The Incredible Shrinking TV Show!

[AKA]

These numbers speak for themselves: these are actual runtimes of half-hour episodes from over the years. As you go down the list, the erosion of our television shows becomes obvious, with the disparity between the length of the longest (26:50) and shortest (18:41) show more than eight minutes.

As the trend continues, I won't be surprised if sitcoms go below the 15-minute mark in the next ten years. The networks are upset about DVRs and Dish's The Hopper, but they're the ones who have necessitated fast-forwarding, or "hopping" through commercial breaks.

1950s

I Love Lucy: “The Ballet” (CBS; 02/18/1952) – 26:50

Dragnet: “The Big Trunk” (NBC; 01/07/1954) - 26:01

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: “Revenge” (CBS; 10/02/1955) - 26:21

Leave It to Beaver: “Beaver Gets ‘Spelled’“ (CBS; 10/04/1957) - 26:00

The Donna Reed Show: “Weekend Trip: (ABC; 09/24/1958) – 25:55

The Twilight Zone: “Where Is Everybody?” (CBS; 10/02/1959) - 25:11

1960s

The Andy Griffith Show: “Christmas Story” (CBS; 12/19/1960) - 26:01

Mister Ed: “The First Meeting” (first-run syndication; 01/05/1961) – 26:03

The Dick Van Dyke Show: “The Sick Boy and the Sitter” (CBS; 10/03/1961) – 25:42

Leave It to Beaver: “The Clothing Drive” (ABC; 06/13/1963) - 25:51

The Twilight Zone: “The Bewitchin’ Pool” (CBS; 06/19/1964) - 25:11

The Dick Van Dyke Show: “The Last Chapter” (CBS; 06/01/1966) – 25:36

Dragnet: “The Big LSD” (NBC; 01/12/1967) - 25:11

The Andy Griffith Show: “Barney Hosts a Summit Meeting” (CBS; 01/29/1968) - 25:31

1970s

The Mary Tyler Moore Show: “Love Is All Around” (CBS; 09/19/1970) - 25:41

M*A*S*H: “Pilot” (CBS; 09/17/1972) - 25:35

The Bob Newhart Show: “The Ceiling Hits Bob” (CBS; 03/08/1975) - 25:09

Taxi: “Like Father, Like Daughter” (ABC; 09/12/1978) - 24:47

1980s

Family Ties: “Pilot” (NBC; 09/22/1982) - 24:00

Cheers: “Give Me a Ring Sometime” (NBC; 09/30/1982) - 25:01

M*A*S*H: “As Time Goes By” (CBS; 02/21/1983) – 24:15

Taxi: “Simka’s Monthlies” (NBC; 06/15/1983) – 24:06

The Cosby Show: “Pilot Presentation” (NBC; 09/20/1984) - 23:40

Married… With Children: “Married… With Children” (Fox; 04/05/1987) - 22:50

Coach: “Love Me Tender” (ABC; 03/01/1989) – 23:47

Family Ties: “Mr. Keaton Takes a Vacation” (NBC; 05/07/1989) - 24:21

1990s

Wings: “Legacy” (NBC; 04/19/1990) - 22:56

The Cosby Show: “Some Gifts Aren’t Deductible” (NBC; 04/23/1992) – 23:10

Cheers: “The Guy Can’t Help It” (NBC; 05/13/1993) - 23:21

Frasier: “The Show Where Sam Shows Up” (NBC; 02/21/1995) - 22:51

Everybody Loves Raymond: “I Love You” (CBS; 09/20/1996) - 22:39

Coach: “The Neighbor Hood” (ABC; 04/23/1997) - 21:49

Wings: “Raging Bull*&@!” (NBC; 05/14/1997) - 21:35

South Park: “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” (Comedy Central; 08/13/1997) – 22:09

Family Guy: “Death Has a Shadow” (Fox; 01/31/1999) - 22:31

Futurama: “Space Pilot 3000” (Fox; 01/31/1999) - 22:41

2000s

Two and a Half Men: “The Last Thing You Want is to Wind up with a Hump” (CBS; 10/20/2003) – 18:41

Arrested Development: “Pilot” (Fox 11/02/2003) – 21:43

Everybody Loves Raymond: “The Finale” (CBS; 05/16/2005) - 22:32

The Big Bang Theory: “The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization” (CBS; 03/17/2006) – 19:29

