@@momogal04 yeah, I totally agree with you there. I heard that the channel creator can pick where the ads go... no idea if that's true.. I saw it in another video. Anyone know if that's a thing? 🤔❤
The reason soap operas were called that was because they were on in the daytime and sponsored by laundry detergents, etc., advertising to the audience of housewives who were watching. This predates TV, back to radio days.
In the 1980s they were HUGE, especially with younger people (which I was one in those days). Also, we had like maybe 4 channels at the time. More if you lived in a big city.
I love commercials/ads that are funny. I mean companies pay millions every year for superbowl commercials and those are the ones that ppl want to watch. If they did that all the time (tastefully for the kiddos) then I think they would sell better. Wait..what video am I on?? Oh yeah. Tv. Ok. lol 🙃
Mr. Rogers and those puppets creeped me out as a kid. I was way more into Sesame St. and Captain Kangaroo. :) Mr. Rogers was a lovely man though. Just not a fan when I was a kid.
@@elgatofelix8917 People in America know who he is without seeing his show though lol. He's a television icon, and his popularity as a person only grows and grows every year, even after his death.
@@robertpetrovich1923 I'm not autistic but it still confuses me. But I don't watch a whole lot of TV, so I'm not accustomed to seeing the same actors in different roles.
I have a weak spot for the original 1950s-1960s Perry Mason show and have all the DVDs. The first seasons had 39 or 36 one hour episodes, with 5-6 minutes of commercials per show. Later seasons gradually dropped the number of episodes and gradually increased the commercial breaks. Reruns of early episodes trim about 5 minutes to fit the current amount of commercials.
@@MissyFaith1971 I agree with you! Growing up, when an advertisement came on, you knew there was enough time to grab a bag of chips and hurry back to the TV. Now you can practically cook a three course meal during a commercial break and get back in time to watch your show!
Yeah, and I remember when RU-vid introduced double ads... Before, it was only ONE AD per ad "break"? Is it even really an ad break anymore, or an ad annoyance? Now, I don't usually watch cable, but I do on vacation when that's what's free and available, and I've noticed that these ad breaks are so long! And the Disney Channel has all of this extra stuff like a celebration for like, every week and pretty long shorts that are fun the first time you watch them but there aren't too many of them and they get boring if you are forced to watch them while you're waiting, it makes the "cooking a three-course meal " offer sound promising.
The silly 3rd break they now have on commercial TV channels a few years back after it you get about 1 scene of a drama show...then the end creds.Thankfully,the only experience I get of US ad patterns is here on RU-vid!...we used to get the US soaps Primetime back in the era of "Dallas",that stopped when that ended.🎩
Except you'd have to have over active bladder to use as many commercial breaks an hour show has! I personally can't stand it and only watch Prime video or Netflix. If there's something I need to watch on regular TV, I put the show on pause for 20 minutes so I can fast forward through the commercials!
had to laugh at that because, when we first got cable (my first experience with watching no break tv), I had trouble figuring out when to go pee - I'd get an urge, and instinctively start holding it, waiting for the commercial that was sure to happen any minute, or waiting for a pause in action that would be good to stop at lol.
The thing that really got me about ad breaks in the US compared to the UK is that in the UK, we will switch to program title still image for a couple of seconds before the ads start and again before the program re-starts. Where as in the US, I noticed that the program simply cuts to the ad. So you get the cop pointing the gun and saying freeze. This cuts to a voiceover saying 'do you suffer from piles? Ask your doctor for Pilex'.
_"Lawrence for 14th Doctor?"_ BBC casting is little more than a box-ticking exercise these days. Laurence is too white, too male and too heterosexual to get the job.
One of my husband's and my all time faves! We have the series on dvd, along w/Grace & Favor (sadly, only 12 eps total on that one :-( ) and we watch it over and over and over. It just never gets old!!
@J LA seth, conan and colbert are better, they are very knowledgeable and articulate interviewers. Graham is more show biz in that he has a large and easy in-studio audience (they laugh and cheer at most of the stories and jokes) his show also has a considerable longer turnaround time, multiple days, it seems. american hosts have a couple of hours to edit and air the show.
@@joshhill5932 Yes, I enjoy NPR, and I would hope that I am intelligently informed, though being intellectual is not a bad thing, however much some people seem to view the term as a pejorative.
