The 6 Laws of Dying Hollywood Franchises - by Ted Gioia
The US launched its first space satellite. IBM released its 7070 computer (which weighed a paltry 23,150 pounds). And Texas Instruments built the first integrated circuit in the history of the world.
The cultural scene was just as progressive. Vladimir Nabokov published his controversial novel Lolita. In music, Jerry Lee Lewis lit up the dance floor with “Great Balls of Fire,” while jazz fans were crowding into the Five Spot to hear Thelonious Monk performing with John Coltrane.
Spaceships were in the news every day back then, but on TV it was just horses—and occasionally a covered wagon. Each of the three networks was caught up in a time warp, partying like it was 1899.
Any fool could see that they were saturating the market. Yet the studios kept launching new westerns with regularity, although with less confidence, for another decade, more or less.
Back in 1955, the three US TV networks had introduced three new western-themed series— Gunsmoke, Cheyenne, and Wyatt Earp. But two years later, the networks ramped up their investment in cowboys, launching nine new westerns that fall.
