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by NoMoreNicksLeft 296 days ago
>One thing I hate about modern TV shows is that they have been further sliced into ~5-10min sequences between ad breaks,

If it is on a broadcast tv network, it's not really worth watching. Sure, there are the one or two exceptional shows, but with so much premium content, why would you want to watch that?
1 comments
red369 295 days ago
I assume you mean it's not really worth watching if it's currently on broadcast TV?

Surely there's a huge list of old broadcast TV network shows that are worth watching, and that still suffer from the ad-break problem to various degrees.

Obviously I'm pulling from a wide time-period, and I'll probably get some of these wrong because I'm not in the the US and don't quite grok the network/cable divide, but off the top of my head, I think these are/were all worth watching: Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Community, Schitt's Creek, The Office, The X-Files, various Star Trek series, Cheers

That list could be easily improved on, but I assume it's missing your point anyway if you were only talking about current broadcast network TV (if it exists :) )

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thaumasiotes 295 days ago
> I'll probably get some of these wrong because I'm not in the the US and don't quite grok the network/cable divide

Almost all of those are broadcast shows. I strongly suspect that all of them are, but I don't have personal knowledge of the entire list.

As far as I can tell, the divide is pretty straightforward:

Cable: nudity

Broadcast: everything else

In theory there's no requirement for a cable show to have nudity, but since they're allowed to, they all do.

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dragonwriter 295 days ago
> As far as I can tell, the divide is pretty straightforward:

> Cable: nudity

> Broadcast: everything else

This is almost entirely wrong; non-premium cable (which is and was always the vast majority of cable) had and observed essentially the same structure and content rules as broadcast, with ad breaks and no swearing or nudity. Premium cable where each channel or later small branded group of channels is a separate surcharge on top of the broad package tended to have no ad breaks and looser content rules.

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thaumasiotes 294 days ago
What are some shows that were made for non-premium cable?
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dragonwriter 294 days ago
Just a few examples:

Deadliest Catch (Discovery Channel, 2005-)

Monk (USA Network. 2002-2009)

Mad Men (AMC, 2007-2015)

The Shield (FX, 2002-2008)

Beavis and Butt-Head (MTV, 1993-1997 & 2011)

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umanwizard 294 days ago
24 and Breaking Bad are also very popular examples.
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