Questions About "Fade to Black" Cuts in Sitcoms? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Jack1000 · 07-05-2003, 01:07 PM

Guys,

As we all know, it is now common practice for local syndicates and TV Land to reduce all sitcoms from their original 25-26 minute lengths to between 22-24 minutes to allow for more commercial time, or just to annoy the shi* out of people who hate having their classics tampered with.

You see a great deal of quick "fade to black" where one scene ends and another scene will often start in the middle of a line. Current runs of Green Acres (on my local station here), Gilligans Island, and Brady Bunch employ this practice a lot. It is assumed that when we see a quick fade to black that something is missing that was included in the original master print.

My question is, is this always the case that something is missing? My friends have VHS versions of shows that have "fade to blacks" in them. (Not sure about DVD versions) If something wouldn't be missing from the original print, why would a quick "fade to black" exist in the first place?

Jack

Freakzilla · 07-06-2003, 12:58 AM

I think when you see a fade to black during a scene or between scenes, there is something missing. Usually, a show only fades to black when they go to commercial. The last time I saw an edits like that was with Night Court and NewsRadio on A&E.

07-05-2003, 01:07 PM	#1
Jack1000 Member Senior Member Join Date: Dec 05, 2001 Posts: 2,055	Questions About "Fade to Black" Cuts in Sitcoms? Guys, As we all know, it is now common practice for local syndicates and TV Land to reduce all sitcoms from their original 25-26 minute lengths to between 22-24 minutes to allow for more commercial time, or just to annoy the shi* out of people who hate having their classics tampered with. You see a great deal of quick "fade to black" where one scene ends and another scene will often start in the middle of a line. Current runs of Green Acres (on my local station here), Gilligans Island, and Brady Bunch employ this practice a lot. It is assumed that when we see a quick fade to black that something is missing that was included in the original master print. My question is, is this always the case that something is missing? My friends have VHS versions of shows that have "fade to blacks" in them. (Not sure about DVD versions) If something wouldn't be missing from the original print, why would a quick "fade to black" exist in the first place? Jack

07-06-2003, 12:58 AM	#2
Freakzilla Member Forum Regular Join Date: May 23, 2000 Location: Portage, Michigan, United States Posts: 556	I think when you see a fade to black during a scene or between scenes, there is something missing. Usually, a show only fades to black when they go to commercial. The last time I saw an edits like that was with Night Court and NewsRadio on A&E.