bad production that has EE in the state it is, not the schedule.
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Old 22-09-2004, 23:17
90210
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Originally Posted by lala
But DO YOU want it to go back to 3 nights a week?

Never mind those silly producers, we know what they think .
No cos there's nothing else on instead lol
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Old 22-09-2004, 23:26
moogester
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Eastenders is going the same way as Brookside. It too lost all it's humour and characters came into two brackets nasty or simple. It won't be long until EE is shifted to some late night spot.
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Old 23-09-2004, 00:34
TheWalfordOne
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It'll be years before the BBC move EastEnders from where it is. Also, I think people have forgotten exactly how the final decade of Brookside was, and the frequent comments along the lines of "...it's going/gone the same way as Brookside..." are an oddity to me. Brookside abandoned it's hardcore grounded Liverpool vogue at the turn of the 90s, when it found it could get bigger numbers/wider recognition with "headline stories" and later 'big bucks' disasters. As EastEnders was created as a souther equivalent of Corrie (a warped sense of community, which hasn't really existed for decades), but had the gritty surreality of Brookie from the 80s days (the convoy of bulldozers coming to knock the Square down, for example).

Writing off EE is pointless, untill it is written off, if you catch my drift. If this is a slump - as it experienced in 1990 and 1997 (in '90 it was called to be cancelled) - then it will improve, if not, then it will be cancelled. Brookside evolved, by the time of the helicopter crash, into an unrecognisable different show. EastEnders is still on very much the same stage, it remains to be see whether the next act can pull it's socks up. And now the top dog (and she really was a dog, wasn't she) has been given the heave-ho, i'm optimistic that the pieces are in place to solidify itself.

What EE needs to do, as Corrie has done, is evolve past the sensationalist days. Corrie never sat well in those days (the 90s) anyway, and for EE they were fuel to the fire. But like I say, I don't think EastEnders is going anywhere.
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Old 23-09-2004, 00:42
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East Enders is fine as it is. Its Corrie & Emmerdale that are on FAR too much. ITV just love to shrove these 2 soaps down our throats. I can imagine Corrie end up being on 7 nights a week eventually including Saturday. Its these 2 shows that have lost their magic being on too much, I use to love them when they were only 3 nights a week.

Emmerdale= Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday,
Coronation Street= Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Another reason why ITV ain't what it used to be.
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Old 24-09-2004, 21:52
Ridget
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Originally Posted by willhung
Well Corrie and Emmerdale do a lot more episodes per week and they are both flying! I don't see why EastEnders are finding it so difficult, its basically down to primadonna actors, shit writers and bad production that has EE in the state it is, not the schedule.
Originally Posted by Johnny English
East Enders is fine as it is. Its Corrie & Emmerdale that are on FAR too much. ITV just love to shrove these 2 soaps down our throats. I can imagine Corrie end up being on 7 nights a week eventually including Saturday. Its these 2 shows that have lost their magic being on too much, I use to love them when they were only 3 nights a week.

Emmerdale= Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday,
Coronation Street= Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Another reason why ITV ain't what it used to be.
Well I have been trying to tell everyone that the soaps are on too much but I'm wrong apparantly.

I say EE goes back to Monday Tuesday Thursday, Coronation St goes back to Monday Wednesday Friday and Emmerdale goes Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday.

Quality may not be affected in Corrie and Emmerdale's sake but at least new viewers will be able to watch knowing that they don't need to commit themselves to much. Thus viewing figures will rise and in EastEnders' case, the quality.
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Old 24-09-2004, 22:56
daniel99
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i think Eastenders should be axed.
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Old 24-09-2004, 23:00
bobovil
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I would take it to 3 times a week simply to create more of a suspense between episodes and recreate the 'everyone's talking about it feel' as there's too many cliffhabgers that only last 24 hours, maybe if they scrapped the Friday one then people may start to look forward to seeing an episode rather than taking it for granted like they do with Emmerdale.
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Old 24-09-2004, 23:01
Cookie-L
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Originally Posted by daniel99
i think Eastenders should be axed.
It shouldn't be axed, it needs the new producer to take it back to the form it once had. It can get back on top, and so doesn't deserve to be axed.
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