“Well, first of all, American TV is notorious for keeping lame stuff around long after it has passed its creative expiration date.”

Very true, but to my point, not 50-60 years, like a number of strips still populating the papers.

TV shows do indeed have a trail that can be specifically tracked, i.e., viewers, Nielsons, advertising etc…newspapers simply don’t have anything ‘trackable’ other than advertising revenue, sold by the column inch. That’s it.

To elaborate on your point, it would be nice if comics had specific advertising/sponsors attached to each strip, (like TV shows) i.e., Today’s “Blondie” brought to you by Dial Soap! or Home Depot Presents “Hi and Lois”! and each reader of said strip was tracked, etc etc…Of course, newspapers would never do that, so it’s really quite moot.

Again, I stand by my basic point – which is to say, there’s nothing worse than creative atrophy…no matter what medium.

Well, first of all, American TV is notorious for keeping lame stuff around long after it has passed its creative expiration date.

That said, the difference is that when NBC is showing “Law & Order: Tired Derivative Division,” that’s the only thing NBC is showing and the ratings make it clear how the show is doing. We’ve seen examples of shows that had a loyal following being canceled because they had no marketable ratings — a flood of letters may come from those loyal followers, but the network execs have the ratings book in their hands and can see that those impassioned viewers don’t represent marketing value. Think “Wonderfalls” or “My So-Called Life.”

By contrast, nobody really knows how much quality audience any specific feature of a newspaper pulls in because content is undifferentiated. Even on the rare occasions that something jolts circulation — say the addition of a new sports columnist or a change in when the TV section is inserted — you don’t know what demographic has come or gone. All you see are raw numbers, and to go deeper by commissioning a real market survey is very expensive and time-consuming.

And Lucille Ball did try new shows after “I Love Lucy” ended, and the loveable screwball redhead was pretty unwatchable. IIRC, the sitcom lasted a couple of years and the variety show sank like a stone.

TV ratings aren’t perfect, but they sure beat putting your fate in the hands of editors who don’t understand marketing, demographics or business.

No, Sparky made it very, very clear that he didn’t want a zombie strip. No new Peanuts.

Even the licensing folks don’t allow new drawings of Peanuts characters. If you use them in your advertising, you have to use a drawing that Sparky made.