The actor says he has mixed feelings about the long-running franchise ending.

The format was designed as competition to NBC's long-running franchise, Tonight, and its hard style contrasted with Tonight's more comedic format.

As a result, entertainment companies in pursuit of sturdy, long-running franchises are less willing to balance them on something as unpredictable as the popularity of a single star.

A number of long-running franchises have taken the concept of an alien language beyond that of a scripting device and have developed languages of their own.

Take away the name and there's little here that resembles the long-running franchise at all.

Network executives said they still needed a place for the long-running "Wonderful World of Disney" franchise of family-oriented movies and specials.

Tomb Raider remains the most critically acclaimed game in the long-running franchise, and has sold over 7 million copies worldwide becoming a bestseller.

Furthermore, some films based on long-running franchises use particular story lines from the franchise as a basis for a plot.

Nonetheless, Mr. Cornelius says he remains comfortable incorporating most contemporary black music into his long-running franchise.

The unwritten law for any soap opera, comic book or other long-running narrative franchise is that after a while, no matter how clever its origins, the story reduces itself to mere devices of self-perpetuation.