in the 1950s and 1960s pretty much all TV Shows seasons(Typical Television Season) ran from September(or October) to June, and the average season had around 30-36 episodes. by around the mid 60's it's(Number of episodes per season)began to shrink and the TV season became shorten. No TV show in the 1970s for the most part had more then 26 Episodes(Average during the 70s was 24-26 Episodes) and the TV season usually ran from September to March or April and sometimes May.

What I am wondering is at what point during 1960s did they start to shorten the Average TV season? At what point did they start making less then 30 Episodes and the season started to end before June?

I'm not sure exactly,so I can't give you a direct answer. I know that quite a few shows made during the 1950s and early 1960s had an amazing 38 episodes or so per season,"Gunsmoke" being one example of many.Even during the late 1960s--the mid 1970s a lot of shows actually had over 30 episodes per season. During the 1980s is when they started really dramatically lowering the amount of episodes made every season.And from the 1990s-to present the amount seems to have kept going lower. Nowadays what do they throw at the viewing public, 15-20 episodes a year?

And of course the older shows ran about 12 minutes longer per hour than modern shows.So not only did they make so many more episodes a year but each episode ran a lot longer.

I'm not sure exactly,so I can't give you a direct answer. I know that quite a few shows made during the 1950s and early 1960s had an amazing 38 episodes or so per season,"Gunsmoke" being one example of many.Even during the late 1960s--the mid 1970s a lot of shows actually had over 30 episodes per season. During the 1980s is when they started really dramatically lowering the amount of episodes made every season.And from the 1990s-to present the amount seems to have kept going lower. Nowadays what do they throw at the viewing public, 15-20 episodes a year?
Nowadays they still do 22-24 Episodes in a average TV Season for a Show that runs from September-May, which it has been like that since the Late 90s-Early 2000'w. A mid-season show has 15-20 episodes

I wish we could back to when TV Sitcoms were 24-26 Minutes long and dramas were almost 50 minutes.

There was once a time when if a Show only lasted 13 episodes it was considered a FAILURE. I once picked up three seasons of a recent TV Show and they all lasted 13 Episodes EACH! :eek:

It used to be when the season began in September you would get new episodes all the way to May or even June of the following year. The only Preemptions would usually occur during the Holiday Season of Thanksgiving to Christmas, New Years Day and maybe Easter, or whenever the President requested Airtime for a New Conference or Speech. Today a Typical Season will start off with a few new Episodes in September, Reruns and/or Specials in October. More new Episodes in November (It's a "Sweeps" Month) MAYBE a Holiday-Themed Episode in December, otherwise more reruns and specials through January. More new Episodes in February (Another Sweeps Month) then more reruns in March and April. During the last "Sweeps" of the Season in May you'll get the last New Episodes, then it's back to repeats until September. Yes the Shows are shorter as well, as more and more Commercials have been added per show. The Networks do not care about the Audience, all they want is the MONEY. Corporate Greed, pure and simple. :angryfire

Of course back then we didn't have "Alternatives" to turn to (Such as DVDs) whenever there wasn't anything on the three Networks or the Independant Stations to tickle our fancy! :lol: :rofl: :rotflmao: :brent

I agree, The networks only care about MONEY and not their Viewers. Someone on the Modern Family IMDB board was just complaining about all the reruns that ABC has been showing of Modern Family and how the schedule was Unreliable over the last few weeks.



In the 1960s:
1. The Average Typical Television Season ran from September(Or October)to Mid June!.

2. The Average TV Season had 32-36 Episodes and some season as much as 39!

3. The Average Episodes was 25-27 Minutes long. A Drama was close to 51 Minutes


NOW:
1. The season runs from September to Mid May

2. The Average TV Season has 21-23 Episodes and some Seasons still has 24 or 25 but rarely. Some seasons of TV Shows now have 19 or 20 Episodes over 9 months!

3.The Average Episodes is 19-21 Minutes long today. A drama today is 38 -40 Minutes.

