TV episodes too short! (rant)

[KrazyHorse]

Re: Re: TV episodes too short! (rant)

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp


American ones, yes. Not all are that short, however. I've noticed that the HBO co-productions with the BBC ("Band of Brothers" and "Rome" are longer- usually clocking in at over 50 minutes.

HBO doesn't have commercials.

And IIRC the actual length of commercials is 8 minutes per half hour.

[Edan]

I remember in the late 90s, the Sci-Fi Channel began to show unedited episodes of Star Trek (which were about 52 minutes long) with a couple of minutes of introduction by Nimoy (I think). In a 90 minute time slot.

[KrazyHorse]

Yeah. Some shows are definitely worse offenders than others.

[Zkribbler]

Plus, the amount of advertising used to be regulated. That was done away with by the Reagan administration in the name of Free Enterprise. Now, shows can have all the advertising the market will bear.

...and ratings continue to fall.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hey, why not. If the networks will spend more on shows as a result of greater advertising revenue, that's not a bad tradeoff (and they are, if you've seen shows like 24 and Lost). Unlikes in the UK, we don't have a 'television tax', so the networks need to get their money somewhere.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Re: Re: Re: Re: TV episodes too short! (rant)

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


BBC has seasons of 6 episodes.

Unless they're 10, 12 or 24, of course.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Edan
I think some shows were still 47 minutes long into the mid-90s.

And when they re-run old TV series, TV stations chop parts out so they can still put in the same amount of ads as with new series.

In Hong Kong, they show David Letterman on an English TV channel. There are hardly any ads so the show lasts about 50 minutes. In Canada, the show runs about 90 minutes.

[Minute Mirage]

Of course, sometimes you have 3 minutes worth of "Previously on..." to make the episode even shorter.

[Dis]

yeah tv shows are getting shorter. As the greedy networks put in my advertisements and promos. I believe 1 hours hows used to be like 44 minutes long, or at least 40. And sitcoms were 22 minutes long.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Tingkai
In Hong Kong, they show David Letterman on an English TV channel. There are hardly any ads so the show lasts about 50 minutes. In Canada, the show runs about 90 minutes.

Letterman runs for an hour, BTW...