I've noticed that there are posts from time to time in which the poster complains about there being more commercials than show. I have been recording several different series of sci-fi genre type shows and I can tell you one thing for absolutely certain.....the amount of time a show usually has to tell a story, get the beginning title sequence in AND roll the end credits is roughly 42 to 44 minutes for an hour episode. That leaves 14 to 16 minutes total in the hour for commercials. Half hour shows usually have 21-22 minutes of content with 8 to 9 minutes of commercials. This has been the standard format for a very long time now and the only thing that would change your perception of time from week to week is.....I've noticed in a couple episodes of Heroes this past season that there are times when they show a 5 or 6 minute segment in the middle of the episode instead of a 9 or 10 minute one. This makes it look like they are taking more commercial breaks when in actuality they are not. They are really rearranging the number of minutes a commercial break will take. I think they do it for dramatic reasons because of the story line-- the story reaches a climactic point....naturally....go to commercial.

TV shows used to have larger blocks of time when it came to show content i.e. when I was a kid you used to get 13 to 15 minute blocks of time for an hour show leaving about 8 to 10 minutes for commercials. Since some stupid study came out in the 70s stating that Americans have short attention spans, TV networks tried to accomodate with shorter segments of show and a couple minutes more an hour for commercials. The downside to this was there were some scenes cut out of older shows to accomodate for the increase in commercials- most scenes were insignificant to the overall story so no one really noticed. I have recorded the entire series of Frazier and put it to DVD with no commercials. Each episode lasts 22 minutes (for the most part) and I was doing the same thing with Wings... not the show about airplanes but the one done by the same creators of Taxi, Cheers and Frazier. There has been another change that I've noticed just this last couple weeks that may be the new trend for half hour and possibly hour long shows. On the USA network they run Wings early in the morning. There is an extra commercial break placed in a spot that didn't originally have a commercial break (it's noticeable and awkward). I have not recorded an episode yet to check the final time because I like them to collect so I can watch a bunch in a row while I record them. I haven't noticed if anything has been cut either but I will let you know after this coming weekend when I can get around to recording a few.

In the meantime- it may seem like there are more commercials when you are really into a story. But take my word for it- the times rarely change regarding the amount of commercials to the content of the show. The only current show I watch that has a completely different approach right now is Fringe. There are fewer commercials so there is actually a couple minutes more show. They do spend a little more time on the opening title sequence than Heroes or Lost, but there are fewer commercials. I suspect this was a deal hashed out by the producers to have a little more time to tell stories and a great way for the network to jack the commercial prices up if the show is a success (which it appears to be).

This ends my diatribe on the times of episodes on Heroes. Let's hope the next season will always be better than the last!

Stormy