With the recent revelation that Downton Abbey will call it quits after next season, we're reminded that all good things must come to an end.
In the case of Downton, the producers wanted to go out on a high note. As with fading athletes, too many good shows stay too long in the game and end up souring their legacies.
But what about Game of Thrones, the enthralling HBO series set to kick off Season 5 at 8 p.m. Sunday? The television program is based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin has finished five of his planned seven novels. I've read them all and can attest that fans are champing at the bit.
For the record, here are the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series and the years they were published:
A Game of Thrones (1996); A Clash of Kings (1998); A Storm of Swords (2000); A Feast for Crows (2005); A Dance With Dragons (2011). Note they came farther apart as they went along. The last two novels will be The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.
The Associated Press cornered Martin in San Francisco at the March 23 special U.S. premiere of the fifth season of GOT (as fans call it) and asked him about the pressure to finish his books. After the forthcoming season, the series will have run out of source material.
"There is more pressure every year," Martin, 66, said. "The main thing is to make the book as good as I can possibly make it. Fifty years from now, nobody is going to care how frequently the books came out. They will care if the books are as good as they can possibly be, if the books stand the test of time. That's what I struggle with as I write."
About the forthcoming season, Emilia Clarke, who plays the "mother of dragons" Daenerys Targaryen, told the AP that the stories that fans have been following for four seasons will finally start to entwine.
"The threads we've been weaving are really coming together now, and that will be quite satisfying to watch," Clarke said.
I've already seen the first four episodes of the new season and can testify that fans won't be disappointed.
The question now is whether Martin will get himself motivated to finish the next book so that TV fans can continue to follow the adventures of the war-torn continent of Westeros.
Fans all know about "Valar Morghulis" (All Men Must Die), but must one of the best shows on TV die as well because the author is too distracted attending premieres and basking in adulation to finish The Winds of Winter? Get back to the keyboard, George!
LAST CALL FOR DOWNTON
What's that? You hadn't heard about Downton Abbey ending? Alas, it's true.
When PBS chief Paula Kerger was in Little Rock in February, she was circumspect about the series' future.
"We're committed to another year," she said, "and when I announced it, immediately the question was, 'Well, what about the following year?' At some point it will end. Hopefully not soon. It's just such an interesting period of time. We'll see where it plays out."
Not long afterward, the rumors started flying when Maggie Smith (who plays Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham) told The Sunday Times, "They say this is the last [season], and I can't see how it could go on."
Adding to the rumors was that the fact that Downton creator Julian Fellowes had committed to a new NBC period drama, The Gilded Age. The stage was set for the sad, but inevitable announcement a couple of weeks ago when producers of Downton confirmed it will end after its sixth season, scheduled to air in the United States early next year.
"Our feeling is that it's good to quit while you're ahead," executive producer Gareth Neame told AP. "We feel the show is in incredibly strong shape, the scripts that we're working on for the [forthcoming] season are fantastic and the show is so popular globally. But the danger with this sort of thing is to let it go on forever."
The acclaimed drama has followed the fates of the aristocratic Crawley family and its servants through the rapidly changing social times from pre-World War I Britain into the 1920s.
"When we set out to do this in the first place," Neame said, "we thought we would have a good success in the U.K. and that very traditional outlets for British content globally would be there. We did not know we would be in 250 territories worldwide. We didn't know we would be one of the biggest shows on American television."
The recently concluded Season 5 drew an average audience of 12.9 million viewers. Production of the forthcoming 13-hour final season is well underway.
"We very much have an eye to where the characters will end up," Neame said. "What will become of poor Edith? Will Anna and Bates ever get a break? People want to know these things!"
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 04/07/2015