The long-runners

A handful of the TV answers have been on air for years, and it shows up in the clues. When the season count is high, you are looking at a show that has been on air a long time, and that narrows things fast.

#0002 is a hospital drama still running after twenty-odd seasons, one of the longest-lived dramas on American television. #0043 managed twelve seasons of comedy about a group of scientists and the neighbour who puts up with them. #0018 is a spin-off crime procedural that reached fourteen.

Long runs make the seasons clue unusually powerful. Most shows give you three or four seasons to work with, so when the number climbs into double figures you can throw out everything short-lived straight away.

It cuts the other way too. A show you loved that only lasted a season or two is easy to forget, and those tend to be the trickier TV puzzles, because there is less of them lodged in the memory.