When did editing reruns to make room for more commercials begin?

Probably years ago when syndicated channels were invented.

Back in the 90s Nick at Nite showed full episodes. Far cry from now.

As far as the editing of TV shows goes I think that has been going on for a long time.
However they used to cut out maybe just a minute or so of some shows.
It was no big deal.It was nothing like the heavy editing that became common around the early 2000s that you see these days.

I don't know, but haven't I Love Lucy reruns always been edited? The opening with the heart that everybody knows is not the original opening and I think other scenes are usually missing, too. The Andy Griffith Show reruns almost always cut the coda scene out. All those years of watching it on WTBS and my local ABC affiliate, and a bunch of those codas were new to me on the DVDs and Netflix. I don't think I've ever seen the part of Leave It to Beaver where Hugh Beaumont introduces the episode with "That's our story tonight." That was not on the episodes I watched in the 80s.

I agree with TSMIV: shows have always been edited, even as far back as when I Love Lucy was syndicated. Possibly even before that.

In Commonwealth countries in the 1960s and 1970s, episodes of Doctor Who were edited to remove violent scenes at some stations, so the practice of editing TV shows was already common in the 1960s.

And of course, as ABH says, local stations were editing movies to fit 2-hour slots, likely ever since films were shown on television.

I don't know, but haven't I Love Lucy reruns always been edited? The opening with the heart that everybody knows is not the original opening and I think other scenes are usually missing, too. The Andy Griffith Show reruns almost always cut the coda scene out. All those years of watching it on WTBS and my local ABC affiliate, and a bunch of those codas were new to me on the DVDs and Netflix. I don't think I've ever seen the part of Leave It to Beaver where Hugh Beaumont introduces the episode with "That's our story tonight." That was not on the episodes I watched in the 80s.

METV keeps the Beaumont opening on a few of the first season episodes. I'm not sure if the show dropped it or METV edited it out of the rest of the episodes.

In addition to cutting scenes, for some shows they also speed up the episodes slightly to allow for more commercials.

With Diff'rent Strokes sometimes the edits are so noticeable because some snippets of the audience laugh track abruptly cuts when a joke might have originally been there.

METV keeps the Beaumont opening on a few of the first season episodes. I'm not sure if the show dropped it or METV edited it out of the rest of the episodes.

In addition to cutting scenes, for some shows they also speed up the episodes slightly to allow for more commercials.

Beaumont narrated the opening of Beaver for about half the first season. In the second half of the season, the program showed a short scene from the episode. (MeTV, using the Shout! DVDs as sources, places these in the wrong sequence in many episodes. The Universal DVDs have it in the correct sequence--before the opening credits.)

Why the producers removed Beaumont preview of the episode is anybody's guess. My guess is that CBS wanted it changed for some reason.

Yes, MeTV definitely speeds up many episodes. It's really obvious when you listen to episode music off DVD releases.

In addition to cutting scenes, for some shows they also speed up the episodes slightly to allow for more commercials.

Yep. I remember some episodes of Growing Pains in the 1990s, which aired on... some cable channel; I don't remember now which one. They were obviously sped up, and whoever made the changes did the worst job. Everyone's voice was noticeably higher-pitched. :lol:

With Diff'rent Strokes sometimes the edits are so noticeable because some snippets of the audience laugh track abruptly cuts when a joke might have originally been there.

Also, you'll hear applause abruptly cut before ad breaks. With Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons, many original episodes had bumpers before the breaks (with Diff'rent Strokes, it was a slide; with Silver Spoons, it was a cast member announcement, SS will be right back, or similar). All of these were long ago cut out, and with them went the applause fading out. Some of them in Small Wonder still survive in syndication.

The thing that puzzles me is that many rerun episodes appear to be pre-edited by the syndicator to the standard 22 or so minute length (like Happy Days, for example). Other programs have minor edits in syndication (such as the My Three Sons season 6 thru 10 package) and are 25+ minute, original length. Any edits are left to the network or channel showing the program. I don't know why there are differences like that.

When Nick at Nite aired Three's Company in the 2000's all episodes were edited differently than the syndicated ones, I didn't mind seeing new stuff but at a loss for editing out funnier bits I was disappointed.

When Nick at Nite aired Three's Company in the 2000's all episodes were edited differently than the syndicated ones, I didn't mind seeing new stuff but at a loss for editing out funnier bits I was disappointed.

TV Land and Nick at Nite always seemed to get hold of full episodes. Then they edited them, many times doing a better job of editing than the syndicator. Other examples of this were Diff'rent Strokes and Father Knows Best.

I noticed this with CHiPs, the episodes being shown now on Charge are edited differently than some episodes I recorded on MeTV in 2015, I saw one entirely new scene about 2-3 minutes long. Also I realized how the MeTV versions were sped up faster than the ones on Charge.