In my humble opinion, it won’t be too long before that episode of Happy Days where Fonzie enters a demolition derby and barely escapes the dreaded Malachi Crunch is cut down to 8 minutes of actual show time interspliced with 17 minutes of advertizing and 5 minutes of public service announcements or station IDs.
I find myself watching more and more reruns of shows from the 90s because it’s so hard to sit still for the craoppola that passes for new programming these days. In the end it’s all for the better anyway, I’m down to one hour of TV per day- two on Fridays, and that’s mostly just for distraction.
Weren’t these shows originally filmed with the pretext that there would be commercials inserted? I mean a 30 minute episode of The Odd Couple is really only 24 minutes long, allowing for three 2 minute commercial breaks- right? But every time I sit down for one of my favorite 90s sit coms, I hear the trailing end of a laugh track cut in at some awkward moment, or the camera angle will change and all the actors will suddenly be in completely different moods or positions or maybe even in the middle of an entirely different discussion.
Obviously what is happening here is that the commercials are growing & multiplying, like mildew in the basement shower stall. Our old sit coms are getting hacked up to make room for more and more advretisements. Why does this have to happen? If air time is getting more expensive, then why aren’t sponsors being charged more for those same six minutes of commercial time? I guess I already know the answer to this: sponsors are most definitely being charged more, and programming will continue to be cut so that more of that higher-priced air time is available for sale.
And they expect me to look forward to HDTV?
It’s not a refund when the auditor leaves two twenties on your nightstand.
Maybe if the shows move to cable channels, they’ll run 40 minutes for a ½ hour show, as a director’s cut.
What I wonder about is sometimes they come back with a short scene to run during the credits and sometimes not. Usually it’s the wrap-up joke for the second story line. When they show a pre-view instead, I feel like something is lost, doing a disservice to the writers.
Shows “from the 90’s”??? The two you mentioned are from the 70’s. But anyway, yeah, I know what you mean about the choices available. (Hmmm…Happy Days – no can’t take that one anymore, but The Odd Couple, yes – I always agreed with Felix.) As for today’s shows – Voyager and Frasier are the only must-see’s for me. For the golden oldies – try cable’s FX (Mission Impossible marathon today – loved that show), and TVLand.
It isn’t your imagination. “Older” shows are being sliced and diced in order to get more ad time. Interestingly though, Star Trek: The Next Generation IIRC was the first hour-long syndicated show made with syndication in mind. Each episode lasts about 46 minutes. Even so, it’s being trimmed here and there as well. TVLand is good at showing the old epsiodes in their entirety. “All in the Family” eps usually clock in at anywhere from 25-28 minutes each! Currently, “The Simpsons” is being hacked to death. There’s a Simpsons fan site that lists most of the cuts. Of course, the only way to know if your favorite show is being mutilated is to have seen them when they were originally broadcast.
Just wild speculation: In the “future” we’ll be able to purchase eps of our favorite shows, uncut, via ye olde computer. Pay a set fee (cheaper by the dozen!) and download to a digital hard drive and enjoy! Of course, modem technology will have to get off its lazy ass.
The sponsers are being charged more for the air time. In fact, far more than ever before thanks to the current glut of dot.com commercials. The TV stations are simply getting greedier and greedier and that’s all there is to it. Even episodes of the Simpsons from a couple years ago have scenes cut out.
I feel sooooo sad for you guys. I just checked the rules for commercial broadcasting we have here (remember, the BBC has no commercials at all.)
For the major channels you can average no more than 7 minutes of ads per hour, with a limit of 12 in any one hour. (cable/satelite channels are allowed 9 mins per hour, but the programmes are all shit anyhow)
For internal programme breaks the limits are:
one break <= 3 mins for 20-30 min programme
one break <= 3.5 mins for 31-45 min programme
two breaks <= 3.5 mins each for 46-65 min programmes
additional 3.5 mins allowed for each half hour over 65 mins
So, not only are our programmes better than yours, we also get to see more of them! Puts the ‘Great’ back into Great Britain!!!