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This thread has opened my eyes to something interesting. Two things really:
1. Clearly the definition of "serial" has changed, and there has been a LOT of posting of bad, chopped up, rough draft fiction in the name of serials. A serial is not a story chopped into bits (especially not a rough draft). A serial is a series. It's just a particular style of series.
2. Television, of course, is built on serials. Sure, there are some series which don't develop from story to story at all. (Although The Simpsons is the only series which intentionally has NO story arc, where one plot could end with everyone dying, and the next will have them all back where they were before.) And at the other end of the spectrum are series like LOST or 24 - a continuous story, where each episode ends with a cliffhanger and if you miss an episode you're, well, lost.
But there are plenty which actually follow closer to the formula of the old time serial. Stories like CHUCK or BURN NOTICE - where there is an ongoing story too, but each individual story is whole in itself. If you miss an episode you may kick yourself, but you don't screw yourself - you can still follow the storyline.
Camille
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