I had heard that MeTV's ability to show full episodes was aided by speeding up the broadcast so they could fit in additional commercials. I recorded MeTV's recent airing of Season 6's Tea and Empathy and played it back on one TV while playing the episode on DVD on an adjacent TV. I confirmed that MeTV did indeed air the complete episode, a nice contrast to the butchering the show receives on most other networks. MeTV also sped up the episode a bit; the episode, 23 min and 36 sec on DVD, ran for 23 min and 1 sec on MeTV. It doesn't sound like much, but when I would sync the 2 broadcasts, the MeTV version would soon be a bit ahead. I know MeTV's practice has critics -- speeding up a show is especially questionable for shows like Jack Benny or The Bob Newhart Show (the latter which MeTV broadcasts), in which pauses and the subsequent reaction makes up a large part of the humor. But I will still take the speeding up process as opposed to losing minutes of the show.

I had heard that MeTV's ability to show full episodes was aided by speeding up the broadcast so they could fit in additional commercials. I recorded MeTV's recent airing of Season 6's Tea and Empathy and played it back on one TV while playing the episode on DVD on an adjacent TV. I confirmed that MeTV did indeed air the complete episode, a nice contrast to the butchering the show receives on most other networks. MeTV also sped up the episode a bit; the episode, 23 min and 36 sec on DVD, ran for 23 min and 1 sec on MeTV. It doesn't sound like much, but when I would sync the 2 broadcasts, the MeTV version would soon be a bit ahead. I know MeTV's practice has critics -- speeding up a show is especially questionable for shows like Jack Benny or The Bob Newhart Show (the latter which MeTV broadcasts), in which pauses and the subsequent reaction makes up a large part of the humor. But I will still take the speeding up process as opposed to losing minutes of the show.

And some of those really dreary Alan Alda Soapbox episodes later in the series they can speed up "real good"!