"I LOVE LUCY" without video litter

[sdwulfdawg]

I had a bit of a strange experience the other morning when I turned on a local independent TV station playing "I Love Lucy" overnight. There was something different...and then it hit me....and then it made me more conscious about how TV screens have become so littered with so much crap...

The station was actually running "I Love Lucy" without a local TV channel "bug" on the bottom right of the screen, didn't have any superimposed graphics advertising other shows, and didn't have those very intrusive advertising "snipes" littering the screen promoting the next show on the air, etc.

TV Land and the other cable TV networks have really screwed up television viewing!

 

[Stanislav]

Surely an oversight -- the regular techies must have been on vacation! ;D

 

[RicoGregg]

I'm not 100% sure of this, and someone please correct me if you know for sure that I'm wrong, but I believe that part of the agreement with Viacom, the syndication company that handles airing rights for I Love Lucy, is that the local station cannot put graphic clutter on while an episode airs, other than a station bug.

It's done on TV Land mainly because TV Land is owned by.....Viacom!

 

[TexasTom]

I'm not 100% sure of this, and someone please correct me if you know for sure that I'm wrong, but I believe that part of the agreement with Viacom, the syndication company that handles airing rights for I Love Lucy, is that the local station cannot put graphic clutter on while an episode airs, other than a station bug.

It's done on TV Land mainly because TV Land is owned by.....Viacom!

Since the corporate split up between Viacom and CBS, "I Love Lucy" is no longer syndicated by the same company that owns TV Land. While TV Land is still owned by Viacom, "I Love Lucy" is now owned (and syndicated) by CBS Corporation.

And I would really be surprised if their was any sort of licensing agreement preventing stations that buy "Lucy" reruns from cluttering up the screen -- why would CBS care as long as they get their money from the stations buying the program?

 

[bhayes1016]

I'm not 100% sure of this, and someone please correct me if you know for sure that I'm wrong, but I believe that part of the agreement with Viacom, the syndication company that handles airing rights for I Love Lucy, is that the local station cannot put graphic clutter on while an episode airs, other than a station bug.

It's done on TV Land mainly because TV Land is owned by.....Viacom!

Thing is, local stations - particularly the small independents that run Lucy nowadays, don't have the constant on-screen clutter that TV Land, TBS, etc. do.

 

[nmoore6676]

I really detest those little animations promoting other shows at the bottom of the screen. sometimes they go about a fourth of the way up. If they are going to give us "digital" TV then there should be an option to block that crap like popup blockers for web browsing.

 

[gr8oldies]

Also, once you've seen all the cancellations scroll by at the bottom of the screen it would be nice to block them.

 

[nmoore6676]

Also, once you've seen all the cancellations scroll by at the bottom of the screen it would be nice to block them.

Better yet, be able to dump them to a printer. I have the attention span of a gnat these days and by the time I notice something I might be interested in it has rolled past, then I have to try and catch it again on the next pass. Sometimes it doesn't repeat or I miss it somehow so then I'm trying all the news sources on line to see if it is being reported there.

 

[bpatrick]

It was bad enough when TV Land scrunched the
closing credits to the right-hand quarter of the
screen; now they put them in teeny-weeny print
at the bottom, run them at breakneck speed, and
eliminate the closing theme songs while they get in
yet another plug for High School Reunion or The Big 4-0.

TV Land isn't far from losing its place among my favorite
channels.

 

[LKellerIII]

"I have the attention span of a gnat these days and by the time I notice something I might be interested in it has rolled past, then I have to try and catch it again on the next pass."

I don't know how old you are nmoore, but if you're like me - it's not attention span, it's visual reflexes. I don't have any medical facts to go on, but I've noticed that as I've gotten older, not only have my physical reflexes slowed, but my visual reflexes as well. My vision is 20/20, but I often miss things on screen that go by quickly. Sometimes, I have a hard time grasping the continuity in those fast-cut camera shaking action adventure scenes in movies and TV shows.

If you're familiar with the opening title of the Colbert Report, there are often humorous lines that go by quickly...like "truthiness," and so forth. I can catch the short ones, but often miss the long ones. There's one lately - "President Bush's Something-or-other..." but I can never read the whole thing before it's gone.

I keep meaning to record the opening of the show so I can freeze-frame it, but always forget. My memory ain't so hot lately, either.

 

[nmoore6676]

It was bad enough when TV Land scrunched the
closing credits to the right-hand quarter of the
screen; now they put them in teeny-weeny print
at the bottom, run them at breakneck speed, and
eliminate the closing theme songs while they get in
yet another plug for High School Reunion or The Big 4-0.

TV Land isn't far from losing its place among my favorite
channels.

That habit has been a fixture on most channels. Probably the reason that they now run the opening credits for movies during the first ten minutes, they keep cutting them into the action. At the end, the closing credits run at high speed in a little area on the side while the promos for upcoming presentations run. Since I have or now that I'm older had friends in the technical end of the business I liked seeing their names roll by. Which brings me to Lkeller's observation:

You are right, it is most likely visual reflexes. But I think it is also attention span, which probably also goes as we age, because even when I have made a conscious effort to follow the bottom scroll I still get distracted by what's happening topside. Now I know why my Dad got so cranky. I've now become that grumpy old man who I miss more every day.

 

[firepoint525]

It was bad enough when TV Land scrunched the
closing credits to the right-hand quarter of the
screen; now they put them in teeny-weeny print
at the bottom, run them at breakneck speed, and
eliminate the closing theme songs while they get in
yet another plug for High School Reunion or The Big 4-0.

