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Comment by moonchrome | Hacker News Reader

>As an example, Mad Men, especially because it's set in the 1960s will probably still be watched in the 2060s.

Why ? The only old TV shows I see being popular long term is era defining shows you watch for nostalgia (eg. Seinfeld, Friends). Maybe some real classics like Sopranos that everyone was watching at the time.

Shows like Mad Men ? I really don't see it. And more importantly this LOTR show - how many people are even watching Game of Thrones now and how much interest will it generate in the future ? Unless this LOTR show is somehow groundbreaking with visuals (and it's a lot harder to do now then back when they did the films because the bar was so low back then) - I doubt it's a valuable long term play.

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Seinfeld Is not just watch r for nostalgia, its still in syndication, and also has a massive overseas fan base.

Mad Men is timeless in its lessons, novel in its execution, and holds a unique place in TV history. It’ll be watched for decades.

Seinfeld is the exception. Heres the top TV shows of 1993:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated_United_States_tele...

Seinfeld is the only one that people still watch.

All those shows are contemporary to the 90's. Seinfeld just has generic situational humor + great characters, and even Seinfeld will probably fade as its nostalgic watchers age and go away. It will just take 30-40 more years :-)

There’s a lot of landline / phone booth / message machine based jokes and story lines.

I don’t think 20 year olds will have an easy time picking up the show as they can’t relate to those problems.

I think Seinfeld is very much riding the nostalgia train now.

Mad men don’t assume any of its audience knew what the 60’s was like, so it has a chance of being more timeless.

We all used to watch TV from the 50’s and 60’s in the 80’s and 90’s. You pick up on the context as you watch. A lot of situations are universal and timeless.

What you're saying is: we're in agreement :-)

And to the original topic, a good LotR series would be closer to "timeless".

In America and Europe, yes. Landlines are still being used elsewhere.

Gobsmacked, How can you look at that list and say "seinfeld is the only one that people still watch"?

One....that's a subjective thing, two..several shows on that list are currently in syndication, three....several are still running.

I still enjoy a good episode with Jessica in Cabot Cove, the murder capital of the world.

> It’ll be watched for decades.

By a few people - likely. But enough to justify investing half a billion into show production ?

> The hit Warner Bros. sitcom from the 90s, Friends, is still a big moneymaker for the studio with average earnings that are estimated to be roughly a billion dollars per year. Keep in mind that this is a show that ended nearly 15 years ago. Beyond all imagination, this is still one of the most-watched sitcoms in 2017. I know, hard to believe.

https://reelrundown.com/tv/How-Much-Money-Does-US-Sitcom-Fri...

I specifically mentioned Friends and Seinfeld as exceptions. Mad Men is never going to have this status. Friends viewership numbers were 10x, even Sopranos had 2-3x viewership. And there will be no nostalgia factor there.

And even if it DOES become evergreen, it's like Disney kid shows - sent to live in whatever monthly app (Prime in this case) to rot and die; there's not much realized revenue from them, the way syndication has.

> defining shows you watch for nostalgia (eg. Seinfeld, Friends)

But what about new viewers? As someone who is too "young" to have seen them originally, I don't find either of those to be funny. But something much older, such as Fawlty Towers, stands the test of time.

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