The one nice thing about commercial breaks is that it gives a convenient time to go to the bathroom or get a snack without missing anything. When I watch documentaries on PBS, I always feel like I can't go anywhere for two hours or I'll miss something interesting! I'd always assumed that the low episode count on British shows was a quality control thing, but it seems I was incorrect! Honestly, once a show has run its course it should end, rather than continuing on for another five seasons. Keeps it from going stale. Plus, re-runs and streaming are a thing so it's not like people can't watch it anymore!
I've noticed that some American documentaries include segments like: "coming up after the break we see how a thing happened" then you get the ads and then once it starts again you get "before the break you saw how previous thing happened" before continuing... removing the breaks and these unnecessary additions and suddenly an hours documentary becomes about 35 minutes of actual content. Annoyingly these segeents are still included on Netflix etc so you get these jarring after/before interruptions every 10 minutes
That was amazing timing. Lawrence said that the out of nowhere approach to advertising ruins the continuity of the show... and then RU-vid played an ad.
The frequency of commercials on US tv was a huge shock to me, it's constant, feels like half of the time spent is watching adverts. Also the drug commercials, straight up seems like something that would be written for south park as a joke.
Years ago we'd just see commercials for over the counter meds like "Dristan" for allergies, aspirin/pain relievers, Midol etc...but now they've done gone plumb crazy with all the meds and drugs commercials on tv. It's enough to make a hypochondriac weep!
Is it any wonder that the USA which comprises 4.5% of the global population consumes over 50% of all prescribed drugs in the world? The rate for painkillers is even higher.
It's Bouquet! Sheridan! Tea, Elizabeth? It's my sister, Violet. She has a swimming pool and room for a pony. There you go, I've written an episode for you.
@@jiros00 they did do a one-off reboot thing a couple years ago, but it was hyacinth and her sisters back during the 1950s. I liked it, but since it was only one episode, I watched it and said "why?" I think they probably had enough material for 6 to 10 episodes of it but they didn't make any more
I appreciate the fact that British Shows have a beginning, middle and end and may only last a few episodes. Sometimes I think the problem with American TV and its obsession with syndication is that you get uneven story telling. An American show can be great but then there are periods where it feels like the show is spinning its wheels in place.
@@DrThemoWorm at least for me watching TV or reading a book, the overarching purpose past entertainment is to escape reality and burn time. So even if a show has lower quality, having more episodes means I can spend less time in reality looking for something to watch and more time watching. Although to be fair I watch very little television since I dislike plots focused on interpersonal relations and intrigue and prefer the Shonen style Mc vs enemy getting stronger then defeating ever stronger enemies. I know it seems childish but since I seek to escape reality watching something that mimics reality or even enhances its bad parts (interpersonal drama, political corruption etc) just doesn't fulfill my needs. I don't mind character drama i just don't want it to be the focus or primary driving force of the plot.
My original lineup when I was a kid was Keeping Up Appearances, are you being served?, Allo Allo, and Mr Bean. It was like that for years, and then they substituted a few out. As time goes by replaced Mr Bean and that became a new favorite of mine. And now 20 years later, there are no Saturday night britcoms on my PBS anymore.
I agree entirely. What a complete and utter triumph - absolute perfection. I just wish they had decided to carry on with Foyle further into the Cold War. When Hilda Pearce died, and in such a way, I was as shocked as if she had been a real person.
I used to love "Are You Being Served?" and "Keeping Up Appearances" British humor always seemed "tongue in cheek" where American humor is so "in your face"...
When my sons were young, we didn’t have cable. Saturday night we watched PBS for the Brit-Coms: Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot in the Grave, Waiting for God, and As Time Goes By.
@@planetbroccoli5405 The one good thing that came from that was the introduction of Boba Fett...and also Rifftrax. Okay two good things to come out of that.
As a flight attendant I had an English passenger on a flight from Miami to Atlanta. I asked if she enjoyed her visit. She was sad it had rained a lot. I asked what she did and she told me she had watched a lot of tv. I had a feeling I knew what her opinion would be but asked anyway. No surprise, her response was, “Too many adverts.” I cracked up and agreed completely!
@@jb888888888 Yes, "Soap Operas" are expensive to make due to the fact they are daily, not weekly like most "prime time" shows. A single soap opera episode might cost less than a ingle prime time tv episode, But they have to make 5 episodes a week. The daytime "talk: shows (or WORSE, daytime "medical" shows) are MUCH cheaper to air than a real, scripted and acted TV show.
I love Mock the week and Red Dwarf. And for what we PAY for cable in the U.S. there should be NO commercials. If they do run commercials T.V. should be free like it was in the old days.
