Are these shows a half hour or an hour… or both?
Do you know which shows switched from 30 minutes to a full hour?
The prevailing wisdom in television is that half-hour timeslots are generally used for more lighthearted shows with dramas needing a full hour. That may seem like the case today but back in the 1960s, the length of a program really had no relation to the subject matter.
Action packed, dramatic Westerns were sometimes only 30 minutes while variety shows provided laughs for a full hour. Sometimes a show started in a half-hour slot but were increased to an hour after becoming successful.
Here are 20 classic TV shows. Can you guess whether each one aired as a half hour or hour program? Be careful, some might be both!
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How long are episodes of Bonanza?
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How long are episodes of The Brady Bunch?
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How long are episodes of Perry Mason?
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How long are episodes of Star Trek?
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How long are episodes of Gilligan’s Island?
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How long are episodes of The Love Boat?
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How long are episodes of The Addams Family?
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How long are episodes of The Rifleman?
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How long are episodes of The Waltons?
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How long are episodes of Adam-12?
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Except for the finale, how long are episodes of M*A*S*H?
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How long are episodes of The Jetsons?
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How long are episodes of Gunsmoke?
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How long are episodes of The Fugitive?
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How long are episodes of the 1960s Dragnet?
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How long are episodes of The Big Valley?
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How long are episodes of Lost in Space?
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How long are episodes of The Twilight Zone?
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How long are episodes of Maverick?
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How long are episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel?
Are these shows a half hour or an hour… or both?
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Most of those stories in hour shows couldn't be told in less than 30 minutes. Although maybe LIS could've pared it down.
The hour-long Danger Man aired in the US as Secret Agent starting in 1965. Johnny Rivers sang a new theme song (US version only) called Secret Agent Man.
The “spinoff” was The Prisoner and aired in the US in the summer of 1968.
and 60 minute episodes. Some of the two hour ones occurred when Universal took two one
hour(48 minutes sans commercials) episodes and edited them together, some so badly done
it's confusing to watch them. They typically would film an explanatory "bridge" between them
by using over and over again a shot of Chief Clifford from behind, at his desk, asking McCloud
about the two story threads. It was another actor's voice dubbed in.
There were a few extended Rockford Files that ran 90 minutes, so they used footage from
different prior chases to create new chase scenes that went on and on and
on, till they had enough filler to make a two parter Rockford Files, thus earning more bucks
as it was now not one but two more episodes for the syndication package.