# Half Hour TV Dramas A Rarity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248 "2011-04-21T16:35:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/1 "2011-04-21T16:35:18Z")
Recently a local station has been broadcasting “The Rifleman” repeats with Chuck Connors which are half hour dramas. I have watched a lot of TV over the 40 years, and offhand I cannot think of any US Network long-running TV shows that were mainly dramas versus comedies or variety. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/2 "2011-04-21T16:41:55Z")
I am talking about shows with basically same cast in every episode and not shows like **the Twilight Zone** and **Alfred Hitchcock Presents**. ---
**Author:** ![Anticounterrevolutionary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Anticounterrevolutionary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anticounterrevolutionary)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/3 "2011-04-21T16:42:59Z")
Allowing for commercials the length of a half-hour show is around 22 minutes. That doesn’t allow a lot of time to develop a meaningful drama. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/4 "2011-04-21T16:47:04Z")
It wasn’t uncommon in the '50s and '60s. A few I can think of: Have Gun, Will Travel Highway Patrol Bat Masterson ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/5 "2011-04-21T16:47:09Z")
More recently, in the late 80s, **Tales from the Darkside** episodes ran a half hour each. Although, again, not continuing casts. When you consider that anthology shows like these have to introduce the characters, too (you can’t assume that you know them from previous episodes), it’s even harder to do in that 22 minutes than shows with a continuing cast. Soap operas used to be a half hour, too. They lengthened them to an hour after the 70s. Recent half hour dramas are rare, but in the 1950s, as noted, they were more common. Heck, network newscast back then were sometimes only 15 mi nutes. ---
**Author:** ![Anticounterrevolutionary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Anticounterrevolutionary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anticounterrevolutionary)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/6 "2011-04-21T16:51:21Z")
Guiding Light ran for 57 years. The series was expanded from 15 minutes to a half hour in 1968, and then to a full hour on November 7, 1977. As the World Turns ran for 55 years and was a half-hour. General Hospital has been on for 47 years, but the series was expanded from 30 to 45 minutes on July 23, 1976. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/7 "2011-04-21T16:54:20Z")
Oh, and how could I forget Dragnet? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/8 "2011-04-21T16:54:30Z")
There were some in the 1950s, but they phased out by the mid-60s. There were things like **Branded** , which ran through 1965, **The Rat Patrol** from 1966, **Felony Squad** in 1967, **Peyton Place, NYPD** , **Guns of Will Sonnet** (1968) and a handful of others, but even then, they were unusual. By 1970, I can’t see any half-hour dramas in prime time. As far as long-running shows, there was **The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp** , **Bat Masterson** , **Tales of Wells Fargo** , **NYPD** and **Naked City** ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/9 "2011-04-21T16:57:44Z")
Yeah, I thought of **Dragnet** and **Adam-12**. I definitely was not thinking of daytime Soap Operas when I made the OP, although admittedly they do qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/10 "2011-04-21T18:13:48Z")
There’s nothing more than personal conjecture going on here, but I believe the half-hour dramas in early TV days drew on the radio dramas that preceded them. Much can be done if you’re quick and efficient in the exposition, don’t require a lot of backstory on the characters, have a lean straightforward plot and get the dialog to move crisply. In short, simple. The sad thing is that now that the 22 minutes is expanded to 44 and the commercials pop up every couple minutes or so, you’re not getting much more show. Even worse is to look back at those old shows and realize how simple your tastes were and how easily you could be entertained. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/11 "2011-04-21T18:28:54Z")
What about LASSIE? ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/12 "2011-04-21T18:38:25Z")
GUNSMOKE from 1955-1961 was in the half hour format and then expaned to an hour lasting until 1975. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/13 "2011-04-21T19:46:18Z")
We use Hulu to find half hour fillers between ‘ready to go to bed’ and ‘‘bedtime’’. Search the 50s and 60s. Newhart will put me to sleep. One called Highway Patrol or some such is really representative of the decade and the genre. Sort of cute and serves the purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/14 "2011-04-21T19:52:35Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > Search the 50s and 60s. \<…\> One called Highway Patrol or some such is really representative of the decade and the genre. Sort of cute and serves the purpose. Starring “Flabbyjaws” Crawford. A must-see show when I was in junior high school. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/15 "2011-04-21T19:56:15Z")
I would say “The Wonder Years” was as much a drama as it was a comedy, at least for some of the episodes. Ditto “Doogie Howser, M.D.” (though it was more comedy than drama) and M_A_S\*H, which was about half and half. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/16 "2011-04-21T20:02:31Z")
Showtime has the half hour long _Nurse Jackie_ and _United States of Tara_ which are often much more Drama than Comedy. There was a little kerfuffle when Edie Falco got nominated and won an Emmy for a lead actress in a **comedy** for _Nurse Jackie_. I think there might have been some rules that comedy was the only category she was allowed to be nominated in because of the half hour nature of the show, but maybe I’m misremembering (maybe she was nominated there because she wouldn’t have had a chance to win the drama category). Oh, and Toni Collette won for Tara the prior year from Falco… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/17 "2011-04-22T04:08:47Z")
_Peter Gunn_ _Naked City_ (already mentioned) had half-hour shows for its first two years. I agree that the half-hour limit makes for shallower shows. I didn’t watch _Peter Gunn_ or _Have Gun, Will Travel_ when they were first broadcast. I was disappointed when I saw the reruns recently. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/18 "2011-04-22T13:00:27Z")
“Sea Hunt” although is 50 years old. “The Adventures of Superman” with George Reeves and Phyllis Coates in the first year was a drama, albeit with a guy with powers far beyond those of ordinary men. Later as it went to color, got Noel Neill and realized it was drawing kids, it became a kiddie show. “Adam 12” ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/19 "2011-04-22T14:51:09Z")
Anybody remember John Ritter as [Hooperman](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092373/) in 1987? It was 30 minutes long, part cop drama, part single-camera sitcom, and quite possibly the origin of the word “dramedy.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/20 "2011-04-22T14:54:55Z")
[Lawman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawman_%28TV_series%29) was half an hour. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248.md?page=2)