The actors today make even more then back then. Less work for more money

I'm not a writer, but have heard from several vets like Ken Levine that it's actually more difficult to write for 20 minutes instead of 25 like it used to be. This is because they are trying to get across a complete story in a shorter amount of time. MORE stuff has to be condensed. So not only are actors getting paid more for working less, writers are actually working harder. What a screwy business.

The primetime Soaps in the 1980's had around 30 episodes a season. They didn't rerun them at all after the first few years. That's probably why I was so addicted. lol

I'm not a writer, but have heard from several vets like Ken Levine that it's actually more difficult to write for 20 minutes instead of 25 like it used to be. This is because they are trying to get across a complete story in a shorter amount of time. MORE stuff has to be condensed. So not only are actors getting paid more for working less, writers are actually working harder. What a screwy business.
It is definitely more difficult. I'm an aspiring comedy writer and it's really hard to condense your stuff to 21-22 minutes length. Things always wind up on the cutting room floor.

I can understand not airing stuff during holiday seasons and ending the season before June because I assume ratings were probably pretty low during those times. But there are definitely far too many repeats these days. The cable model of shorter but repeat-free seasons might be the way to go. Networks are starting to test it out and I think it'd probably be better for ratings and honestly, it would probably make the content easier to digest, even if it meant less time on the air.

Nowadays, the numbers of episodes per season for a scripted series on a broadcast network (if it airs during both halves of the television season) should be between 20 and 24. Most have an average of 22 per season.

What's worse is when cable dramas consider having 10 episodes a season or now the networks have stopped showing reruns during the Summer on some of their shows.

Hannibal for instance which is a promising show could use that extra viewership if only NBC would bother to repeat their episodes to catch up for the 2nd season, yeah I know they you can probably watch episodes online but not everybody is tech savvy to watch on a computer.

What's worse is when cable dramas consider having 10 episodes a season or now the networks have stopped showing reruns during the Summer on some of their shows.

Hannibal for instance which is a promising show could use that extra viewership if only NBC would bother to repeat their episodes to catch up for the 2nd season, yeah I know they you can probably watch episodes online but not everybody is tech savvy to watch on a computer.

Then when the second season comes on they can't figure out why the rating are failing. People think the show has been cancelled, and they find something else to watch, and when the show returns, they are so engaged in whatever they are watching they don't realize the other show has returned. Frequent pre-emptions and or Hiatuses have been the death of many a show.

This right here is one of my TV pet peeves.

Less show. More commercials. Less eps per season. Less seasons. I mean. This is one of the main reasons why I don't even bother watching most new stuff on TV.

When you think about, the shows in the 1950's had many show that had 39 episodes. Leave to Beaver, Honeymooners came to mind. They ran 39 weeks, 13 weeks through out the season was reserved for the President's address, Xmas specials, Olympics, and other odd ball things. So when think of it, you really had to be avid tv watcher for the chance of seeing the same episode in the same year was slim.
With cable of the last 20 years you can catch the same episode for it is run half dozen time during the week. The actors must have worked a lot harder too. Some one wrote Hugh Beaumont commuted from Minnesota while shooting the series.

I want to add to the above in addition to more episodes, longer season, longer running time is the fact that they also ran 1 commercial then it was back to the show.

I want to add to the above in addition to more episodes, longer season, longer running time is the fact that they also ran 1 commercial then it was back to the show.

Only one or two companies sponsored a show, and these were the only commercials you'd see during a show. Commercials back then were a lot different than they are today. They were quite informative, (I saw an old commercial for Kraft Foods that had a recipe in it which I made and found to be rather tasty), :eatarrow: there was none of this "In your face" obnoxiousness we have these days. :angryfire I know I mentioned this countless times before, but I'm finished with today's TV. :mad: I have enough TV Shows and movies to last me over 20 years! :lol:

Same here :D

Even after most shows were no longer sponsored by a company,during the 1970s for example mostly there was just one short commercial break(2 minutes or less) during the middle of a half hour show,and then another short break usually towards the end of the show,that was it. And I agree,the older commercials were sometimes informative, even pleasant to watch and entertaining etc.,much different than todays obnoxious advertisements.

