A colleague and I were just reminiscing on Saved By the Bell (he took the quiz while home sick yesterday) and how if you were an adolescent in the late 80s/early 90s, you could watch four episodes back to back on TBS and TNT (?) after school (then California Dreams, if you were so inclined), although there was the weird five minute delay for TBS shows. Remember that? When TBS started shows at five past the hour or 35 past the hour? Why did they do that? Can anyone solve this Unsolved Mystery now that Robert Stack has passed on (R.I.P)?
update: MYSTERY SOLVED!
Lazer e-mailed me this:
On June 29, 1981, TBS began to use "Turner Time"[5]. While other television offerings generally began at the top and bottom of each hour, TBS decided to begin airing programs five minutes later, at :05 and :35.
By using "Turner Time," TBS programs were listed under their own time entry in TV Guide, thus providing more exposure to the channel's programming. It also encouraged channel surfers who couldn't find anything interesting to watch at the top of the hour, to still be able to watch a TBS program without missing the first few minutes. Most importantly, since shows ended five minutes later than normal, it usually encouraged viewers to continue watching TBS rather than flip to watch another program already in progress.
TBS started to cut back Turner Time in 1997 from and scrapped it completely by 2000. TBS now schedules programs at the top and bottom of the hour (excluding Seinfeld on Tuesday evenings which airs at 9:15 and 9:45 p.m.; this is due to Sex and the City's length and the fact that commercials didn't air on its original network HBO).
Thanks, Lazer!
2 comments:
Mystery Solved...they did it so they can stand out in TV Guides so that people will flip to their station. And unfortunately, I am not making that up.
That Ted Turner is crazy like a fox! If I could recuit people to be members of my own family, him and Bill Murray would be my uncles.
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