My favorites from a 43 year old Yank. Faulty Towers, Are You Being Served, Upstairs Downstairs, Steptoe and Son, Man About the House, George and Mildred, Till Death do us Part, Keeping Up Appearances. Red Dwarf, Benny Hill (my wife is Chilean and he is beloved there also) Danger Mouse, Mind Your Language and the Black Adder
The Graham Norton Show (UK version, of course) is so good. The guest interaction is key: Mark Ruffalo insulting Josh Widdicombe, and never forget Miriam Margolyes (?) completely dumbfounding Matthew Perry with her Laurence Olivier story. Just a few of the many golden moments on that show.
As an American, I have liked a number of British programmes: The Good Life (Good Neighbors here), To The Manor Born, Butterflies, As Time Goes By, Only When I Laugh, Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, Barbara, The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents, Monty Python ... and some others I'm not thinking of right now.
PBS has always been a great outlet for British shows.My mom loves Keeping Up Appearances. I love Monty Python and Fawlty Towers.The classic Doctor Who even caught my attention for a short time.
I am an American who doesn’t watch talk shows anymore except for Graham Norton. Just plain fun, funny, and relatively free of American politics. I was originally surprised at the amount of Americans on the show. I love the group format.
when promoting a new hollywood film to an american audience, there are a variety of talk shows to choose from. but for the british leg of the promotional tour, everyone does graham norton.
I've got to be one of the few people that truly appreciates that All Creatures Great And Small shout-out. My dad was OBSESSED with that show, and had them all recorded on VHS. He later bought the entire series on DVD, and he watches them while walking on the treadmill. 🚶🏻😂
My Sister, now a veterinary tech, loved the books. A while back I sent her a RU-vid video about the museum around Harriot's home/clinic. In it they talked about the series. My Sister said she never knew it existed. I think she may be searching for it. Oh, I did watch it on PBS.
Nope, I loved it too! But I started my journey by reading all the books first when I was a teen (late 70’s/early 80’s). A new version just started on PBS on Sunday nights.
I remember Johnny Carson used to keep guests on throughout his shows, & them interacting. I of course loved the episodes w/ Joan Embry (the animal expert, who brought all sorts of critters to the set) the best! There was even 1 time when my mom woke me in order to watch her (yup!). But yeah, I remember when there was more than guest at a time on late night talk shows.
When Carson's show was shortened from 90 to 60 minutes, a lot of the interaction between guests disappeared(a major exception was when Rod Hull's Emu attacked Richard Pryor at the end of the show).
@@Markle2k Letterman killed it first. (And I say that as a person firmly in the Dave corner re the Dave vs Jay debate.) Johnny had his couch and Dave had two chairs, the second of which was really only used when the "guest" was a double act such as Siskel & Ebert.
First thing that comes to my mind with "Panel Shows" is "Who's Line is it Anyways?" I ordered the UK version just to see the difference, MUCH better over there! I'm still a Dr. Who and "Planet Earth" series guy at heart!
More representative of an average UK "panel show" is _8 out of 10 Cats_ , _8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown_ or _Would I Lie to You_ There are also more specialized versions like _Mock the Week_ _QI_ and _Have I Got News for You_ that more or less break the game show and teams format
@@Markle2k I am a massive, massive fan of "Would I Lie to You?" and "Mock the Week" and am super grateful Britbox allows me to watch those two shows here in the U.S. I love the seasons of "Have I Got News for You" that were hosted by Angus Deayton, though I should be more open to the ones that came afterward. I did see the clip where they showed Ian Hislop's cameo role in that one Greek TV drama, though.
it's true, however Whose Line was at its peak when it was still a british show but filming in america with a lot of american and canadian performers alongside the brits. They really had it down to a science but without it becoming a _formula_ and good lord they would come up with the longest, most perfect SONGS. Josie Lawrence and Mike McShane could give Weird Al a run for his money and they made it up on the spot. the ABC era was certainly good too, it let its hair down a lot and got a bit meta. some running gags were allowed, it was fun. the original purely-british Whose Line was fantastic and unfiltered, but also a little too stilted in some parts. and the current show... exists, and still makes me laugh.
Dave Allen at Large, The Two Ronnies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (original one from the 70s), The Good Neighbors (The Good Life in the UK). Those are just a handful of British television shows I used to enjoy way back when.
most of my favorite British shows are old ones like Benny Hill, Are you Being Served, Keeping up Appearances, and David Allen show these are just a few of my favorites that I will watch over and over when I can find them and there are others I like as well I am in the USA and well there are a ton of USA shows I love CSI, NCIS, Blue Bloods, there are just too many to name lol
So many British shows to love! I grew up on Monty Python, and Blackadder graced my teens. I was addicted to Upstairs Downstairs for a while. I think my current favorites are Call the Midwife, Father Brown, and Doctor Who.
