# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/21 "2011-04-22T14:59:38Z")
I guess the half-hour drama was common in the 50’s and 60’s, but been mostly out of favor since 1970’s, with a couple notable exceptions. Holy Priceless Collection of TV Shows, no one has mentioned **Batman** , which I guess was a comedy, of sorts, and not a drama. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/22 "2011-04-22T15:27:44Z")
Doctor Who used to be in 30 minute episodes. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/23 "2011-04-22T15:29:43Z")
_The Bold & The Beautiful_ has been a half-hour drama since it began 24 years ago. That’s more an artifact of available network time slots (back when each network had 3 or 4 soaps to cram into a 3 1/2 hour slot) than of some sort of artistic device, though. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/24 "2011-04-22T15:38:42Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I guess the half-hour drama was common in the 50’s and 60’s, but been mostly out of favor since 1970’s, with a couple notable exceptions. On U.S. prime-time network TV, that does appear to be true. The more recent examples which have come up here have mostly been: - Cable shows - Daytime soap operas - British shows ---
**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 22, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/25 "2011-04-22T15:58:42Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > 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.” Tim Reid’s _Frank’s Place_ from that same season too. Since there were (at least) two shows of that vein, I guess they had to invent “dramedy” to describe them. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/26 "2011-04-22T18:21:00Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > 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. I’m inclined to agree. There were plenty of half-hour dramas on old-time radio, including radio versions of some shows that have been mentioned in this thread (like “Dragnet” and “Gunsmoke”). > [@](#): > > 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. I wouldn’t mind seeing an efficient, fast-paced half-hour 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 22, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/27 "2011-04-22T19:49:29Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Holy Priceless Collection of TV Shows, no one has mentioned **Batman** , which I guess was a comedy, of sorts, and not a drama. It was also basically a one-hour show split into two halves shown on consecutive days. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/28 "2011-04-22T20:26:53Z")
if you get broadcast (over the air) tv in the USA many of these shows are on digital subchannels such as Retro Television Network, MeTV, This TV, MyNetworkTV ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/29 "2011-04-22T20:36:18Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > 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. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’m inclined to agree. There were plenty of half-hour dramas on old-time radio, including radio versions of some shows that have been mentioned in this thread (like “Dragnet” and “Gunsmoke”).I wouldn’t mind seeing an efficient, fast-paced half-hour drama. i think that regular nonserial radio dramas were half-hour. some serial radio dramas were quarter-hour or half-hour. some starting at 1/4 went to 1/2 and then to 1/4 before their end. i think people were too busy to spend an hour, on their butt, at a time back then. adaptations of plays or movies as anthology series would go an hour on radio. there were a few of these that ran for years though maybe only one or two might be on in a week. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/30 "2011-04-22T21:04:10Z")
Not quite on-topic, but some fun reading anyway: > **[Radio drama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_drama)** > > Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story: "It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension." Radio drama includes plays specifically written for radio, docudrama, dramatized works of fiction, as well as p Radio... ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/31 "2011-04-23T15:52:00Z")
I’d put _The Venture Bros._ in as not straight comedy. It is at least action comedy, and several of the ongoing stories (and a handful of the episodic ones) have all the dramatic elements. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/32 "2011-04-23T16:11:20Z")
Of the standard four genres lawyer/cop/western/doctor, cop worked best within half-hour. Watching **NYPD** , character development is jettisoned for action. Who cares why the bad guy is bad? This is NYC in the 1960’s: crazy, evil people are a given, so just show how the cops stop this week’s specimen. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/33 "2011-04-23T16:11:24Z")
I don’t find ‘Cougartown’ or ‘New Adventures of Old Christine’ funny at all, does that count? Actually, I came in here to say ‘Adam 12’ but on preview someone beat me to it. _shakes fist_ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/34 "2011-04-23T16:19:40Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > I’d put _The Venture Bros._ in as not straight comedy. It is at least action comedy, and several of the ongoing stories (and a handful of the episodic ones) have all the dramatic elements. It’s animated, and very few animated shows, of whatever genre, are hour-long. (Some of the Scooby-Doos and Superfriends?) There have indeed been half-hour animated dramas (e.g. superhero cartoon shows), but they tend to be kids’ shows (or parodies of them, in the case of _Venture Brothers_). ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/35 "2011-04-23T16:45:26Z")
> [@Anticounterrevolutionary](#): > > 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. As the World Turns was expanded to an hour on Dec. 1, 1975. > [@audit1](#): > > What about LASSIE? Lassie was meant to appeal to kids, although, it probably appealed to everyone in a simpler time. My guess would be that back in the 1950s, they kept a show that would appeal to kids at 30 minutes because kids wanted to do other things, like play outside. They weren’t likely to sit in front of a TV for 3 or 4 hours, or at least, mom wouldn’t let them. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/36 "2011-04-23T17:10:36Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > By 1970, I can’t see any half-hour dramas in prime time. Two that tried, and failed, were [Chopper One](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopper_One) and [Firehouse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehouse_%28TV_series%29), in 1974. Each lasted only 13 episodes. How I remember these, I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248/37 "2011-04-24T06:56:58Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > Tim Reid’s _Frank’s Place_ from that same season too. Since there were (at least) two shows of that vein, I guess they had to invent “dramedy” to describe them. Also _The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd_, which is the one I always think of when the word “dramedy” comes up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-hour-tv-dramas-a-rarity/579248.md?page=1)