Why Are Some Television Productions Ahead Of Their Time?

Many television productions aim to not only meet the needs of the networks, financiers and stakeholders, but also push the envelope of either what is possible technologically, how television shows are presented or expand the horizons of the audience.

Every genre of production today began with an ambitious idea by a producer, director or writer, someone in an executive position giving the idea a chance when others had turned it down, and an audience being receptive to something new.

Many of these shows became extremely successful and are household names today; Game of Thrones was a long-form adaptation of a book believed to be unfilmable due to its scale and content, Stranger Things was rejected by 20 studios due to its child-led cast in a show meant for adults, and The Flintstones was the first animated TV sitcom with an adult audience in mind.

Whilst these are well-known, beloved and highly successful examples, not every show that had an outsized impact on how television is produced today received the credit and success it deserved at the time. Some still do not, even in the shadow of the broadcasting worlds they created.

With that in mind, here are some of the forgotten pioneers of television and their production innovations that have been more widely adopted since.

Did Babylon 5 Invent Serialised Prestige Television?

Defining “Prestige” television is as difficult as trying to define art, but whilst the seeds of it were planted with the groundbreaking and beloved today (albeit not at the time) Twin Peaks, arguably the idea of developing a TV show in the same way one would a serialised novel came with Babylon 5.

Whilst not the first TV show to use computer graphics, it was the first to use them extensively in a way that would be recognisable to modern production TV teams today. Amazingly, this was achieved using the Video Toaster, a consumer-grade computer graphics system based on the Commodore Amiga.

More critically than even this, Babylon 5 was developed with a five-year plan; the entire show was mapped out in advance and largely took place as written. Plot threads would take entire seasons to pay off, and it showed that audiences were willing to follow a serialised story. 

As well as this, it was the first major television show to extensively rely on online marketing and fan communication before Eternal September and the widespread use of the World Wide Web.

All of this was a tiny bit too ahead of its time in the long run, but it did get its five seasons.

Did Firefly Make TV Computer Graphics Direction More Realistic?

The acclaim of the short-lived space western series Firefly has almost reached a point where its underappreciation and cancellation after an unusual 14-episode run have been offset by the critical acclaim it has received ever since, much like Twin Peaks.

However, whilst its ability to successfully adapt the concept of a space western heavily inspired by anime shows such as Cowboy Bebop and especially Outlaw Star, its depiction of a gritty final frontier, witty dialogue, and its complex character development, even given its limited run, have been widely acclaimed.

What is also interesting is how it shaped the use of CGI. It attempted to use crash zooms, lens flares and camera direction in its computer-generated space sequences that were meant to resemble handheld camera positioning.

It ended up proving remarkably influential, with the far more successful Battlestar Galactica remake adapting that concept for its own grittier space combat sequences. 

Did The Flash Establish Two New Genres At Once?

The 1990 television adaptation of the DC Comics hero The Flash managed to be too far ahead of the curve twice, but would ultimately carve an outside influence on the world of television.

Whilst far from the first live action superhero adaptation, the combination of gritty Batman-style superhero action and forensic police procedural had never been done before on television, and the nature of The Flash’s abilities necessitated a range of new practical, editing and special effects.

It would take a long time for even the 1990s wave of superhero media to catch up; it was only a year after the 1989 Tim Burton Batman film, and three years ahead of the much more successful Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

As for forensic police procedurals, it was an entire decade ahead of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which codified the genre.

Ultimately, The Flash was at least three years ahead of the curve and was ultimately a victim of its own innovations.