don't like marathons

[skippercollector]

In the 1970s when I was in grade school and high school, I would have loved to watch TV series marathons. At that time, a TV series rerun aired once a day, five days a week, and it could be months before you saw all the episodes. I had time 40 years ago to watch TV all day!
Now marathons are sometimes the only way a series gets aired. Or on the other hand, two or three episodes are shown in a day, six days a week. I do not have time to watch that many episodes in one day for an entire week. I have other things to do, not to mention I get stiff sitting there! If a station airs a marathon of a show I like, I'm afraid I watch only one, or at the most, two of the episodes. I'd like to see more, but it is impossible.
Does anyone else not like marathons?
All those shows that I mentioned I watched during the quarantine? If I was lucky, I watched more than one episode a week. Some of them I watched only once, simply because I had a life! I wanted to watch more, but could not.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?725944-quarantine-rerun-viewing

 

[seatownmedia]

I actually love marathons because they are tailor made for DVR’s. You can record multiple episodes and even choose by the description of the episode. Then you are in control! You can watch whenever you want, even deleting an episode that didn’t meet your expectation. I think they are terrific when used with your DVR.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I love marathons.. love love love them. If I sit down to watch a marathon, its obvious a show I love. It means my lazy ass doesnt have to get up and change the channel for hours!

 

[pannoni1]

I remember when they truly were a special event. Many stations (particularly from the non-Big 3) aired Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Perry Mason, The Honeymooners, or Three Stooges marathons in the 1980s when the concept was new and VCRs were gaining popularity, especially around holidays or in the summer. It was very limited though in terms of what shows got aired, mostly sticking to the tired but true oldies that I've described above. You'd never see marathons of soaps, game shows, music shows, talk shows, the Tonight Show, SNL, late 1970s and newer shows, or sporting events back then, so it didn't really appeal much for younger demos who would have preferred Sesame Street or SCTV marathons. But now in the age of DVD and online service streaming sets, their appeal in terms of traditional broadcasting definitely doesn't have the appeal that it once had, unless if its that rare marathon that features a show that isn't commercially available.

But you can't forget the memorable ones like the Rugrats on Nickelodeon from Thanksgiving 1994, TV Land's 50-episode week-long marathon of I Love Lucy in 2001 for the show's golden anniversary as well as the April 1989 10-hour marathon on FOX O&O's paying tribute to her death, or TBS's Brady Bunch Midnight Marathon in May 1993. KTLA regularly held one on either Independence Day or Thanksgiving throughout the '80s and '90s.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

The world has changed.

 

[Ccook55]

Today it's called "binging." And how some shows like Teen Titans Go! and the Harvey Family Feud on GSN warrant it I'll never know.

 

[BD Sullivan]

More than likely, it's because the cost to buy an entire series (even for the nondescript programs) is ridiculously expensive, so showing episodes over and over is one way for networks/stations to get their money back. For example, I think a show like Two and a Half Men costs $2 million per episoode to show--and there's 258 eps in the series, which explains why Paramount and Viacom run it seemingly on a loop.