The vast majority of the episodes clock in at 48 minutes. The original pilot was 58, but the version AMC shows now (and the version on Netflix, BTW) is cut (one scene I know they eliminated is in the first few minutes, when Bagdan makes Walt wipe down cars, and he is spotted by the douchebag jock-n-princess from his class).
The final two episodes, Granite State and Felina, run 54 and 56 minutes, respectively. I believe that Gilligan had to get permission from AMC to produce the longer cuts – not that AMC was reticent, they knew the episodes would get monster ratings (by BrBa standards, anyway), but it was an expensive show to produce.
I don’t like commercials any more than the next guy, but most network shows run 22-23 minutes for 1/2 hour, or 44-45 minutes for hour-long slots. That’s a 3:1 ratio of program to ad. For a 48 minute show to occupy a 64 minute time slot? It seems to be a fair trade, especially for a well-written, well-produced show like this.
That said, watching on my iPad or on Netflix is preferable.
If you think about it, there are 12 minutes of commercials in the 60 minute show. They are upping that to 16 minutes, which is a 33% increase in commercial time with no added show.
That is a lot. It doesn’t sound like much, but most viewers can tell, because we are programmed for those commercial breaks to be a certain length. When they are longer, they are noticeable.
The other thing is that the same ads are played over and over again. That gets really tiring, especially for that extra time. Multiply that by the 8 or whatever episodes in the marathon, and it makes it unwatchable (at least for me).
The other point someone brought up is also valid. When you are watching a marathon, why spend the time reviewing the show that was just on? That is annoying.
I think it’s worse with The Walking Dead. It’s annoying as hell to sit through five minutes of commercials only to go back to more commercials after five minutes of programming. They try to sucker you too, as the commercials are weighted towards the end of the show. It’s gotten to the point where it’s actually difficult to sit through a show. It’s pretty much worth it to just wait to the next day and stream commercial-free on Amazon for a couple of bucks.
I’m surprised by that, too. And I’m guessing that the large number of ‘send money to help kids’ and ‘send money to help animals’ commercials means that AMC has had trouble selling commercial time at all. (My assumption being that the ‘send money’ sponsors pay bottom dollar for commercial time…maybe that’s wrong.)
I think that’s a fair assumption, although I really don’t know for sure. Those orgs. Usually are cash-strapped, so they don’t spend a ton of money on ads.
What is also strange is those damn animal commercials are so depressing, my wife actually has turned the show off never to return. That is not a good ad campaign, when it makes people. Sad and depressed enough to turn the channel.
Much better to add a few commercials and keep all the scenes than to cut scenes to fit into 60 min. I’ve been watching some reruns of Lost on the Esquire Network, and the episode I just finished had a crucial scene deleted. Anyone watching for the first time would have missed one of the coolest moments relating to Henry Gale, aka Ben Linus.
I’m comparing it to broadcast television, in which hour-long shows typically have a 44-45 minute runtime. Breaking Bad episodes are typically longer by 3-4 minutes. I don’t know that they did this all the time on the original broadcast, but I remember a lot of episodes were set in a 63-64 minute hour. This has become much more common on the cable networks.
…about the “previously on” clips. Those are part of the broadcast cut of the episode, I’m pretty sure that AMC is running this marathon on the minimum budget possible, which means no additional editing.
I agree. I remember added a few minutes to my DVR record times for this show because even though comcast would allocate extra time for the show, my DVR would still often cut off the last minute or so.
At any rate, with the technology available today, anyone complaining about the effects of watching live TV doesn’t get much sympathy from me. Record the damn thing, and watch it at your leisure.
Anyway: I’m not planning to watch AMC’s other marathon this week, of The Walking Dead. I’ve seen those episodes once, and for me the show’s quality is not such as to merit a second viewing. (Unlike BB, which always rewards re-watching.)
But I’m curious to know if AMC will rake in more in commercial fees for time during the TWD showings. That show probably has a larger fan base than does BB. Will the sad puppies and underfed children get as much exposure during this next marathon?
Maybe someone who watches both will come along and post an answer.
Whenever our heroes wanted to enter their underground lab, they’d have to raise up that big washer (or dryer, whichever it was), walk down a flight of stairs, go through a locked door, then climb down a spiral staircase. Why didn’t they just take that freight elevator down? And how was the door to that hidden?
So many questions…
The freight elevator is used for legitimate laundry purposes most of the time. Maybe there’s another basement level above the lab, or maybe there’s a mezzanine that it goes up to where laundry supplies are stored. In any case, it’s hidden in the perfect way - by being an actual freight elevator in use by the laundry on a regular basis.
Normally, they can schedule their shipments of chemicals-in and methamphetamine-out around the laundry schedule. Nobody is in anybody’s way; everything runs like clockwork. If something comes up, they can tell the laundry employees to take a 15-minute break while they bring down some barrels full of … whatever.
When Gomie & crew look around the laundry, they would see the freight elevator. If the elevator didn’t have an obvious purpose, it would stand out like a sore thumb. If there is an obvious purpose then they won’t necessarily be any more suspicious of that than they are of anything else in the building.
Recall at the end of Season 4 when a goon handcuffs Jesse to the lab equipment and goes to the freight elevator. He sees his goon-buddy, and asks, “Why didn’t you take the stairs?” (He then immediately finds out why the guy didn’t take the stairs.) So presumably the freight elevator is used only when necessary.
And I have to say, when you see the starving children right after the abused animals, you kind of feel like you’d be a dick to send money for the puppy.
Funny story: we have all the seasons of Breaking Bad except this last one on Blu-ray. We recorded all of them on the DVR and time-skipped them as they aired live. And we still ended up watching a huge number of episodes during this marathon, complete with sad-eyed children and animals accompanied by warbling sad-Christmas songs.
