# New term for TV shows?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-term-for-tv-shows/728529>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 22, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-term-for-tv-shows/728529 "2015-08-22T16:33:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-term-for-tv-shows/728529/21 "2015-08-22T22:10:51Z")

</div>

While we’re at it, movies can still be “flicks” even if they don’t flicker, and “footage” nowadays is probably recorded on a medium that can’t be measured in feet.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-term-for-tv-shows/728529/22 "2015-08-22T22:24:26Z")

</div>

> [@Jophiel](#):
>
> You missed my point: Often you can tell that programs created for an uninterrupted media (cinema, premium cable) are still structured much like programs created for broadcast media. Presumably because they assume/know that one day it will be syndicated or sold to broadcast television. Simply originating in one format doesn’t mean that it’s not affected by the other.

No, I got what you said. While I wouldn’t quite disagree that Sopranos, The Wire, GoT etc. have fairly pronounced scene/flow breaks, I’ve paid a lot of attention to this detail over several years and I can’t think of many examples that feel as strong or contrived or “hook-y” as the average ones on commercial dramas. If the scene changes and breaks are driven by some anticipation of interruptions, more than by dramatic intent, it doesn’t show. I’d also say there’s a sliding scale between simply positioning breaks for possible commercial insertion, and the grab-the-viewer’s-balls hooking done in most for-commercial shows.

Watching commercial shows on an uninterrupted stream like Vudu or (sometimes) on Hulu makes the contrivances really stand out, on the other hand. Having a major _Dun-dun-DUNNNNN!_ immediately flow into the pickup scene can be Pythonesque.

But all “television shows” are commercial, in the end, so even the free-est director and show runner probably bend a bit to a commercial-driven structure. But the number of HBO shows that completely flaunt their freedom from such limits has been hearteningly high.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-term-for-tv-shows/728529.md?page=1)