Burning Thoughts

I recently got Amazon Prime and have watched some old show.

The 1^st episode of Star Trek (1966) lasted 50 minutes.  Hour-long shows now are about 42 minutes. Eight more minutes of commercials.

The 1^st episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) lasted 26 minutes. Half-an-hour shows now are about 22 minutes of show time.

Commercials have grown from 15% of allotted show time to 30% in the past 47 years !

And I’m not even factoring in some channel shenanigans that now run half-hour shows in 33 minute slots. Even worse, in the middle of the night, some channels allocate 36 minutes for a 30 minute show which already has 8 minutes of commercial!

Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner Star Trek photo. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons