# The Making of....

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-making-of/460493>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 18, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-making-of/460493 "2008-08-18T23:39:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-making-of/460493/1 "2008-08-18T23:39:53Z")

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A few questions on “The Making of movie XYZ…” type short films which are very common as dvd extras.

1. Why were these made back in the pre-dvd era? I’m guessing they were shown on broadcast television during slow viewing times and served as infomercials to promote the film in question.

2. I’ve also seen some from the HBO era. I know that pay tv stations like HBO would show these in between feature films.

3. Are the ones from today’s movies made especially for the dvd release?

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-making-of/460493/2 "2008-08-19T01:39:51Z")

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[QUOTE=dalej42]  
I’m guessing they were shown on broadcast television during slow viewing times and served as infomercials to promote the film in question.  
[/quote]  
Bingo. Broadcast networks would also show them to fill out an hour after showing a feature movie. For some reason, I especially remember ABC showing those.

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**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:** [August 19, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-making-of/460493/3 "2008-08-19T13:13:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Why were these made back in the pre-dvd era? I’m guessing they were shown on broadcast television during slow viewing times and served as infomercials to promote the film in question

Disney used to do these back in the 1950s. They even won an Emmy award for “Operation Undersea”, which was basically a program-length commercuial for their movie **20,000 Leagues Under the Sea**.

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**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-making-of/460493/4 "2008-08-19T16:07:04Z")

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[QUOTE=CalMeacham]  
Disney used to do these back in the 1950s. They even won an Emmy award for “Operation Undersea”, which was basically a program-length commercuial for their movie **20,000 Leagues Under the Sea**.  
[/QUOTE]  
“The Making of _Raiders of the Lost Ark_” also won an Emmy.

Generally speaking, BTS (“behind-the-scenes”) productions of popular movies or franchises were seen as good ratings fodder for TV, since little “extra material” was available at time for the public to consume.

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**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-making-of/460493/5 "2008-08-19T16:46:14Z")

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“Making of” specials still air on [TV](http://www.tvguide.com/search/index.aspx?keyword=making%20of) (obviously, searching for the words “making of” yielded a mixed bag, but _some_ of the results are relevant).