There have been a lot of threads lamenting the number or length of individual commercials. I wonder how many commercial breaks in a given program was common in the past (say before 1980). I’m pretty sure commercial breaks occurred after the opening credits and before the closing credits, but how many interruptions of the actual program were there?
I’m going by memory, no cite, but I remember 4 breaks for 1 hour shows. Four commercials (2 minutes total) at appx 15 and 45 minutes past the hour, and 8 commercials (4 minutes) at the half hour, and then right before the final scene. There were also 4 minutes of commercials between the shows
This setup meant shows used to have 48 minutes of program per hour. I think this lasted up into the 80s. I think the current hour show is about 40-42 minutes of actual program.
Quinn Martin shows (FBI, Cannon, 12 O’clock High etc) were broken into 4 acts, which were identified, and then the epilog. So those followed the structure above pretty close.
I remember 30 minute shows had two main breaks per half hour-at about the 10 and 20 minute mark.
My memory is that a lot of shows followed a 3 act structure, with commercials after the opening credits, then at about 20 minutes and again around 40 minutes.
Though I agree that a lot of shows followed a 4 act setup, with a different spacing of commercials.
I’m pretty sure the maximum commercials-per-hour is set by the FCC, so it is probably on public record, but I have no idea if it can be found online.
According to a newspaper report, we get up to 12 minutes of ads an hour over here. Most of the commercial shows we watch are recorded on our PVR so that we can skip the ads. The BBC is ad free, but they do spend a lot of time between shows, advertising future stuff.
A lot of commercial shows are sponsored, so that we get their ad at the start and end of each section. We also have some product placement.
The FCC initially required just over 50 minutes of noncommercial programming per hour (episodes of the Dick Van Dyke Show run around 25 minutes;** Perry Mason r**uns about 51). This didn’t include product placement in game and talk shows. I’m not sure if in-show ads were included.
The structure varied. Most early shows had a sponsor, who got three ads (usually one minute) in a half-hour show. Shows also had alternate sponsors, where two advertisers would share the sponsorship. One would get two ads the first week, the second would get one; then they’d switch the next week.
Because of the three ads, half hour shows usually had two ad breaks, with the third ad at the end (before a short closing sequence and the credits).
Hour shows usually had three breaks: one at 15 minutes, another longer one at a half hour (usually there were two or more ads in that one), and a third at about 45 minutes, and an ad before the closing sequence (Quinn Martin did Act I, Act I, Act III, Act IV, and Epilog to reflect this).
The amount of noncommercial programming required as time went by, and during the Reagan administration, the requirements for if was dropped completely.
Most hour dramas were four acts, as said above. Hawaii Five-O actually used “Act I,” “Act II” etc. titles, at least in its earlier days.
Besides the increased (and essentially unlimited) time for full-screen commercials, commercial content has crept all over the “programming.” Hard to figure how to count a minute of bottom fungus boosting another show, or that squeezed into compressed credits, etc.
It varied, depending on the individual show’s “clock”. But at one time the FCC limited the total time that could be dedicated to commercials in a given hour (I think it was 18-minutes / hour for radio and probably the same for TV.) They also required that a public service announcement(s) be run every hour. When they dropped those restrictions/requirements it ushered in the age of the “infomercial”.
I recall when cigarette ads were banned in the early 70s – those Benson&Hedges ads were pretty funny. But we had no ads for doctors, lawyers or prescription drugs, so a great deal of what we are bombarded with today was not even available to be sold in the first place.
I well remember watching 1970s sitcoms: Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, WKRP in Cincinnati, and similar. They broke on the 15-minute mark, but were bookended by commercials after and before the start and end credits, respectively.
Typically the show would start at 0000 (whatever, but let’s pretend), with the opening credits (about a minute), followed by a minute or so of something that would set the plot for the episode.
So, at 0002, we’d have commercials, which would last until maybe 0005.
At 0005, we’d see the show until maybe 0014. Then three more minutes of commercials, taking us to 0017.
The plot would continue until 0027 or so, when it was resolved. A minute of commercials, then return for the final joke (30 to 60 seconds) and end credits.
Total show time: 22 minutes.
Total commercial time: up tp 8 minutes.
Times are approximate, of course, and based on memory; but that’s about what I recall. I’ve seen where recent shows (The Big Bang Theory for example) has breaks at the 10 and 20 minute mark; but in my recollection, shows in the 60s and 70s broke at the 15, while “padding” their credits with commercials.
I remember that the NFL got the games going back then(with the exception of MNF) at 1 minute past the hour. So unlike prime time shows, where the commercials came after the opening credits, the NFL wanted to get the games started pretty quickly. why didn’t prime time shows follow the NFL’s lead?
For the length, the best way to figure this out would be to find out how long shows were in their original broadcast form, and subtract that from how long they were allotted to run. If the info itself isn’t available, versions available on DVD or on official streaming sites might be usable–though make sure they didn’t add back any scenes cut for time, or cut something that was removed from syndication.
For the number, it might be possible to tell with cuts and/or old recordings. Still, it would probably have to be data we’d have to collect.
For a few months now we’ve been streaming episodes of NYPD Blue from the 1990s; each commercial-free episode is about 50 minutes long.
We also watch the latest episodes of Deadliest Catch, which we record on TiVo so we can zing through the commercials; I know from experience that we can get through an episode in 40 minutes.
Technically the Federal Communications Commission didn’t have a fixed limit, although stations with what was considered excessive advertisements could have their licenses challenged. What was generally controlling was the National Association of Broadcasters “Code of Good Practice”, and I remember radio station license renewal applications in the late 1970s saying their advertising met the NAB Code limits with the exception of holiday periods like Christmas.
The Museum of Broadcasting Communication has some interesting information about the NAB Code at: Ethics and Television
Some random samples of episode length for half-hour sitcoms (including credits), all season 1 unless noted:
The Bob Newhart Show: 25:14-25:50
WKRP: 24:55-25:10
Cheers: 24:10-24:50
The Simpsons: 23:11
That 70s Show: 22:30
Scrubs (season 9): 21:35
The Big Bang Theory: 22:05, season 7 21:06.
YMMV.