Longevity of MLP

Hi all.

I was just thinking about other massive cult shows and how the studios cancel them at the drop of a hat despite a strong fan base.

How do you all see the future for mlp? I dont think any other show ever has a following like the broniehood and its one that buys alot of merch as hasbro/hub wont risk that.

The cast seem to really enjoy it too so as long as they are paid I dont see that being an issue either.

And as long as the writers can come up with new good ideas I think it should be as safe as other faust shows.(6 seasons for some?)

What do you all think?

Honestly, with all the crazy fandom surrounding MLP:FiM I fully expect Hasbro to milk it for all it's worth, the show suffering from a steady degradation of quality and moving further away from the original rules and guidelines that Faust laid down (something that noticably started last season) until it's a shambling mess of references and pandering to an audience that has grown tired of it - like Family Guy for young girls.

I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Hmm I see where you're going and yeah that's what worries me, that it may eventually lose its quality as it goes along because the studio may stick to what they think works at the time and doesn't perhaps evolve the show a little more. And maybe we could run out of lessons to learn about friendship that stays within the younger audience, because they can't of course put the mature lessons into this.

I imagine as long as it's making enough money for Hasbro it'll continue. They may try to change a few things to keep it fresh (new main characetrs etc.) but I can't see them moving away from FiM as long as it's profitable.

It makes me wonder what G5 would be like, if and when that time comes.

Whatever happens in the future, we wont go backwards to "girls play with pink and should get married and stay at home" type "morals" like in past shows I hope so anyways!

Like Iv said before MLP is dairy cow that for the last couple of decades has produced sour cream, now its suddenly started producing milk and Hasbro are gonna milk that old cow for every drop.

I really don't see them dropping the show anytime soon, since there's really no reason unless it's a lack of creative material. I'm always drawn to compare it to how Spongebob Squarepants has continued and is even know, on it's 8th season with a planned 9th.

Now, i'm not saying MLP is like Spongebob, what I mean here is that both have become incredibly popular, and there's apparently no lack of creativity for Spongebob, so I can't see why'd there be a lack for MLP.

oh if spongebob can go for 9 seasons......or friends...ha

I'm torn, to be honest. To an extent I share Grey's concern about Lauren Faust's departure. This is all speculation of course, but she'd always been so dead-set against romance (played straight, at least) in the show because it was so stereotypical for a little girls' cartoon, and I wonder whether we'd ever have seen S2 end with an (admittedly convoluted) love story between two suddenly-introduced characters if the series' direction had been under LF's complete control.

I've thought for a while that four, maybe five seasons would be enough. I really can't see the show going into Simpsons territory, and I don't think I'd want it to. After all, even if S3 is only 13 episodes, that's 65 in total -- which is a longer run than some very famous cult shows have managed. (For example, Fawlty Towers got 12; Police Squad just six.) It wouldn't surprise me if there were a feature film at some point, too. So five seasons would be an excellent run, and much beyond that I think things would get rather tired.

I would like to see atleast 4 seasons and maybe a movie to finish it. I kinda like that its moving into a slightly more mature direction but keeping its young influence. Like the simpsons its somthing that everyone of any age can enjoy and if they continue to move forward to strike the perfect balance then it will become timless fun.

That's a very harsh thing to say! Yes, there are many differences between the previous generation and the current one. But without your "sour milk", we wouldn't have FiM at all. Faust wrote the series the way she did because she wanted to recapture the way she felt watching the original film and playing with her childhood ponies. To spit on the old series and dismiss it as garbage is to willfully ignore that a lot of what goes on in FiM is deliberately indebted to what came before. MLP wouldn't have survived this long - and will not continue to survive into the future - if it didn't have something genuinely good at its core.

dude it was just a simple analogy for how the series was percieved, how much money it made and how broad its audiance was.
Its doing really well and comparing the quality of FIM to the older gens is like comparing gold to copper or milk to sour cream.

Stop taking it so bloody seriously because I really dont care what grandfathers rights it apparently has.

It's pretty much inevitable that we'll get sick of the show before it stops. To be honest I think this is something we should always expect and try not to resent too much; businesses are always going to be reluctant to drop something that makes them lots of money. And this is not a bad thing: the more money they make, the more cool stuff they can do with it. That is their job and the very foundation of western economics. Is it a perfect system? No, but it does mean when something we really like gains a good following we will get more and more. And I would much rather have 6 seasons of MLP the last 2 of which are terrible than have it cancelled in the middle of its glory like Firefly.

I think best case scenario: 6-8 seasons. More likely 4 or 5. Can the writers maintain the quality levels? Tough to say, every show is different. I think Scrubs, for example, was consistently excellent throughout its 8 season run with the main case. The Simpsons had ten seasons of glory before succumbing, and I'm told Stargate SG-1 only gets better as it goes on. Hopefully Hasbro and/or the studio when the time is right to stop, and they'll go out on a high after however many excellent seasons. But to be honest I think we'll have to put up with some rubbish before the end. Just be prepared for it and try not to let that sour the good times

4 Seasons? That'd be good. However, what I'd really miss is the fandom, we can still meetup guys, can't we? :')

True, though I'll always have the people I've met to meet up and talk about other things

The older fanbase is currently a gold mine for Hasbro. The danger as I see it is that they start over-catering to the bronies and start to ignore the younger demographic. That would inevitably lead to either a huge public controversy, or a fan rebellion (think Derpy) which could hit the popularity of the show hard. I'm reminded of Invader Zim which was allegedly cancelled by Nickelodeon because the show was 'too grown up' for it's target audience. TV ratings fell despite having a large older following mostly online.

Even since the season 3 teasers appeared there have already been a lot of uneasy reactions and fears that it will go too far in pandering to our fanbase. Hopefully, seeing as the makers are very close to the community, this won't happen as they will be able to read the mood well enough to know where the line is. We can only hope and have faith in the show's creators who have brought us all this far.

Even if the show stops the fandom will keep it 'alive' so to speak. The amount of things that goes on inbetween seasons (and during them) is a testament to how we don't need the show 24/7 in order to still be fans and remain interested in MLP.

I reckon that as long as they only pander us with stuff like background charactor appearances, previously unnamed charactors and unconsiquintial stuff like that we wont have a problem.