Several vintage articles on the topic of episode orders vs. the number of reruns:

Reruns Take Over TV Screens for Summer (1958) (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oxYsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ecgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2326%2C4224388)

Twice-Told Tales on Tap for Summer (1960) (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ItANAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GXcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7017%2C1244472)

Reruns Season Bound to Get Longer (1970) (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RlAxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RgUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3987%2C7221685)

White House Seeks TV Rerun Inquiry (1973) (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZxpXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a_oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7309%2C7091972)

I'm sure some of those longer seasons had some episodes that normally would not have made the cut but they were pushed for material. If TV today would do 22 quality episodes I would be OK with that, but so much trash gets aired that I can not believe a professional script editor did not toss in the trash. Add to that only 40-42 minutes to perform a drama and 20-22 minutes to have a beginning, middle, and resloution to a sitcom must be making it hard on writers. Until channels we pay for stop airing so many commercials, quality will continue to suffer. Cable networks now air the same show almost all day and often the same few episodes over-and-over, yet we pay for them and get stuck with commercials. It is killing creativity and angering viewers.

The problem is most TV channels will not stop airing so many commercials,and other forms of advertising on their own,it would be nice of they did,but they won't. Most TV channels used to be in the entertainment business,now the majority are really just in the advertising business.

Here is one show that had over 40 episodes a season:The late 1950s-early 60s western,"Lawman".I think it has about 41 episodes in each of it's 4 seasons.

When you think about, the shows in the 1950's had many show that had 39 episodes. Leave to Beaver, Honeymooners came to mind. They ran 39 weeks, 13 weeks through out the season was reserved for the President's address, Xmas specials, Olympics, and other odd ball things. So when think of it, you really had to be avid tv watcher for the chance of seeing the same episode in the same year was slim.
With cable of the last 20 years you can catch the same episode for it is run half dozen time during the week. The actors must have worked a lot harder too. Some one wrote Hugh Beaumont commuted from Minnesota while shooting the series.


I think the transition took place during the 1970's. The Brady Bunch had less than 30 episodes along with some other shows. The 80's had shows at 22 and 25 episodes.

Season 4 of Lassie lasted 40 episodes. This is the season where we are introduced to Timmy, The 13th episode - aptly named "Transition" has Jeff's Grandfather pass away, Jeff's mother gets a job in the city, She and Jeff move away. A Couple, Paul and Ruth Martin purchase the Farm and adopt Timmy. This episode was supposed to the final episode for season four, instead of passing away "Gramps" was supposed to get involved in some kind of accident that made him unable to run the farm (Tommy Rettig and George Cleveland wanted out of the series). While season four was shooting the actor who played Gramps, George Cleveland really did pass away, so the producers pushed thing up a bit.

Here is one show that had over 40 episodes a season:The late 1950s-early 60s western,"Lawman".I think it has about 41 episodes in each of it's 4 seasons.

Lawman had 156 episodes, 39 per season.

Yes there were tons of shows that had 35 or more episodes. You mentioned a few. Well people were more home bound in those days for tv was still new.
Content changes, people's lives change and world changes. Wonder what life will be like when I'l be in the ground. No one knows.

If there was a time when scripted TV shows were producing around 40 episodes per season (and the episodes themselves were longer; their duration was 26 minutes compared to 22 minutes today, without commercials), then how come those shows had no ongoing story arcs? I know that TV shows' seasons have less episodes for quality.

I believe that by 1968 or so, no shows were producing more than 26 shows per year. Even as late as 1966, I know Occasional Wife, Love on a Rooftop each did 30 shows.

