NEW YORK (AP) – Every new TV series is a leap of faith – for everyone involved.
For network bosses, who buy and schedule the show based only on a pilot episode and a fuzzy notion of what will follow.
For each show’s creative team, who make it up as they go along. For its actors, who typically sign on for as much as seven seasons after reading no more than the first script.
And, of course, for its viewers, who, week to week, can only trust that the show will keep holding their interest.
Unlike movies or almost any other art form, a TV series isn’t a self-contained thing (at least, not until the final episode has aired). Until then, it exists as a work-in-progress, an unfolding relationship between the people who make it and the people who watch.