Modern Family: “En Garde” (ABC; 11/04/2009) - 20:41

2010s

Louie: “Pilot” (FX; 06/29/2010) – 23:43

Family Guy: “Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q” (Fox; 10/30/2011) - 21:15

Futurama: “Reincarnation” (Comedy Central; 09/08/2011) - 21:40

South Park: “A History Channel Thanksgiving” (Comedy Central – 11/09/2011) - 22:05

Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23: “Making Rent...” (ABC; 05/09/2012) - 21:04

The New Normal - “Sofa’s Choice” (NBC; 09/11/2012) - 21:46

Go On – ”He Got Game, She Got Cats” (NBC; 09/11/2012) - 21:43

The Mindy Project - ”Eat, Pray, Whatever” (Fox; 09/25/2012) - 23:18

 

[Darth_vader]

2000s

The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog - ~12 minutes/episode, typically

 

[landtuna]

The programmers began driving their audiences to VCR's and are now driving the sales of DVR's.

The national news shows are the worst - starting off with the feature story interspersed with commercials that increase in number and length as the show moves along until, at the end, there is more commercial than news.

The only TV shows that don't get DVR'd in this house are the ones on when I'm doing something else and watching intermittently. And more often than not I'm listening rather than watching.

I do notice my beer supply suffers the more commercials are on. ;D

 

[skiwest]

In addition to reduced time, the number of new episodes in a season has been reduced as well. Back in the 60s, a TV show usually produced over 30 episodes in a season. What is the number now - probably about 20?

 

[landtuna]

In addition to reduced time, the number of new episodes in a season has been reduced as well. Back in the 60s, a TV show usually produced over 30 episodes in a season. What is the number now - probably about 20?

A season in the 50's was closer to 40 episodes. I believe The Honeymooners did 39/season.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Programmers won't be happy until the program shrinks to the point that the show starts for 30 seconds, goes to commercial break for 25 minutes, then the show comes back for the conclusion. The remaining parts of the show will be stuffed with product placements. Advertisers will relish at the idea of their ads not being constantly interrupted by "programming".

 

[Corky Marlowe]

A season in the 50's was closer to 40 episodes. I believe The Honeymooners did 39/season.

I think the 55-56 season is still referred to as "The Classic 39". Now...How about sporting events? I went to the Ohio State-Cal game yesterday and it lasted over 3 hours 40 minutes. (To be fair, there was the induction of the OSU Athletic Hall Of Fame class, which may have made halftime a bit longer.) Even so, a big time televised college football game never used to take longer than 3 hours unless it went into overtime.

 

[LKellerIII]

I DVR practically everything I watch. I DO realize that the DVR represents a potential death-knell for commercial television, but the programmers brought it on themselves, as the evidence in postings above proves. If they do come up with a technological way to neutralize DVRs, much as On Demand has, I will likely just stop watching commercial television altogether, except for the occasional 'big event.' I currently watch NOTHING on Fox On Demand or ABC On Demand because they have disabled fast-forward. There is no show on either network that I care enough about to sit through commercials.

These days, on the rare occasion that I do watch a TV show 'live,' I find that my tolerance for commercials has disappeared. The well made ads are fun to watch, but 80% are intolerable, and even the imaginative commercials get pretty sour after you've seen them 150+ times.

I realize this bodes of a future in which commercial TV may become non-viable, and everything is subscription or pay-per-view, but if that day comes, I'm willing to pay more to skip the commercials.

The great thing about MOST advertising, is that you can skip it. You can "X" out of internet ads...with print ads, you can turn the page, with radio ads, you can change the station...or just listen to NPR. When you pass billboards on the street, you can look in the other direction. Only TV commercials have historically managed to hold the viewer captive - but that's over. Good luck, TV.

 

[arnoldevns]

I think there are a series of things networks should do to make their shows more viewer-friendly.

Find a spot on the schedule and keep the show there with more original episodes and fewer repeats than they have now.
Cable shows are always on the same time and day each week. It's fairly rare to see a cable show run a bunch of repeats during the
season. If I were running a broadcast TV network I'd let all new shows stay on the air in the same time slot for at least 13 weeks
to see if they find an audience. By the 6th episode or so, you should know if it'll work out. If so, order another 13. If not, bring in
a mid-season replacement. A full season would be 26 episodes instead of the 22 we get now. I'd have the same number of episodes for returning shows as well.

