The Incredible Shrinking TV Show!

[recto101]

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!

Didn't 1950's shows insert Sponsors to the Titles of the show such as This is the Texaco show. Meaning that the sponsor is inserted to the show.

 

[LKellerIII]

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!

Didn't 1950's shows insert Sponsors to the Titles of the show such as This is the Texaco show. Meaning that the sponsor is inserted to the show.

There was a comedy-variety show called The Texaco Star Theatre. It initially had different hosts each week until Milton Berle became the permanent host. I guess Texaco bowed out after awhile, and it became The Buick-Berle Show. So yes, the sponsors often got their corporate names into the titles of the show. Many shows would also have an announcer that would say "Brought to you by..." and then name the company that was sponsoring the show. But in those days, it was typical for one advertiser to buy up most of the commercial time on a show. Other than Hallmark (Hallmark Hall of Fame), I can't think of any recent examples.

On The Beverly Hillbillies, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs would actually continue to sing the theme song into the sponsor's name. It was usually Kellogg's, if I recall correctly.

 

[recto101]

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!

Didn't 1950's shows insert Sponsors to the Titles of the show such as This is the Texaco show. Meaning that the sponsor is inserted to the show.

There was a comedy-variety show called The Texaco Star Theatre. It initially had different hosts each week until Milton Berle became the permanent host. I guess Texaco bowed out after awhile, and it became The Buick-Berle Show. So yes, the sponsors often got their corporate names into the titles of the show. Many shows would also have an announcer that would say "Brought to you by..." and then name the company that was sponsoring the show. But in those days, it was typical for one advertiser to buy up most of the commercial time on a show. Other than Hallmark (Hallmark Hall of Fame), I can't think of any recent examples.

On The Beverly Hillbillies, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs would actually continue to sing the theme song into the sponsor's name. It was usually Kellogg's, if I recall correctly.

I do know Ford, Coke and AT&T were inserted in American Idol in the past 10 years and on X-Factor Pepsi, Verizon and Toyota? were inserted as major Sponsors. I do know in San Francisco Cache Creek ,Sleep Train and Xfinity are mentioned as major sponsors of Local San Francisco TV shows.

 

[mjlarochelle]

And then there's the amount of cross-promotion between co-owned media properties, both in commercials and in programming itself. I don't have any U.S. examples but in Ottawa, Canada, since Bell Media took over both CJOH-TV and radio stations CFRA and Majic 100, there's endless cross-promotion for CFRA and Majic 100 during newscasts. CBC Radio is also horrible for using its programs to promote CBC Television shows.

 

[Maine-i-ac]

On The Beverly Hillbillies, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs would actually continue to sing the theme song into the sponsor's name. It was usually Kellogg's, if I recall correctly.

To be technical, Flatt and Scruggs played but Jerry Scroggins did the singing. Here's the youtube of the Kellogg's song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA5DTejequw&playnext=1&list=PL0C18AAF2447C6C53&feature=results_video

There is also one for Winston their alternate sponsor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8bpg4C9VDw

 

[recto101]

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!

Didn't 1950's shows insert Sponsors to the Titles of the show such as This is the Texaco show. Meaning that the sponsor is inserted to the show.

There was a comedy-variety show called The Texaco Star Theatre. It initially had different hosts each week until Milton Berle became the permanent host. I guess Texaco bowed out after awhile, and it became The Buick-Berle Show. So yes, the sponsors often got their corporate names into the titles of the show. Many shows would also have an announcer that would say "Brought to you by..." and then name the company that was sponsoring the show. But in those days, it was typical for one advertiser to buy up most of the commercial time on a show. Other than Hallmark (Hallmark Hall of Fame), I can't think of any recent examples.

On The Beverly Hillbillies, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs would actually continue to sing the theme song into the sponsor's name. It was usually Kellogg's, if I recall correctly.

I do know Ford, Coke and AT&T were inserted in American Idol in the past 10 years and on X-Factor Pepsi, Verizon and Toyota? were inserted as major Sponsors. I do know in San Francisco Cache Creek ,Sleep Train and Xfinity are mentioned as major sponsors of Local San Francisco TV shows.

Forgot that Cache Creek ,Sleep Train and Xfinity are also major sponsors of Local Sacramento TV shows. I also forgot that back in the 1940's and 1950's the late Mike Wallace of CBS News would do commercials inserted into the shows before he was hired to do a pundit show called "Nightbeat".

 

[LKellerIII]

On The Beverly Hillbillies, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs would actually continue to sing the theme song into the sponsor's name. It was usually Kellogg's, if I recall correctly.

To be technical, Flatt and Scruggs played but Jerry Scroggins did the singing. Here's the youtube of the Kellogg's song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA5DTejequw&playnext=1&list=PL0C18AAF2447C6C53&feature=results_video

There is also one for Winston their alternate sponsor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8bpg4C9VDw

Very cool - thanks.

As to Xnfinity sponsoring local shows - yes - that's happening a lot - on Comcast (NBC) owned stations or affiliates. NBC Bay Area now calls the sports portion of the news "The Xfinity Sports Report" or something similar. But Comcast (Xfinity in other words) owns KNTV. I also noticed last night on the SF Giants game (on Comcast Sports Net Bay Area) that they repeatedly pluggged NBC Bay Area News coming up at 11:00. That kind of cross-promotion is to be expected.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I didn't read the entire thread.

 

[vchimpanzee]

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

UNC-TV is bringing it back!

 

[anotherguyTN]

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

UNC-TV is bringing it back!

I wish WKNO in Memphis and/or Netflix would bring it and Monty Python back.

 

[Bob1370]

Getting back to the initial posting on this thread, it's true that you never see more than 26 episodes of a first run prime time show in a season, and sometimes only 24. As to the legth of a nominal 30 minute show, it has dropped a couple of minutes since 1950 from 27 to less than 25 minutes) but it's not just a reduction of program content to ake room for another commercial unit or two, although that has happened. We've also seen something that doesn't affect the viewer's experience so much, At least half of the reduction in nominal program time was a matter of cutting back on opening theme and closing credits, which add little to the show. Cutting the open and close lets you give about 30 seconds of airtime every 30 minutes between shows back to the affiliates fr them to sell at prime time rates.