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Originally Posted by dieseljeep
Is all that compressing causing the distortion in all the old repeats that are shown on the various channels, such as METV, etc?  |
I know what Holmesuser1 means when he speaks of shortened programs. One of my favorites, on MeTV weeknights, is "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", which was on CBS-TV in the 1970s. This program has been shortened as well, and I think much of that shortening was at the end of the show. I remember how most of those programs ended, and that part of the show was cut out. (I bet those MTM shows, once close to 30 minutes in length less commercials, are now no more than perhaps half that or less.) Takes almost all the fun out of watching these old shows, which were real comedy -- not like a lot of what passes for comedy and humor on TV nowadays. At least they didn't fiddle much with the DVD releases of these programs. The DVD versions may not be totally uncut, but at least there are no commercials, which is why I now have a collection of many of my favorite 1970s TV series on DVD and VHS.
I believe those shows are shortened for one and only one reason: so the network can squeeze in more commercials. I remember when there actually was a limit on commercial time in any given hour; I don't remember exactly what the limit was, but it certainly was less than two minutes an hour. (Well, at least cigarette commercials were banned in the early 1970s.) Now, TV stations and networks cram as many commercials as they think they can get away with (!) into an hour of programming -- and radio is even worse. I've all but given up on terrestrial OTA radio for that reason.