I actually used Star Trek figuring that Kirk and Spock would be pretty iconic, not that it's the best science-fiction ever. But if you pick a random episode, I think you'll find that the episodes that are almost entirely satire (planets of Nazis, planets of 1920s gangsters, the post-atomic Cold War planet where Kirk flips out because they're mispronouncing the United States Constitution) are enjoyable even when they're outright stupid, whereas the episodes that try to be smart or unique (planet of witches, explaining the Greek gods as aliens, android takeovers) don't ever seem to hit the mark.
The same generally goes for the other shows in the franchise, too. Deep Space Nine worked because it tried really hard to fit the mold of poking our world. Voyager...cast women and called it a day, as far as I could tell, and I still can't believe it lasted seven years.
Babylon 5 was a different animal entirely, being more or less a hundred-ish hour movie inspired by Babylonian myth. A shame Crusade got canned. The second season scripts I've seen floating around were far better than the stuff that made it to air.
As for prose, the other advantages are that you can have a longer lead time, don't need to worry about how long it'll take to draw, and can take the plot (almost) as far out as you want. If you had to push out a couple of book per month on these characters, you'd probably get the same repeating plots that magically restore the status quo at the end.
Funny thing, since we're picking at stuff, though. I always find it amazing that, of all the movements for "realism" I've seen over the years, nobody has ever touched the two most absurdly unrealistic aspects of the setting. The secret identity is a terrible idea, since framing you is trivial among the "due process" problems and concealment problems. And no sane group of "best people in the world" would waste an afternoon every week sitting around a conference table and "training."
I really just marvel (no pun intended) every time I pick up a Justice League book and see Batman or Aquaman in some sort of sparring match with the other heroes. I like to imagine the scene they didn't show, where he says something like, "well, I spend sixteen hours a day fighting maniacs, skulking around alleys, and dodging bullets, but sure, I can waste half a day doing exactly those same things with you instead for fun while my home burns to the ground. But only if we can vote on something irrelevant afterward like where to hang the Giant Kayak of Doom."
It's possible, though, that I like comics for different reasons than most people...