Using Y2K3 Joker's Lassie Set as a Guide I came up with the following:

S1 - 26 Episodes

S2 - 38 Episodes

S3 - 39 Episodes

S4 - 40 Episodes

S5 - 39 Episodes

S6 - 37 Episodes

S7 - 36 Episodes

S8 - 36 Episodes

S9 - 32 Episodes

S10 - 29 Episodes

S11 - 33 Episodes

S12 - 32 Episodes

S13 - 30 Episodes

S14 - 28 Episodes

S15 - 28 Episodes

S16 - 22 Episodes

S17 - 22 Episodes

S18 - 20 Episodes

S 19 - 24 Episodes :dog:

Looks Like to me Lassie started as a Mid-Season Replacement in 1954. Each Season had more shows than the preceding season until 1957, where it reached its peak with 40 Episodes. The Following Season Had 39 Episodes, then a gradual decline took from Seasons 6 to 10 where the number of Seasons declined from 36 Episodes to 29 Episodes. The following three seasons saw a rise, 11 had 33 Episodes, 12 had 32 Episodes and 13 had 30 Episodes. THis would be the last time had a season lasting longer than 30 Episodes. from Season 14 to 18 the number of Episodes declined from 28 Episodes to 20 Episodes. The final season had 24 episodes.

In a word: color. It took about three seasons to accomplish, but the scaling back from an average of 36 to 26 episodes per season coincides with the three networks going all-color and the considerable extra expense of color filming.

The worse part now isn't just less show and more commercials but when you're watching a program and right when there's an exciting part you get interrupted by a scroll banner on the bottom of the screen promoting another TV show, why?

I heard the reason for it was because homes that had TiVo would fast forward the commercials therefore killing valuable ad revenue which I find total B.S.

Any other reasons for the gradual reduction of episodes per season over time? If a TV show were to produce 40+ episodes per season, there would be so much filler and not enough quality, and that (40+ episodes per season) may be considered too much of one TV show.

Also, if some TV shows were to produce less than, say, 16 episodes per season, then it would obviously take longer for those TV shows to reach the minimum number of total episodes needed for syndication.

I never had any problem watching 39 episodes of I love Lucy. Felt there was plenty of quality of work back then. Now I tend to think many people can't hang on through a long season so now many shows do only 15 -20. With so many stations, people tend to flip the channels.

Season 4 of Lassie lasted 40 episodes. This is the season where we are introduced to Timmy, The 13th episode - aptly named "Transition" has Jeff's Grandfather pass away, Jeff's mother gets a job in the city, She and Jeff move away. A Couple, Paul and Ruth Martin purchase the Farm and adopt Timmy. This episode was supposed to the final episode for season four, instead of passing away "Gramps" was supposed to get involved in some kind of accident that made him unable to run the farm (Tommy Rettig and George Cleveland wanted out of the series). While season four was shooting the actor who played Gramps, George Cleveland really did pass away, so the producers pushed thing up a bit.
I am watching this show for the first time. Had never seen the early years with Jeff or Timmy. I do recall the ranger years in the mid to late 60's. The show I will admit is a bit suspenseful. Nice show to see with children.

I have noticed today while reading posts, that a ad with a squeaky kid keeps popping up. When did this start?

Some shows' seasons have 13 episodes, whether it's a cable series or an abbreviated season of a U.S. broadcast TV series. Why 13? Isn't 13 a number commonly associated with bad luck? Couldn't they have selected an even number for the episode orders, like 12, 14, or maybe 16, for abbreviated seasons?

Also, the average full season of a broadcast TV series is 22 nowadays. Is 20 episodes per season or 21 episodes per season even considered "abbreviated"?

Cable started the 13-episode episode trend because they had much smaller budgets than network television and couldn't afford to produce a full 22+ episode season. But a lot of people felt shorter seasons led to tighter, better quality (particularly for serialized dramas) so it stuck and eventually began to translate over to broadcast TV in some capacity. Another big reason networks like shorter seasons is that it doesn't take as much time to produce so they can get big names to agree to star on their show. A movie star like Matthew McConaghey could never clear up his schedule enough to do a 24-episode season that takes ~8 months to produce but a 10-episode season that could be filmed in half the time? Sure.

And 13 seems to be the magic number for whatever reason but lots of shows do 8, 10, 14, and 16 episode seasons. Personally I would consider anything under 18 episodes to be a shortened season. Once you get to 18 it's basically as good as a full season.