There was some uncertainty after TNG’s season 3 finale “The Best of Both Worlds part 1” if Picard or the show itself would return.
Also, Google, baby… what is you doin?
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The show was almost canceled after the third season because an eighth season would’ve been too expensive. Better cancel five seasons sooner, then.
Thanks for clarifying. Contracted for 8, but Paramount got cold feet based on reception prior to the now much lauded finale.
That’s what happens when you comment right before going to bed…
I want clarifying as most as I was making fun of the LLM in the picture, which did put “an eighth season would’ve been too expensive” as a reason for the almost-cancellation after season three. That might’ve been a reason to cancel in the end but not then.
That’s the opposite of what I heard while TNG was in the air.
Paramount renewed TNG in three-season blocks. They greenlit three seasons and renewed for three more, then chose to add an additional season knowing it would be the last. They repeated this tactic with both DS9 and Voyager.
At least that’s what I kept hearing during the 1990s.
Apparently it was initially all in one go:
Although the cast members were contracted for eight seasons,[52] Paramount ended The Next Generation after seven, which disappointed and puzzled some of the actors, and was an unusual decision for a successful television show. Paramount then made films using the cast, which it believed would be less successful if the show were still on television.[53] An eighth season also would likely have reduced the show’s profitability due to higher cast salaries and a lower price per episode when sold as strip programming.[52]
Per Wiki
Huh. I wonder if cast contracts were separate from the show’s renewal status.
Because even though they had eight-year contracts, the show was supposedly on the chopping block after three seasons. If it had been cancelled, what would they have done for the remaining five years?
Maybe what I heard had more to do with DS9 and Voyager.
In California you cannot make an employment contract lasting longer than seven years. So at the end of the seventh season they would have had to renegotiate the entire cast and crew’s contracts which would have been pricey.
For actors or in general? I can’t imagine leaving perpetually with a clock ticking on my main source of income.
And this is why Discovery and other new shows are only getting 5 seasons.
Contracts are for 7 calendar years not seven seasons.
With problems launching new shows, COVID-related slowdowns and a writers strike, Discovery managed to produce 5 seasons in 7 years.
