I worked for many years for a little Nashville indie station, WZTV, from its start-up, until 1982. We ran lots of shows, I Love Lucy, Beverly Hillbillies, Twilight Zone, Wild Wild West, Have Gun Will Travel, Hazel, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Monkees, The Flintstones, etc. etc. etc... The Honeymooners, The Partridge Family, Wonder Woman, Ben Casey... The list goes on and on... Oh yeah. How long since you've seen Petticoat Junction? We had a set of brand new prints!
We also ran Star Trek... Hey Pete! It was 5 commercial breaks in the shows, not 3.
We NEVER cut anything, ever! Our shows and movies were shown in their entirity.
Being that we didnt cut the shows at all, the film distributors sent us brand new prints of almost everything we played. One glaring aside was "Speedracer," which were some of the worst prints ever!
We maintained a huge library of Paramount features that were beautiful. Many prints were in Technicolor. Any prints that didnt pass my standards: excess scratches, splices, bad color, etc. were replaced. Period.
We ran a movie every weeknight at 8PM. Cinema 17. Good days, then.
We never forced a commercial break in a TV show, ever. Commercials always went where the show producers intended.
Now, FOX is on ZTV. Its just like all the others. I'm so sorry.