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<blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 438076" data-attributes="member: 27">Calling a show a &quot;hit series&quot; is often baked into their publicity, regardless of whether it is actually a success.&nbsp; If you&#039;re paying for the ads, you can write whatever you want in them.&nbsp; A good ad executive can turn almost any bit of ratings data into something positive.&nbsp; They can call a show an &quot;International Hit&quot; even if it&#039;s just a middle-of-the-road success with very little objection in both countries because most of us have no idea what&#039;s popular in countries we don&#039;t live in.&nbsp; There are other measures of success than just ratings points, like good old-fashioned word-of-mouth.&nbsp; I recall everyone talking about shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Arrow, and others on the WB and the CW....while the shows languished in the middle to bottom of the traditional ratings.&nbsp; None were ever ratings champs but they had a solid, loud fan base who made the average (non-) viewer think the show was much more of a hit than it really was.&nbsp; You never know when a certain show might develop a fanbase that takes on a life of its own (think: Trekkies), and perhaps the docu is more about the fanbase than about the show it developed around. The American daytime soap Loving was also said to have been phenomenally popular in Italy, while it spent most of its American run as the lowest-rated soap on its network. So the Loving producers could have slept easier saying &quot;We&#039;re an international hit!&quot;&nbsp;The stuff about people grasping onto &quot;glamorous escapism&quot; was also said about the international fans of Dallas and even Baywatch at that time, so you&#039;re correct that they&#039;re trying a little too hard to sound profound.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Daniel Avery, post: 438076, member: 27"] Calling a show a "hit series" is often baked into their publicity, regardless of whether it is actually a success. If you're paying for the ads, you can write whatever you want in them. A good ad executive can turn almost any bit of ratings data into something positive. They can call a show an "International Hit" even if it's just a middle-of-the-road success with very little objection in both countries because most of us have no idea what's popular in countries we don't live in. There are other measures of success than just ratings points, like good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. I recall everyone talking about shows like[I] Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Arrow[/I], and others on the WB and the CW....while the shows languished in the middle to bottom of the traditional ratings. None were ever ratings champs but they had a solid, loud fan base who made the average (non-) viewer think the show was much more of a hit than it really was. You never know when a certain show might develop a fanbase that takes on a life of its own (think: Trekkies), and perhaps the docu is more about the fanbase than about the show it developed around. The American daytime soap [I]Loving [/I]was also said to have been phenomenally popular in Italy, while it spent most of its American run as the lowest-rated soap on its network. So the [I]Loving[/I] producers could have slept easier saying "We're an international hit!" The stuff about people grasping onto "glamorous escapism" was also said about the international fans of[I] Dallas[/I] and even [I]Baywatch[/I] at that time, so you're correct that they're trying a little too hard to sound profound. [/QUOTE]

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Who played JR Ewing?