This is an interesting article posted at The TV Addict (click it to view full article) in which Tiffany Vogt explains all her perplexities about the direction the new ABC tv drama is led to.
Here an excerpt:
The fact that ONCE UPON A TIME has been created by former LOST writers and promoted as being a LOST-like type of show leads one to wonder if it will make the same mistakes that LOST did. LOST had the gall to kill off its principal characters and, if ONCE UPON A TIME’s most recent episode is any indication, it is following the same formula.
Which leads me back to my question: are television writers being given too much creative license? When a network greenlights a TV show, they are investing nearly $50 million in a show. A pilot can cost up to $10 million to make, and each subsequent episode runs about $2 million, not including advertising. That $50 million investment for a show’s first season is something to be protective of. Thus network executives assess and analyze very carefully whether their investment is garnering the anticipated return. Television is about profits, after all. So while the pedigree behind ONCE UPON A TIME is stellar, the creative license invoked is testing whether or not the product is truly viable.
And maybe you want to read this as well: ONCE UPON A TIME Redux: Why Do TV Shows Have To Break Our Heart?
