Premature withdrawal: searching for satisfaction in the endings of Pushing Daisies and Carnivale
The commercial climate of contemporary television drama is a fiercely Darwinian environment. For every intelligently written, high-concept drama which amasses scores of episodes and a passionate following, there are dozens which fail at the pilot stage, or after a timid, half-length first season. For every The Sopranos, there is a Carnivale; for every Desperate Housewives, there is a Pushing Daisies. The commercial failure of so many new shows is the inevitable consequence of the industrial logic of TV3, in which “... today’s production circumstances, highly commercialised as they are, ironically appear to have yielded a context facilitating creativity and distinctive product, indeed “quality television”, at the “high end” of the industry, in TV drama.” (Nelson, 2007: 161) The attempt to provide new and distinctive examples of “quality” programming encourages experimentation with the content and form of television drama, as program makers seek to attract and maintain a share of an ever more fragmented audience. However, the risk and expense involved in the production of high-end television drama also often leads to the abrupt cancellation of shows which fail to fulfill their economic imperative by attracting a diverse and lucrative audience. As early as 1995, J.T. Caldwell was already able to write that: