Antenna TV butchering Bewitched :( - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

cfr1970 · 02-04-2020, 03:04 PM

They're getting much worse with their cutting of the shows. Today it was obvious they began the show after a scene had already started and before that scene even finished, they faded out to the opening credits.

It's getting to the point where the shows are becoming UNWATCHABLE!!!

Svenfan1234 · 02-04-2020, 03:49 PM

They've been butchering Bewitched since they started airing it with airing heavily edited versions at 22 1/2 minutes. Logo is even worse with 19 minute episodes of Bewitched but I'm not sure they even air Bewitched anymore. I have the complete series DVD which is completely unedited so it doesn't matter to me.

cfr1970 · 02-04-2020, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Svenfan1234

They've been butchering Bewitched since they started airing it with airing heavily edited versions at 22 1/2 minutes. Logo is even worse with 19 minute episodes of Bewitched but I'm not sure they even air Bewitched anymore. I have the complete series DVD which is completely unedited so it doesn't matter to me.

Is there a site you can go to and get those exact times? How do you know they're showing those exact times for the shows? I can't imagine a viewer sitting there with a stopwatch in hand lol.

And weren't sitcoms originally made at 24 minutes of show? At 19 minutes of show, that's butchering a whole 5 minutes off. It's incredible they can get away with that!

I have the show on DVD but i'm always too lazy to pop in and change the discs. I'm waiting for the day these TV shows just come with the entire series on little USB ports you just stick in the TV and have the whole series in one place. This way you can pick any episode right from your remote and on screen menu instead of getting up and changing discs. I'm sure it's coming, if it's not here already.

merlinjones · 02-04-2020, 04:26 PM

Bewitched and Jeannie really need to move back to Me-TV where the shows were treated like the crown jewels they are.

1960'sTVfan · 02-04-2020, 05:01 PM

That's unfortunate if Antenna TV is chopping up the Bewitched episodes. These retro channels just continue getting worse so I seldom watch them anymore.

Uncut episodes of Bewitched run a little over 25 minutes, 25:20 seems to about be the average run time per episode. Sony did a pretty good job with the DVD's, episodes appear to be uncut, if anything is edited it is minor.

Greenbeans · 02-04-2020, 06:15 PM

Antenna TV is basically an infomercial station at this point. It is unwatchable. No-one cares about the cuts. I was too young to watch Burns & Allen, but lately started watching some shows. Right in the middle of a joke - cut to endless legal commercials. It is bad. Not worth the aggravation. IMO, they are the worst of the retro stations. I have noticed MeTV has started running more and more promos for it's shows. Just show the show I'm watching.

Svenfan1234 · 02-04-2020, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cfr1970

Is there a site you can go to and get those exact times? How do you know they're showing those exact times for the shows? I can't imagine a viewer sitting there with a stopwatch in hand lol.

And weren't sitcoms originally made at 24 minutes of show? At 19 minutes of show, that's butchering a whole 5 minutes off. It's incredible they can get away with that!

I have the show on DVD but i'm always too lazy to pop in and change the discs. I'm waiting for the day these TV shows just come with the entire series on little USB ports you just stick in the TV and have the whole series in one place. This way you can pick any episode right from your remote and on screen menu instead of getting up and changing discs. I'm sure it's coming, if it's not here already.

It's been said here that syndicated versions of half-hour shows run 22:30 approx, so I'm assuming that is Bewitched's length on Antenna TV. Logo runs it, or had it, and I've heard here also that their shows run around 19 minutes. 20 at the longest. It's a Living on Antenna is abnormally short at 20-21 minutes each instead of 23-24, for example. Shows like Alice & The Hogan Family are uncut on Antenna, again for example, but they may be time compressed.

Svenfan1234 · 02-04-2020, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

That's unfortunate if Antenna TV is chopping up the Bewitched episodes. These retro channels just continue getting worse so I seldom watch them anymore.

Uncut episodes of Bewitched run a little over 25 minutes, 25:20 seems to about be the average run time per episode. Sony did a pretty good job with the DVD's, episodes appear to be uncut, if anything is edited it is minor.

It is unfortunate. You would think they could cut more subtly and not verge on being as bad as TV Land or Logo. Luckily the DVDs of Bewitched of every season are out and they're completely unedited.

1960'sTVfan · 02-04-2020, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Svenfan1234

It is unfortunate. You would think they could cut more subtly and not verge on being as bad as TV Land or Logo. Luckily the DVDs of Bewitched of every season are out and they're completely unedited.

Sony did do a commendable job with the DVD's of Bewitched. The season 8 episodes have two added bonuses, the Elizabeth Montgomery intros before each episode, and the "Bewitched will be back in a moment" bumpers before the final/tag scenes.

Svenfan1234 · 02-04-2020, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

Sony did do a commendable job with the DVD's of Bewitched. The season 8 episodes have two added bonuses, the Elizabeth Montgomery intros before each episode, and the "Bewitched will be back in a moment" bumpers before the final/tag scenes.

Oh, nice. I didn't even know about that. It would be nice if they could restore the correct opening & sponsors to the DVDs but I honestly don't see that happening. Season 8 is probably my least favorite season of Bewitched because of all the remakes. I much prefer the early Dick York seasons.

1960'sTVfan · 02-04-2020, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Svenfan1234

Oh, nice. I didn't even know about that. It would be nice if they could restore the correct opening & sponsors to the DVDs but I honestly don't see that happening. Season 8 is probably my least favorite season of Bewitched because of all the remakes. I much prefer the early Dick York seasons.

By season 8 I imagine they were running out of new ideas for scripts so they rehashed some of the previous ones. I also prefer the York seasons but the Sargent seasons have their moments with several good episodes.

stevea · 02-04-2020, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greenbeans

Antenna TV is basically an infomercial station at this point. It is unwatchable. No-one cares about the cuts. I was too young to watch Burns & Allen, but lately started watching some shows. Right in the middle of a joke - cut to endless legal commercials. It is bad. Not worth the aggravation. IMO, they are the worst of the retro stations. I have noticed MeTV has started running more and more promos for it's shows. Just show the show I'm watching.

Antenna sometimes has what I call mini-infomercials, and they're extremely annoying. They run about 5 minutes. Mute button is an absolute must, especially the attorney one. There's another one for some spray on makeup, and Lifelock.

The cutting right in the middle of a word is a common problem, and there is some sync problem with local ads, where the local channel and Antenna clocks don't match. It seems to affect primarily the middle break. It needs to be fixed but no one seems to care.

Crusinforabrusin2.5 · 02-04-2020, 10:47 PM

That's why I buy DVDs and watch them on there. Even the Diginets can't be trusted anymore.

munstercity · 02-05-2020, 10:53 AM

It's really a shame these shows are getting butchered for more infomercial commercials.
I had high hopes that METV would have gone the route of TVLand in the early days. TVLand ran the shows in episodic order and UNCUT.
METV isn't butchering credits but their shows are running at 22:30 or 44/45:00 like everyone else's syndicated episodes. (well except for LOGO)
The latest is FETV which is completely cutting credits out of some of its shows (Green Acres for example)
Thank goodness for DVD and Bluray releases of many series, and here's hoping more come out to. At least for the most part those are UNCUT or at least closer to the original length than what is being shown on television these days.

torcan · 04-10-2020, 06:56 PM

I was in the States in February and saw some reruns on Atenna TV. I was disappointed to see how they were treating this (and other) shows.

I guess this is the way things are now - nobody seems to care about closing credits anymore

02-04-2020, 03:04 PM	#1
cfr1970 Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 13, 2017 Location: Kissimmee, Florida Posts: 3,368	Antenna TV butchering Bewitched :( They're getting much worse with their cutting of the shows. Today it was obvious they began the show after a scene had already started and before that scene even finished, they faded out to the opening credits. It's getting to the point where the shows are becoming UNWATCHABLE!!!

02-04-2020, 03:49 PM	#2
Svenfan1234 Member Forum Star Join Date: Dec 12, 2015 Posts: 11,200	They've been butchering Bewitched since they started airing it with airing heavily edited versions at 22 1/2 minutes. Logo is even worse with 19 minute episodes of Bewitched but I'm not sure they even air Bewitched anymore. I have the complete series DVD which is completely unedited so it doesn't matter to me.
	__________________ [

02-04-2020, 04:26 PM	#4
merlinjones Member Forum Regular Join Date: Dec 30, 2019 Location: los ángeles Posts: 933	Bewitched and Jeannie really need to move back to Me-TV where the shows were treated like the crown jewels they are.

02-04-2020, 05:01 PM	#5
1960'sTVfan Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 30, 2009 Posts: 6,106	That's unfortunate if Antenna TV is chopping up the Bewitched episodes. These retro channels just continue getting worse so I seldom watch them anymore. Uncut episodes of Bewitched run a little over 25 minutes, 25:20 seems to about be the average run time per episode. Sony did a pretty good job with the DVD's, episodes appear to be uncut, if anything is edited it is minor.

02-04-2020, 06:15 PM	#6
Greenbeans Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Oct 13, 2018 Posts: 197	Antenna TV is basically an infomercial station at this point. It is unwatchable. No-one cares about the cuts. I was too young to watch Burns & Allen, but lately started watching some shows. Right in the middle of a joke - cut to endless legal commercials. It is bad. Not worth the aggravation. IMO, they are the worst of the retro stations. I have noticed MeTV has started running more and more promos for it's shows. Just show the show I'm watching.

02-04-2020, 10:47 PM	#13
Crusinforabrusin2.5 Gone for now, but I'll be back Frequent Poster Join Date: Jul 17, 2019 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 451	That's why I buy DVDs and watch them on there. Even the Diginets can't be trusted anymore.

02-05-2020, 10:53 AM	#14
munstercity Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Oct 07, 2000 Location: 1313 Mockingbird Lane Posts: 56	It's really a shame these shows are getting butchered for more infomercial commercials. I had high hopes that METV would have gone the route of TVLand in the early days. TVLand ran the shows in episodic order and UNCUT. METV isn't butchering credits but their shows are running at 22:30 or 44/45:00 like everyone else's syndicated episodes. (well except for LOGO) The latest is FETV which is completely cutting credits out of some of its shows (Green Acres for example) Thank goodness for DVD and Bluray releases of many series, and here's hoping more come out to. At least for the most part those are UNCUT or at least closer to the original length than what is being shown on television these days.

04-10-2020, 06:56 PM	#15
torcan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: May 04, 2009 Location: Toronto Posts: 154	I was in the States in February and saw some reruns on Atenna TV. I was disappointed to see how they were treating this (and other) shows. I guess this is the way things are now - nobody seems to care about closing credits anymore