Run Time 90 minutes?

Amazon UK says it is not out (yet) but with the deluge of similar shows, who knows? Keep your eyes open on tvshowsondvd.com for any news....

There is no legit Region 1 set available to answer your question....

The ones I got last about 64 minutes each. Credits are usually missing, but I think the story is all there.

As far as ninety minutes, there would still be more of a show aired than if it were today. I don't know what the FCC mandated then, but today, they can show up to seven minutes of ads. When Ronald Reagan was in office, he deregulated the FCC and that's how infomercials came to be.

Before I crashed at 4am Monday morning, I decided to take advantage of being up for forty hours sans sleep.

Throughout Sunday night, [for breaks], I started working on a list of NBC Mystery Movie. This is generally for '71 thru '74, depending upon which show you're talking about. A lot of shows in this type of format - specifically, the pilot and show, will show the pilot, followed by the series (in the same year). They're fairly easily to find and validate, although this from straightfoward memory. (so I might have made some mistakes)

I was ten in '72 and remember them (NBC) quite well. I think the "NBC Mystery Movie" should be reasonbly close. Prime Time After Prime Time should be pretty close as well.

I don't remember if there was an "ABC Mystery Movie" and what data should be there.

If you have corrections, please let me know.

If you use this info elsewhere, please be mindful of not claiming you came up with the list. Failing to do this, would be unfortunate and because there's balance & harmony, you might think about it. (Karma. And not "My karma ran over my dogma."

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NBC Mystery Movie:
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Amy Prentiss
Banacek,
Columbo (Also on ABC's Mystery Movie)
Cool Million
Faraday & Company
Hec Ramsey
Lanigan's Rabbi, aka "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late" (Books)
Madigan
McCloud
McCoy
McMillan & Wife
Quincy, ME
The Snoop Sisters
Tenafly


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Similar themes:
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“Crimetime After Primetime” (some moved to USA)
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“Dangerous Curves”
“Dark Justice”
“The Exile”
“Forever Knight”
“Scene of the Crime”
“Sweating Bullets” (“Tropical Heat”)
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“Scene of the Crime” had a format similar to “Nero Wolf” in recent years. SOTC, however, had already taken it to the next level and used the entire cast and they rotated every episode. This week, {A} would be a good guy and the lead. Next week, {B} was the criminal and the lead where {A} might be #3 in exposure via the episode.
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“ABC Mystery Movie” ? (Fridays?)
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“B.L. Stryker” ('89-'90) ?
“Christine Cromwell” ('89-'90) ?
“Gideon Oliver” ('86) ?
<more?>
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p

Hale, I've done extensive work on commercials over the years. Here's what I've found for 1-hour shows.

In the 1960's, a 1 hour show lasted about 51 minutes long, which meant about 9 minutes (tops) of commercials. In actuality, it was less when you allow for station promos, PSA's, etc. So figure 8 minutes, which works out to about 4 2-minute breaks. That was pretty much the standard from the 1950's through the early-1980's.

The 50/51 minute 1-hour show started to be shortened in the 1970's during reruns. Lesser shows would edit out 1-2 minutes for extra commericals when they re-ran the shows in primetime for the 2nd or even 3rd time.

The trend accelerated in the 1980's. By then, the 1-hour program was down to about 48 minutes, give or take. 12 minutes of commercials.

By the 1990's and today, it has been shortened even more. Top shows like "24" barely reach 44 minutes, ditto syndicated shows like "Star Trek: Enterprise" (ST: TNG ran 46 minutes because it was 15 years earlier).

The relevant time shortening for 30-minute sitcoms would be about 25 or 25 1/2 minutes in the 1960's/1970's down to about 22 minute today.

I would venture to say that "Banacek" ran in the neighborhood of 74-77 minutes (probably right around 76 give or take), even though I did not watch the show that much and catch it only occasionally on re-runs on cable. That 74-77 minute window was also what 90-minute movies ran like "ABC's Movie Of The Week."

Again, that was for a 90-minute movie/TV show (I don't believe their lengths were different based on 1 being a movie and the other a TV show, since they were EACH made-for-TV) in the 1960's/1970's. I would venture to say that if "Banacek" or some other 90-minute TV show came along today it would be closer to 66-68 minutes, tops. No way it tops 70 minutes. The percentage increase in commercial time is LOWER for 30-minute and 90-minute shows than for the 1-hour shows which are the networks favorites to fill time-wise.

That's one reason why 90-minute dramas and made-for-TV movies ended in the 1970's: they created scheduling problems, they lost ad time on an hourly basis, and it was tougher to fill a 90-minute slot with commercials than a 1-hour show + a 30-minute show or three 30-minute shows.

The good news is that we've reached the maximum amount of commercials that the networks can squeeze in on all types of shows (except maybe live-action sports).

The added commercial times accelerated in the late 1970's and 1980's when cable TV eroded The Big Three's share of viewing from 91% in the early 1970's to 50% or less today.

There was a time before Wikipedia. There were search engines without the WWW. There was a WWW and no search engines. This was near the end of what was known as, "The World's Biggest Secret Club."

With that in mind, several of us went head-to-head to see who got the most. All of us ended up with the same list.

There may have been another one or two in there as well.

If I recall correctly, it was on Wed. nights.

Five. Five dollar. Five dollar foot-long.