Before committing to a show, TV networks have traditionally wanted producers to give them a pilot, which if not picked up by a network is discarded. Before committing to a movie, Hollywood studios haven't required the equivalent. Why the difference between movies and TV?
There are a number of plausible rational choice stories, such as: 1) The difference is rationally grounded in different business models, such as the series format in TV and the need of TV networks to present their schedule to advertisers; or 2) The traditional pilot system in TV is a now-vanishing artifact of the oligopoly that the big three networks formerly enjoyed.
The most plausible value competition story that comes to mind involves "informing oneself" and "going with the gut" values, and a possible excessive tilt in the execs of the establishment TV biz of postwar America toward the former kind of values. That story could be told in sociological terms, as in http://www.getcited.org/pub/103358521, or as a supplement to the oligopoly story.
In this case, I believe the RC stories have more intellectual oomph to them than the VC one just proposed. Given my vested interest in a VC framework, I'm inclined to find it valuable as a supplement or corrective to RC. But plenty of the time, an RC account does just fine, or at least better than a VC account.
