Television Serial

A television format similar to a series of Miniseries. Rather than airing a self-contained episode each week, long stories are broadcast broken into a number of individual parts.

This format derives from the serial format used by the short films once shown before a feature, and, before that, the publication of novels in magazines. (Many of the works of Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle were originally published as serials.)

The modern Cliff Hanger evolved from the custom of ending most episodes of a serial with a suspenseful scene which left our heroes in peril (often, literally hanging off a cliff).

All the episodes of a story are usually considered as a single unit. In syndication or video release, they may be edited together into a "movie format" which stitches the episodes together, usually removing the Cliff Hanger.

Differs from the Soap Opera in that the narrative is not continuous throughout the entire series. Typically, each story would last between three and eight episodes then end.

Differs from a Story Arc in that each episode is not a complete story on its own. Though the format is not mutually exclusive of a Story Arc, continuity between episodes which are not part of the same story is generally minimal (though this is probably entirely a result of arcs having been rare when the serial format was common).

Today, the Television Serial is a deprecated format, having been largely replaced by occasional two-part stories in a mostly stand-alone series and the Myth Arc.

For some reason, this format was particularly common for British science fiction series.

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Examples:

British series:

• Doctor Who prior to 1996
• The Tomorrow People
• Sapphire and Steel
• The Bill since 2002
• Cracker
• Timeslip
• Many British sci-fi shows that did this are also examples of British Brevity, where the whole season is one serial but very short:
  • A for Andromeda
  • Quatermass
  • Dark Season (which managed to have two mostly but not entirely separate serials within a single 6 episode season).

Non-British series:

• Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
• On radio, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar during the late 1950s, as well as Superman and lots of other shows.
• Ghost Hunt is an example that's rare both for being Anime and for happening in 2006-2007.
• Moonlight Mask
• The Space Giants
• Ghostwriter

Sometimes used as a format for one segment within a Variety Show:

• The namesake segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
• Mathnet on Square One TV
• The Bloodhound Gang on 3-2-1 Contact