TV Land isn't far from losing its place among my favorite
channels.

Network TV has done that for years! They lower the volume on the closing theme, then talk over it to promote whatever else is coming up!

Everything mentioned so far in this thread is annoying! Scrunching the credits, overrunning the closing theme song with music from some other upcoming show, etc. (CBS and NBC do that over the close of the last show before the late local news, promoting Letterman/Leno respectively. Sometimes local news announcers will talk in that spot as well.) I suppose at one time, a closing theme song actually got listened to and heard by TV viewers. Otherwise, there would be no point in even writing a closing theme song.

I remember when The Brady Bunch was on WTBS Atlanta, they ran so many commercials that the very last scene of the show (the one that ran right after that last commercial break, but before the credits) was usually cut out entirely! I'm sure that this was also done with other shows that (normally) came back from the last commercial break with one final closing scene before running the closing credits.

 

[firepoint525]

I should add that scrolling news across the bottom of the screen (on news channels) is one of the residual effects of 9-11. I don't recall that being done on any kind of a regular basis until 9-11.

 

[AlbumOldies]

"Video litter" - what a great term!

NBC really ruffles my feathers with video litter constantly on the screen touting an upcoming show NEXT WEEK! I've called them twice and complained about it.

And I hate the way Fox plants one of their TV stars in the crowd at a ball game so they can get them on camera and plug their show.

 

[firepoint525]

"Video litter" - what a great term!

NBC really ruffles my feathers with video litter constantly on the screen touting an upcoming show NEXT WEEK! I've called them twice and complained about it.

And I hate the way Fox plants one of their TV stars in the crowd at a ball game so they can get them on camera and plug their show.

Did you call NBC, or your local affiliate? Seems to me the network is in a better position to do something about it. The affiliate just gets the feed off the satellite. They really only control the "video litter" on their own programming, like local news. Unless they run storm watches across the bottom of the screen, which is another issue entirely. That is, of course, a necessity.

 

[oldschooler1]

"Video litter" will only increase. We see animated promos for shows over programming, to combat people using Tivos. Those people just fast forward through spot breaks that contain promos, so you have to reach the viewer during the show now. As well, people without Tivos routinely surf during spot breaks, also missing promos that run in breaks.

The network announce promoting a show over the closing credits actually started in network radio in the late 1940s, when they would promote other shows during the closing applause.

Cutting out the "tag" --that final 30-second or so scene in a sitcom, like the Brady Bunch example, is done in repeats so the local station can fit in more ad time. That's a no-brainer. WTVH in Syracuse, many years ago, would invariably cut out of the credits of MASH (in repeats) to fit in another spot. I mean, just whenever they felt like it -- it was a hack job.

All three big networks give local affiliates time during the closing credits to promote their local news -- it's called "the squeeze tease", when the credits are squeezed into one side of the screen, and the affiliate anchor comes up with the tease for the news. That's been SOP for years now.

And remember back to the days when a network announcer -- live -- would promote upcoming shows over the closing credits of another show. Again, a practice that goes back to the 1950s. We just don't seem to remember it because those promos were live -- they weren't part of the syndicated show package.

And, FOX placing its stars at a baseball game -- I think that's pretty smart. Any less smarmier than when Bob Hope would come on the Tonight show to promote his next special -- the ONLY time he'd go on that show?

 

[firepoint525]

"Video litter" will only increase. We see animated promos for shows over programming, to combat people using Tivos. Those people just fast forward through spot breaks that contain promos, so you have to reach the viewer during the show now. As well, people without Tivos routinely surf during spot breaks, also missing promos that run in breaks.

The network announce promoting a show over the closing credits actually started in network radio in the late 1940s, when they would promote other shows during the closing applause.

Cutting out the "tag" --that final 30-second or so scene in a sitcom, like the Brady Bunch example, is done in repeats so the local station can fit in more ad time. That's a no-brainer. WTVH in Syracuse, many years ago, would invariably cut out of the credits of MASH (in repeats) to fit in another spot. I mean, just whenever they felt like it -- it was a hack job.

All three big networks give local affiliates time during the closing credits to promote their local news -- it's called "the squeeze tease", when the credits are squeezed into one side of the screen, and the affiliate anchor comes up with the tease for the news. That's been SOP for years now.

And remember back to the days when a network announcer -- live -- would promote upcoming shows over the closing credits of another show. Again, a practice that goes back to the 1950s. We just don't seem to remember it because those promos were live -- they weren't part of the syndicated show package.

And, FOX placing its stars at a baseball game -- I think that's pretty smart. Any less smarmier than when Bob Hope would come on the Tonight show to promote his next special -- the ONLY time he'd go on that show?

WTBS, at least back when they were carrying The Brady Bunch and other sitcoms, routinely started their programs at five minutes after the hour, and 35 minutes after the hour. I can't help but wonder if this was done, at least in part, to make it look less obvious that they were cutting out that very last scene, and playing more commercials in its place.

"Video litter" first became really noticeable to me as far back as the '80s, when TV networks ran graphics across their screens telling us that the programs were in stereo. Then they graduated to the "surround sound" logos. These were almost always moving graphics, but at least they were in the first few seconds of the show, and then were quickly gone. I remember thinking, "I'll be glad when stereo surround sound is no longer a big deal anymore, and they quit doing that!" :