Years ago I got hooked on a show called "Waiting for God." I've tried to find it to watch again, but haven't had any luck. I also enjoy "Doctor Who," "Keeping Up Appearances," and "The Vicar of Dibly."
My favorite show by far is Doctor Who. I’m American, but have been obsessed with Dr Who for years and have seen every episode. I own a Tardis mug and sleep with a Dr Who blanket. I use a Dr Who lunch box and carry a Tardis purse. People never know what they are. I quit explaining. Maybe I was British in another life? BTW- favorite movie : Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I feel like the biggest difference is that British shows have much more brutal finales. In the US when a show is ending, we marry off the two leads and have them move away together. Brits are like, "The show is ending? KILL. THEM. ALL!"
I think in Britain, the one or two people who wrote the show sometimes want to avoid the possibility of execs nagging them to bring it back, so they kill characters off. In the US, the team of writers might be instructed by the network to keep the possibility of reboots open by keeping them alive.
After the Blake's 7 finale and the Robin of Sherwood finale, someone wrote a fanfic called "Miserable Depressing Endings" that did a hilarious run through of possible British-style endings for then-popular American shows.
Quantity VS Quality I'd rather have a short, amazing series than one that just gets dragged on longer than it should've been in an attempt to make money. British TV has this down pat.
There are so many lines, and the show started out with them in episode 1... but this one makes me laugh the most: Bomb Disposal : [referring to the bomb disposal robot] I'm just having a couple of problems with it. Moss : What kind of operating system does it use? Bomb Disposal : It's er... Vista. Moss : We're going to die!!!!!!
There is no American SF - only Space Westerns. It is painful to watch how great novels are butchered into some crap with Keanu Reeves or Will Smith. Asimov, Herbert, Dick and others are spinning in their graves.
Most of the Sci-Fi filming is done in the UK and the talent on the last Star Wars films was mostly but not solely British. And funding for the big budget films come from China...
@@jjlasne What is your point? It is still a Hollywood production. There is no difference between Stars wars, Rambo or Die Hard, not to talk about superhero films. All are just western films with no regard to science.
When we started streaming from NetFlix I found many British shows to enjoy, everything from "Murder in Paradise" to "Rosemary and Thyme". I watched "Foyle's War" and "Miranda" and a bunch of others. And one thing I really enjoy about British TV is that here in the U.S. no one like Miranda Hart would ever have their own show, and that woman is brilliant; and no one would ever make a program about two middle-aged women traveling around fixing up people's gardens. I've watched enough British drama to know Claudie Blakely is the spitting image of one of my uncles. After NF started making garbage I gave them up and now have Prime but can't access any of the good British TV now without paying an extra monthly sub and that's not gonna happen.
@@theresabradley4716 I couldn’t go to sleep the first time I saw that episode. I had to switch to Food Network for quite awhile before I’d turn out the lights. 😂
Sherlock took me by surprise. I was Holmes purist who felt that the only honest portrayal was Jeremy Brett's back in the 80s. But Ben Cumberbatch (with Martin Freeman's superb comic timing) sold me on the new series. AC Doyle's characters are far more robust than I gave them credit for!
I love the British show Miranda. I found it a few years ago streaming when I was looking to see what else Tom Ellis from Lucifer had done. I've watched all the episodes many times and even had my daughter come over and watch and we laughed our asses off. Such fun! (Miranda reference) Now America has a version of it in Call Me Kat with Mayim Bailik, and it's not near as funny.
Of the successful UK programs that were tried in the USA, ‘Coupling’ is an example and that UK program is still so very funny..... not so good was the short-lived USA version. Another that I tried is the USA version ‘Ghosts’......... nope, not very funny at all IMO.
Back in the 1970's the guest knew how to contribute to the show, by aiding the host setting up jokes, helping the other guests in different ways, nowadays I'm not too sure some of these A-Listers are the type of team players needed to help carry this out.
I first learned of the British TV license from a Monty Python skit back in the 70s. The shortness of a series or season surprised me a bit when I learned of that contrast. Both do good (mostly) if differing styles of production.
Money was the reason. Airing Christmas specials before say December 21st would ensure advertisers could get money from the viewer who would then go out and finish their Christmas present shopping. Airing a Christmas special on Dec 24th would be a waste of money.
