“even PBS proved you can do TV with minimal sets and cast, ever see Masterpiece Theater?”
Some of the older Masterpiece Theater did that. Many of the ones now are like the Inspector Lewis montages, I noted.
Of course the biggest recent one using tons of extras is:
___________ Abbey. You can fill in the blank.
_______ Abbey is a British Production isn’t it? ITV I think?
Broadcast rights have been purchased in 100 countries, that’ll cover a lot of the budget for ITV