What is your preferred number of characters for a t.v. show?
- Thread starter Cicada 5
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I'd say it depends a lot on the genre, but generally I'd say somewhere between 6 and 8.
That should allow you to get an even spread of personalities and you can keep interactions fresh. It will also be possible for characters to be absent for an episode without it feeling like a major part of the cast just disappeared.
That should allow you to get an even spread of personalities and you can keep interactions fresh. It will also be possible for characters to be absent for an episode without it feeling like a major part of the cast just disappeared.
I don't really care, as long as they properly devote story time to make them enjoyable. And that focus can shift from season to season. For example, season 1 of a show, might focus around the main protag, and their family members, but season 2, has the family relegated to mostly support, as another group of characters, and their plight, becomes the focus.
That's perfectly fine.
So yeah, depends on the show. I will say the larger the cast gets, the harder it is to give everyone sufficient development, but I've never said "This many and NO further!" for a specific number.
That's perfectly fine.
So yeah, depends on the show. I will say the larger the cast gets, the harder it is to give everyone sufficient development, but I've never said "This many and NO further!" for a specific number.
^This.
My favorite show (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia) started out with four protago... well, "main characters," then they brought in Danny DeVito as a literal fifth wheel to garner the show the viewership executives felt it could with a little star power to pull it into the mainstream. And he works well enough, but he is largely ancillary. "The gang" was fine with four aloof, narcissistic sociopaths and their hair-brained, self-destructive scheming; DeVito just became more of the same if you can believe a wealthy, sensible businessman can be reasonably be willingly dragged into the kind of sordid debauchery that finds him eating cat food and digging through garbage. I think the show even pokes fun at this tacit fact as many a time, the original cast reminds his character in one way or another that he's not really a part of the group, though they're happy to exploit his wealth.
Obviously every show is shaped like itself and there isn't a universal formula for how many characters any more than how many scenes or how many jokes.
I don't mind a larger ensemble cast, but too many cooks can be a real problem. The way to do a big cast, is only feature on one or two an episode for the "A" plot, and just put the rest in a "B" plot. Do it right and your cast can be as big as you can afford without running into too many problems. Until you have to renegotiate contracts if your show is successful.