We also get the 2 day bank holiday at Christmas. Plus a lot of businesses close down between the Christmas and New Year bank holidays. So we tend to think of Christmas as lasting for a week.
Check out the Filmrise channel her on RU-vid. They have every single Midsomer Murder and I'm watching them in order. I'm up to series 10, fun to see how the show changed over time. Very few ads if any, and they're super-short!
Fawlty Towers is OK but it has nothing on Seinfeld or Friends or Curb your enthusiasm and so on. Especially if you lived in those cities and know how real the situations can actually be.
The Prisoner was my favorite. And on the day I retired from my US government job a few years ago, the theme from The Prisoner was at the top of my playlist as I drove off the base. 😉
It was apparently much more common in the 80's and other years before I was born or cared about talk shows. But the one on one format was always its own thing and I'm curious as to why it became THE formula for late night. Especially considering that, at the same time the morning talk shows started ballooning out to 5 or more people, which is objectively far too many, especially for something like The View, where the main host wouldn't or couldn't moderate.
My favorite British tv shows: Are you being served? ... Keeping up Appearances ... Call the Midwife ... IT Crowd .. and of course, Benny Hill ( I am American )
Hands down my favorite show ever is Call the Midwife. So well written and they are so good about making it fit the Period. I love the Christmas gift of an special episode. I just wish they would make more episodes per season.
There are many British shows I love. Some of them include Mr. Bean, Red Dwarf, Monty Python and Keeping Up Appearances. Also thanks to hulu, I was able to see the original UK “Shameless.”
Back in the 70's and 80's the hour long shows were upto 52 minutes in the time since it has shrunk that much to where most hour long shows are 42 now. I like the shorter runs of british shows because they aren't scraping the bottom of the barrel to pad a season out. We had sort of panel shows in the 60's and 70's. I love everything dr who and have all the surviving classic episodes and the new and torchwood, sja adventures, ect also like Life on Mars, Blakes 7, and survivors.
Do you like the old Inspector Barnaby or the more recent one better? I like Barnaby /Jones combo...which is coincidentally an old American mystery show that starred Buddy Ebsen as Barnaby Jones!
Now you've got me missing QI. I enjoy panel shows a lot. Kinda like podcasts but David Mitchell and government funded. I do also enjoy some older shows like Vicar of Dibley.
I absolutely LOVE Red Dwarf, mate, lol. I'm American, btw. I started the show years ago, wondering, "where's the rest of it? Why only 52 episodes?" Of course, that was during the HUGE gulf between Series 8 and 9. I felt it wasted potential, only 6 or 8 episodes a series...
My wife is a fan of the British police shows. I don't keep up though, and the only one I recognize from one time to another is the lady detective that dresses like Paddington Bear.
The show's name is Vera, and it's one of my faves too. Vera the lead detective is played by the wonderful Brenda Blethyn (Mrs. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice 2005). Her character reminds me of Columbo-- same rumpled appearance and folksie style with the witnesses and suspects.
I got sucked into a British crime drama series called "Rosemary & Thyme", about two women "of a certain age" who went about solving crimes while running their gardening business. Despite myself, I enjoyed it, in particular because the two leads were definitely beyond the eye-candy stage, & one was rather heavy - but both were lovely. British TV seems to see and appreciate the beauty in older women moreso than TV on our side of the pond. Three words: Dame Judi Dench!
The Young Ones, Mr. Bean, and Monty Python are my favorites. My earliest childhood memories are watching Monty Python with my uncle...it may be the reason my sense of humor is a bit warped.
I enjoy your videos. Graham Norton has a great show! I ceased watching off-the-air TV many years ago, and buy my programs on DVD, 95% of which are UK programs. The Brits do a much better job, in my opinion (I am American). Panel shows, which you mentioned, were quite popular in the U.S. in the 1950's, when I was a teenager. Many are available on RU-vid (What's My Line, I've Got a Secret, etc.), and shows how old I am! Check out some of those old U.S. panel shows, and you might enjoy them. Keep up the good work!
As an American, I actually prefer British shows sometimes like Keeping Up Appearances and Doc Martin. I appreciate the fact that they hire real humans that look and act like real humans, not scripted, plastic ones like we do here. There's a very honest factor. Also, Americans tend to be heavy-handed and over the top when it comes to drama or humor. I appreciate the simplicity of British shows and the dry humor. Another thing, despite what my wife and son say, Thomas the Tank Engine is NOT the same without an English accent. I wish they kept Ringo.
