Ok, I haven't watched the show yet, I only found out about it today. But I'm taping this saturday's showing
But Naturally I have some other comments.
Some other thoughts. Comics today cost (literally) 20-30 times as much as a golden age comic. Comic book property owners (at least the main stream ones) also haver a lot of lucrative merchandising options and movie deals that they never had in the golden age. In other words, the "big four" and others who want to emulate their success (like Dreamwave, who seem to be doing a great start with the properties they've got rights to: GI Joe, Transformers, TMNT, et al) are unlikely to go "underground" and become elitest. They're more likely to go "hollywood."
However, there is a strong underground market, and for them, well, "too late." Most of the ones that make it "big" for independents are already inaccessible or at least very strange and deliberately shocking for the sake of shocking. To be honest, I'm less impressed with a lot of independent work than I am with mainstream work. There are naturally exceptions. spiegelman, McCloud, Sims for example. All have accessible work, but meaningful and aesthetic approaches. I'd recommend checking out all of their work.
The problem is a lot of this stuff dies right away or is bought by mainstream publishers like marvel and DC. In the long run, this is probably good, actually. Since it weeds out a lot of crap and leaves the industry stronger. Most independents it true, don't make a lot of money, but many continue jsut because it's what they want to do.
And like I said, I think between increased prices, merchandising, and media expansion, the mainstream isn't really in danger of going away.
Scott McCloud actually has a lot to say on the subject of the future of comics. Both his web site and his book "Reinventing Comics" are worth reading. He has a lot of innovative ways for comics to regain profitability and grow stronger. The web, both as a storefront and as a publication medium feature in his ideas a lot. Which is why I'd also point at Web comics. Some are donig pretty well for themselves. Penny Arcade, PVP and User Friendly are only a few of the examples.
Sure, I think the industry is going to go through a pretty rough time, forcing traditional publishers to rework and reinvent a lot of practices and morays - and small press to become very innovative, but I don't think the industry will die.