Early Installment Weirdness question

Is it rare for a work to take 6 years as Early-Installment Weirdness?

I was planning on adding an entry to that page, one for Grey's Anatomy (IIRC, it took at least two years to find its way, according to some of the fandom), one for BBC medical drama Holby City, and also one for a British radio station that launched in 1999, but didn't find its way until 2011, 12 years after launch (because they couldnt decide on format).

Holby City launched in 1999, but it took until 2004 before it found its way (as in they'd kept experimenting with standalone stories and Patient of the Week until deciding on Story Arc from 2004 that were longer), a good 5 years after launch, and the same with the 2017 Soft Reboot, that lasted until mid-2019.

I suppose with a Long Runner comic book franchise, this trope is common, but for something that's a new franchise launch, is it rarer for longer Early-Installment Weirdness?

I'm checking before I add any entries, as I don't want to make an edit that seems too pointless and to avoid a ZCE.

Edited by Merseyuser1 on Jul 1st 2020 at 6:19:44 PM

I would say that 6 years is definitely too long.

Also, I don't really think of Early-Installment Weirdness as directly about "how long it took for a show to become good".

As I understand it, it's more about how early on a work is different in a notable way from what is later thought of as its key features. It has some overlap with Characterization Marches On.

The point when a work becomes good is covered under Growing the Beard.

Of course, there is going to be some overlap between all these tropes.

As an example, I was thinking of Parks and Recreation. The characters/show are fairly different in its first season, which is much more of a clone of The Office. This season is generally considered inferior to the subsequent seasons and is basically skippable, given the Retool in the second season.

However, although the show is "like itself" starting from the first episode of the second season, and you could say that it "got good" at that point, I would note that two important characters in the show don't even appear until the very end of the second season.

Thank you for your reply.

I waa talking more about the shows not really knowing where to find their feet with regard to filming style and color wash etc. and types of episode, if that counted as Early-Installment Weirdness.

"Early" in this case means a period before the show settled into a particular tone and pacing with it's characters and stories. Long-Runners will have entire eras dedicated to all the ebb and flow of the show, but Early-Installment Weirdness can't be too far into its lifespan before it reached it's iconic shape.

Generally speaking, you probably can't label it as "early" if it happens more than 1/4th into the shows current lifespan (ie after two seasons anything more than halfway through the first season doesn't count, or four movies in a series can't list anything from the second movie on), maxing at the third season because that means it's popular enough to be renewed and gain a fanbase. Otherwise it is more of a retool. The same can be said regarding Characterization Marches On.

Edited by KJMackley on Jul 1st 2020 at 3:48:36 AM