Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Program Credits on TV

This is topic Program Credits on TV in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Peter Castle (Member # 1997) on 10-23-2004, 08:46 PM:

I'm not sure whether this is limited to Australian TV but there is a distnct trend here for TV stations to modify the credits for TV shows and movies. This might involve reworking the credits completely and playing them in one quarter of the screen, occupying the rest of the the screen with commercials about upcoming programs, or just accelerating the credits and/or showing them in the bottom quarter of the screen, again with promos occupying the rest.
Don't the TV stations have the same requirements as cinemas to show all the credits in the form they are provided?

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-23-2004, 09:12 PM:

Apparently not. Modified credits are a big thing here too, on TV shows as well as movies on TV. Just gotta squeeze out every last millisecond of promotion and advertising time that you can these days. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-23-2004, 09:46 PM:

Doesn't syndicated shows get a couple of extra minutes chopped off of them as well?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-24-2004, 07:25 PM:

Yes, they do. I remember when CBS wanted Norman Lear to cut 2 minutes out of each episode of "All in the Family" for syndication. He didn't want the episodes compromised. Finally CBS told him they were going to sell it no matter what, and if he didn't cooperate they would make the cuts themselves, so he finally relented and made his own cuts.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 10-24-2004, 07:37 PM:

I remember an article not too long ago that quoted someone saying that some first run shows are cut even, by some machine that can remove a frame from each shot, making it so subtle you dont notice, and that enables them another 30 seconds to 1 minute of advertising I think, as was quoted in the article.

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 10-24-2004, 07:47 PM:

What I have noticed recently: On back-to-back "Law & Order" episodes, the final credits run lightning-fast and utterly unreadable in a postage-stamp-size area of the bottom ("banner promo text" fills up the rest of the bottom strip) while the intro to the next episode plays in the rest of the screen - aaaaargh!

Not that I'm a diehard credits-lover, but if you gotta broadcast them, shouldn't you gotta broadcast them legibly?

Unless I'm mistaken, I think I've seen feature-film credits done the same way, too small to read and MUCH speeded-up.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 10-25-2004, 08:51 AM:

ITV (in the UK) has made new versions some program credits to fill half the screen (with program 'information' on the other half).

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-25-2004, 07:59 PM:

The SuperStation in Atlanta got in trouble with the syndicators back in the early 1980's when they were chopping off the end credits of stuff they ran like Ozzie And Harriet, I Love Lucy, and The Addams Family, (three of my favorites, BTW)

The remedy?

Whack out more of the show to make room for the complete credits, which they did.

I think its insane the way they run feature credits on TV.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 10-31-2004, 01:35 PM:

One of the Cheech and Chong movies had a bit with them doing a TV show in which the credits, literally, sped up into a blur at the end. I loved it!

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-31-2004, 07:53 PM:

In the old days there were times when the credits really did fly along. On all the game and talk shows I did, we'd use the credits (and the prize sponsor plugs on the game shows) as a variable bumper to make the overall running time come out to whatever we needed. In the days before Chyrons we did it by tilting a camera down the credits, which were just white Letraset letters on black card stock. The AD would give the camera operator the time and the operator would adjust the tilt rate to make it work, with the AD counting down over the PL. There were some days when you'd need an Ampex slomo to see your name fly by.

What was fun was to listen to Jay Stewart do the sponsor plugs on Let's Make a Deal. We'd get to the end of a show and the AD would figure how much time we had to fill. Jay would look at the time and the amount of copy he had to read, and adjust his speaking rate accordingly. In all the LMAD shows we taped at the Las Vegas Hilton I don't remember ever having to do a second take or a retake on those. You could tell he had a little experience! [Big Grin]