Irregular Series

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A series which, by design, does not run regularly. It may be a series of annual made-for-TV movies, or a series composed of Miniseries airing every few years (But lacking the regularity of a Television Serial). Often happens when a Pilot Movie sparks enough interest to prompt a second movie, but not enough to prompt a regular series.

In the US, these are typically revivals of series which were originally regular in format. They are far more common in the UK. British Irregular Series are often aired on public television in the US as part of a Genre Anthology such as Mystery or Masterpiece Theater.

Examples of Irregular Series include:

• Columbo started life as a Made for TV Movie, then became a series which aired as every third episode of The NBC Mystery Movie. Later, it became a series of TV Movies which aired with decreasing frequency.
• The Rockford Files became a series of TV Film for a time after the regular series ended.
• Perry Mason did the same.
• As did The Incredible Hulk.
• Inspector Morse aired as a number of Miniseries.
• Hetty Wainthropp Investigates did as well.
• And Second Sight
• And Adam Dalglish Mysteries
• And Prime Suspect
• Poirot in recent years.
• Rumpole of the Bailey.
  • And in 2009, it will temporarily switch to the "series of TV movies" format to allow the actors to follow up on other commitments that a full-scale TV schedule would conflict with.
• Rumiko Takahashi's Mermaid Saga, a manga variation of this, was periodically released in episodic stories over the course of ten years
• Sharpe has also ran like this, with a really noticeable time skip between the most recent instalments.
• The German language crime television series Tatort. 1971 saw 11 episodes, 2008 saw 31, and not evenly distributed to boot. In the first twenty years, the length of episodes varied, too, up to two hours; more recently things settled on about one and a half hours.
• The Thick of It
• Lupin III runs in anime as a series of made for TV movies in Japan.
• Non-television example: When Tim Drake was introduced as the new Robin, he appeared in an Irregular Series before his regular series started.