Josh Hill wrote:
> Hmmm . . . I tend to see the episodes as being about the stars, who in
> effect become stock characters, as in the commedia del'arte; in early
> episodic television, the shows are almost entirely about the central
> character, whether Kirk or Number 6, or Ralph or Lucy or Superman. The
> guest star, OTOH, is the human equivalent of a MacGuffin, which is to
> say he's a variation on a theme, the character that creates or is
> affected by the situation which the lead character resolves, and at
> one remove from a stock character.

Kirk and Number 6 come from a later era, Superman is not in a serious 
dramatic series, and Ralph and Lucy aren't comedies at all. I'm talking 
about the adult westerns and the drifter shows -- "Route 66" and its 
imitators. Not so much the cop or detective shows, since they tended to 
follow the "Dragnet" model of lots of one-scene characters, just as the 
first half of each "Law and Order" does today. And, of course, if you're 
offering a whodunnit, you /can't/ show too much of the suspects.

(Odd thing about "Law and Order". As it happens we didn't pick up the 
show when it first came out, and, until now, it's been 
late-night-in-a-motel and rainy-afternoon viewing, though we did pick it 
up this year. Until reading about it in Wikipedia this week, I had no 
idea it had any story arcs at all, though I've seen about 100 episodes 
over the years.)


-- 
John W. Kennedy
"Those in the seat of power oft forget their failings and seek only the 
obeisance of others!  Thus is bad government born!  Hold in your heart 
that you and the people are one, human beings all, and good government 
shall arise of its own accord!  Such is the path of virtue!"
   -- Kazuo Koike.  "Lone Wolf and Cub:  Thirteen Strings" (tr. Dana Lewis)
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