I think cutting promos and ad time would be fine, but you really can't do too much of that without finding some way to make up for the lost
revenue. I'd perhaps find a way to push the current 44 minutes per hour of content to say 46 minutes.

Networks need to find a way to make money off DVR viewership, or they will simply go out of business. I think to a certain extent that's happening, but DVR viewership still hurts more than helps a show. That's why you see networks like Fox emphasizing live sports programming so much now. Almost all the viewership on those games are live.

 

[Studio20]

I was at a friends where they no longer have cable, but subscribe to "netflix" and "hulu plus". For a few dollars a month, they run through entire seasons of shows with very limited commercial interruption.

They did offer a pilot of FOX's "Mindy". I give it about six episodes. Horrible.

 

[wncc]

I'll give my opinion after this brief word from our sponsors.

 

[Mark Giardina]

The only reason that I watch TV today (besides NFL Football) is because I have the ability to DVR programs; otherwise I would dump cable TV entirely.

My TV set in the bedroom has just basic cable and no DVR. Recently, while recovering from an illness, I had to endure the numerous commercials for every program I watched. :

It seemed that for every five minutes of a movie or TV show, there were four to five minutes of commercials. On many stations the same commercials were repeated during each break.

Another area that really ticks me off are the shows that air over a dozen episodes, then goes on hiadus for almost a year before returning with new episodes. Either the networks air reruns for viewers to catch up, or these shows spend the first ten minutes of the new season updating everyone on what happened.

 

[Markxxx]

Back to the radio days, when Gracie always said, "Sit down and have some Maxwell House Coffee while we talk."

Or Gracie asking "Corbina are you really going out with George?" And she says, "Yes, I am and I also eat Spam and love it."

Got to sneak those little ads in the plot line.

 

[ansky212]

In a way you can argue that DVRs actually *help* the networks because it allows people to watch shows that they may not have been able to otherwise. If you look in TV Guide they actually post separate DVR ratings.

In some cases there are shows that run on 2 different networks at the same time, so with the DVR I can now watch both, as opposed to having to choose only 1 and ignore the other. Sometimes my wife has a show to watch that runs at the same time as mine, so now I can still watch my show while she watches hers. Some nights I simply want to go to bed early, and without the DVR I would have missed the show entirely.

So DVRs aren't all bad, but I don't know how to quantify how much they may help or hurt the networks.

 

[Darth_vader]

"In a way you can argue that DVRs actually *help* the networks because it allows people to watch shows that they may not have been able to otherwise."

This is nothing new. People had been doing this for decades before the "D.V.R." was even invented!

 

[visaman]

One of the things to consider when comparing episode times of sitcoms from the 1950's is that many of the shows incorporated their sponsor breaks into the actual plot of the story. This was a holdover from radio. One of the programs that comes to mind is The Burns and Allen Show. The plot would subtly come to a halt and the announcer would visit the Burns's at their "home" to extoll the wonderfulness that was Carnation Evaporated Milk. Modern DVRs wouldn't know what to do with this.

Say Goodnight Gracie!

 

[visaman]

Another area that really ticks me off are the shows that air over a dozen episodes, then goes on hiadus for almost a year before returning with new episodes.

A dozen episodes ain't bad Fawlty Towers aired only six (6) episodes before going on hiatus for 3 years!

 

[landtuna]

One of the things to consider when comparing episode times of sitcoms from the 1950's is that many of the shows incorporated their sponsor breaks into the actual plot of the story. This was a holdover from radio. One of the programs that comes to mind is The Burns and Allen Show. The plot would subtly come to a halt and the announcer would visit the Burns's at their "home" to extoll the wonderfulness that was Carnation Evaporated Milk. Modern DVRs wouldn't know what to do with this.

Say Goodnight Gracie!

While what you say is technically true of Burns and Allen and several other similar shows it wasn't true of most TV shows of the era (outside of game/quiz shows which had and continue to have embedded advertising links).

 

[ansky212]

This is nothing new. People had been doing this for decades before the "D.V.R." was even invented!

But obviously the networks see the DVR as making a much bigger impact and a bigger threat than the old VCR or even DVD recorder. With the DVR it's just the flick of a button to record anything and in some cases (series recordings) it records all your shows with no user intervention. You can even record multiple shows at once. VCR's simply didn't have those capabilities and were much more cumbersome to use.

 

[FRR]

Evening and morning news are the worst. They are lucky to have 15 minutes per half hour of programming. And then all those useless promos. No one commercial TV is deader than Nixon.