Quality and Quantity aren't mutually exclusive. You don't have to give up one for more of the other. I'm not talking about making unlimited or an unreasonable amount of episodes. I'm talking about what Bitt mentioned, which is to give a series the opportunity to explore some additional avenues, including expanding some story lines and better developing some characters (this isn't always a problem, I'd argue the players in IT Crowd work well as characterizations).

IT Crowd which I used as an example originally, could have done a stellar 12 episode series. I find that in each of the three series, I've felt the production was cut artificially short. There has always been a case of wanting to see a bit more about some tangent they touched.

While doing a long run, such as 22 episodes you may get some stinkers, I'd rather have a 12 episode series with 10 great episodes and 2 mediocre ones than simply 6. Having a small number doesn't guarantee success nor quality either, especially when it's a program that doesn't necessarily tell an arced story.

The US Office past the first season really didn't (doesn't) have anything to do with the UK version. And where one might consider that the UK version told a story in X number of episodes that the US hasn't been able in XX, that's not the point IMO. The show is still doing very well and it's the type of program that allows for plenty of variety without producing too many dull episodes.

Anyway, I'm not picking quantity over quality, I just want more quality episodes. And if history has shown us, that's something achievable. I don't know how budgets and revenues are doing for UK based programming right now, but it strikes me that the main reason for short series is tradition.

Heroes in the US hasn't faltered or failed because of its yearly episode count. It's simply a complete lack of direction and foresight coupled with bad scripts, including plot lines, on the parts of the showrunner and writers. They could have been producing 6 bad episodes a year. At least with trying for 20 they may have a chance for 6 decent ones in there somewhere.