Are annual specials shorter?

[ricksegers]

I am of the generation that has watched many of the annual Christmas specials since they started in the mid 60's. It seems to me that some of them were longer in the early years and there are scenes and story lines missing in whole or in part. Am I just dreaming this or are they really shorter than they used to be?

 

[gregg75]

I wouldn't doubt it. They probably cut 5 seconds here and 10 seconds there so
they can squeeze in another commercial or two.

 

[ajc_trw]

I am of the generation that has watched many of the annual Christmas specials since they started in the mid 60's. It seems to me that some of them were longer in the early years and there are scenes and story lines missing in whole or in part. Am I just dreaming this or are they really shorter than they used to be?

If they were made in the 60s I'm guessing they were made when network TV ran 50-52 minutes of programming per hour. These days shows that long need to be cut to run in a 42-45 minutes per hour network time.

That is if they don't do the DVD thing and add a half hour for the full show and some extras to fill out the time block.

 

[spb]

A half-hour network show in the 1960's had three minutes of advertising and probably 1-1½ minutes afterward for local ads and station ID.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

They've been doing this for years on holiday and non-holiday reruns.

 

[azumanga]

The only recent exceptions were "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas", which are both generally uncut (except for sponsor-related material in the early telecasts). In these cases, though, the network allowed them to be seen longer than the usual 30 or 60-minute time slot, in order to accommodate commercials.