So with the recent news today about cutbacks and the truncated Season Three, this sort of had me thinking about past TF shows. Is it possible for a Transformers show to actually survive and thrive beyond a third season, without running into problems? 1. Generation 1 had three full seasons. The fourth was so short and only three episodes, it almost didn't count, and it's been thrown on every Season Three box set. 2. The Takara series had three seasons. Zone was only one episode, and is more questionable than Rebirth. Sure you could say Headmasters was Season Four and continued from Season Three, but it was done by a completely different creative team. Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory were it's own shows. (Not to mention, different country, different audiences, different standards. But I wanted to include them onto the list anyway.) 3. Beast Wars also went three season. One could say Beast Machines was basically Season Four, but it had different writers, producers and in general is a different show. 4. The Japanese Beast Wars series was only two seasons. Three if you're one of the people who count Car Robots/Robots in Disguise as a continuation, with that whole dimensional time traveling stuff theory. (Once again, Japanese show, but included for the sake of being complete.) 5. The Unicron Trilogy was only three seasons. Long seasons, but still seasons. (While an anime, it it was a co-production of both Hasbro and Takara.) 6. Animated was three seasons. We would have loved a fourth, but it got cut at three. 7. And now Prime is going into it's third season, and with all the problems, I'm sure there's more than a couple of us wondering if this is the last season, before the show's production gets heavily reworked. Each one of these groups of shows, by the time the third season comes around, it does something drastic, to "shake things up": Generation 1 (American) jumped to the future with the post movie stuff. The Takara Trilogy, victory was completely different in tone and setting than Masterforce. Beast Wars Season Three was the least drastic, but it was still very different from the previous two seasons. The Unicron Trilogy's third season was a completely different show, that was post-inserted in. Animated third season focused far less on any human ally or villain, and concentrated mainly on the robot conflicts, becoming darker. In it's own way.) And now Prime is undergoing a cosmetic change with Beast Hunters, that sounds like a drastic enough change. What this bears for Rescue Bots, I do not know. I'm not saying Prime will not have a fourth season, but if the old saying of history repeating itself is to be believed... It may indeed be cause for concern for the fans of it. (Or cause for celebration for the show's detractors.) Either way, it always seems like it starts strong and then fizzles out by the third. Maybe 3 is just a bad number for Transformers.
I hope not, I'm really liking TFP a lot and I'd hate to see it get discontinued after only 3 seasons. It's to good of a show to end that quickly.
Maybe it just works out that every three years is a good time to change directions a little bit with the show, either by observed results or simply coincidence.
I know a lot of people* who wish that unofficial rule applied to Bayformers as well. *I am also one of those people.
honestly i hope prime lasts 3 seasons so they can move on to something better , i mean honestly anything is better than prime!
To both of these, wasn't that whole Beast Hunters thing supposed to be a soft replacement to Prime? You know, sorta like Beast Machines was to Beast Wars?
Three seasons is normally what it takes to get the requisite number of episodes for syndication. After that, shows hit a point of diminishing returns.
Well I for one am glad that the shows episodes number is going down. (doesnt mean bad things for show). That means that there will be more episodes concentrating on the overall season plot arc and less filler episodes.
I have a feeling we'll get a sequel series afterwards. I mean keep the characters but revamping it like hell. Think Ben 10 Omniverse after Ultimate Alien.
It does look that way, yea. It could just a coincidence, or maybe Hasbro has decided to just reboot everything after three or fours years.
The INITIAL impression was that Beast Hunters was going to be a soft reboot, but in light of recent information, it seems Beast Hunters is just Prime season 3 with an imprint label to refresh the series at retail (like Beast Machines: Battle of the Spark, or any of the "mid-line imprints" we've seen over the years). This is something the writers cast likely had zero knowledge in since it primarily applies to Hasbro's retail strategy. To his knowledge maybe, but all it really tells us is that he isn't slated to come back to record "season 4" or anything for the foreseeable future. I think this is a situation where Hasbro is looking at trends and adapting: At this point, Prime will end season 3 with 65 (or more) episodes, exceptionally few non-anime kids cartoons exceed 26 anymore, much less 52. And as stated by the earnings call: kids WILL watch reruns, and 65 is more than enough to roll the series weekdays for over a year. With more than 52 episodes, there isn't as much need to create new content (especially for a show like Prime which ISN'T driven by the toyline like Transformers shows traditionally have). TF4 is coming in 2014. We all know at this point that movie is going to overwrite ANYTHING Hasbro might have planned, so rather than put money into new episodes of Prime (with 65 already in the bag) or toys which might get sidelined (like First Edition), Hasbro is just going to roll with what they have, use Beast Hunters to finish out the line at retail until the movie stuff hits. Plus it gives them time to evaluate the show, the toys, and where the brand is going, and time to adjust if needed.
