Sped-Up TV Shows: "The Waltons" are the new "Keystone Cops?"*

I found a recording of Charlie Brown Christmas that I recorded from broadcast TV years ago. Upon playing it, I thought "Gee, that sounds fast." So I compared it with the "official" DVD release. Indeed, by comparison, it's fast. Same deal with Speed Racer. The DVD is fast compared to the original broadcast. How many other old TV programs got speeded up for later broadcast or DVD release?

 

Benny Hill?

 

Way too many. Too many of the cable channels are just too damned greedy.

 

Probably every vintage show ever now shown on TV. And as I understand... with SPEED RACER and also the ARCHIES cartoon series- the original masters were ditched once those speed ups were done. So there's no going back.

 

$$$ always wins

 

Way too many to mention. But for starters, animated shows including The Real Ghostbusters, Captain N: The Game Master, Inspector Gadget, every Filmation show which only exists in PAL because of Hallmark Entertainment's stupidity (save for a few), and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

And let's not forget almost all game shows on Game Show Network from 2001-2004. GSN now only time-speeds some of their shows.

 

My nominee for alltime champ is Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the reruns as aired on the USA network in the '80s-'90s.

It went beyond annoying into comical -- the actors sounded like they were on helium.

 

Yup, we also ran it on Nick At Nite in the 90's, it was just painful to watch. I was looking for the can of whipped cream

 

The Munsters was sped up on reruns...

 

yes, and thankfully we got the DVD box sets!

 

I always wondered, and this would not work for all shows, but use "Seinfeld" as an example. I have seen those episodes so many times I can often detect the lines missing from the edits. Could TBS not make the same amount of money showing an entire unedited episode and giving one or two sponsors presentation rights to show them? "Seinfeld", presented as first aired with limited commercial interruption by ____ and ____ ?

 

It's been suggested, but I think the ad agencies are extremely against the idea, since it would drive the rates up. I think a more reasonable idea is just to run the show in a 35-minute time slot and give them a few extra minutes of commercial time but don't cut the show. But they're afraid of doing that, either. All of cable, broadcasting, and network TV are generally afraid of breaking old traditions.

 

I see some cable comedy reruns listed late at night in 34-36 minute slots but I think they are still edited. Worst of both worlds.

 

I've been watching Law and Order on Sundance (I think) that have been way sped up. It's quite annoying.

 

I noticed a few weeks ago when my wife was DVR'ing Big Bang (I think it was) that it was scheduled to air from 8:00 - 8:33pm, yet like Vidiot said people seem to be afraid to change traditions ...

 

Charlie Brown Christmas was edited in 2014 to fit in more commercials... I stopped half way through and put in the DVD!

 

I remember Hallmark tried airing M.A.S.H. uncut for a while.....didn't last too long.

IIRC shows ended up running 1hr 10 minutes or so with commercials.

 

I can recall watching episodes of various programs on ABC's "TGIF" (ie - "Family Matters", "Step By Step", "Perfect Strangers", etc.), and feeling like there were certain segments of those shows that just didn't look right, and had an "overly animated" appearance. In hindsight, I'd imagine this was an early means of time-compressing certain scenes from episodes that were running just a wee bit too long. It sort of reminded me of watching old newsreel footage that had been filmed at too slow a speed, and played back at the proper rate. Everyone looked like they'd o.d'ed on coffee!

 

I never realized this was a 'thing' until last night, and than recalled seeing this thread, although I never opened it. Amazed that it was started in '08! I was so happy to have discovered The Rifleman being shown on METV. Set my DVR to record the series and checked in last night. So disappointing! Beyond the horse riding looking cartoonish, and the chipmunk-sounding dialog, during the opening credits where he fires off the iconic salvo, my man sounded like he was shooting a machine gun! Took all the fun outta seeing him shoot down 3 men (amongst them a young James Coburn!) over a calf!

 

What is funny is watching Joe Friday give one of those long sermonizing rat-a-tat speeches after he's been time compressed. Truly hilarious.

 

The Waltons always was kind of a slow show. Maybe speeding it up a notch is not such a bad thing...

 

The newish game show channel (Buzzr) frequently runs shows in 35 to 40 minute blocks in order to accommodate shows' longer lengths along with airing original commercials. It's a hoot to see some of the old Remington Rand commercials during shows like What's My Line or some of the products given away to losing contestants on shows like Match Game.

 

I just finished watching the 2nd season of Fargo (which I liked very much, except for the final episode), and noted that most of the shows had different running times! Some were the normal 45-50 minutes; some were 60 minutes; some even stretched longer than that. This is another revolution that traditional networks can't handle: shows that don't necessarily start or end right on the hour or half hour. I also think the level of violence and the long stretches of dialogue would be very unusual for a broadcast network.

But the pace of a show like Fargo is very important. When they want you to be bored and impatient, you're bored and impatient; when things are frantic and crazy and violent and explosive, it makes it that much worse because you've kind of been lulled into near-boredom. Speeding it up would destroy all of that.

 

They time compressed Speed Racer for the DVD release? Why? So they could fit more commercials onto a DVD?!

 

I noticed the time compression on MeTV's airing of The Adventures Of Superman...pretty pathetic.
They brag about having all are favorite TV classics, then they butcher them.
TV Land's commercial blocks are horrendous. I know they have to make a buck, but damn, last nights airing of "Raymond" seemed to have more commercial time then the actual show. Decided to watch it commercial free on Netflix from now on.
It's no wonder viewers are turning away from cable altogether.