Commercial break screens

[crt89]

Remember when TV shows used to have commercial break screens/jingles?

One of my favorite series, Matlock had this. I don't think the pilot had the screen, but it started in the first season. Usually the last few notes of the theme tune was the jingle, but sometimes the dramatic music in the scene going out to the commercial would play over the screen.

When the series switched to ABC in 1992 they kept the gray screen, put a blue square around the M and played a much faster and longer version of the jingle. It was also jazzier as the theme tune was revised with a jazzier sound for ABC.

After the 1992-93 season, or perhaps during that season, the commercial screen disappeared, and was gone for the seasons thereafter.

I always wondered why that was. And it's sister show, Diagnosis Murder, which shared many guest and recurring stars, and even Ben himself in a Matlock returns episode in the late 90s, never seemed to have a commercial screen at all. Maybe because it was on CBS, I don't know.

So, were commercial screens common? I don't see them anymore except during cartoons which a member here said may have to do with the E/I guidleines requiring separation between the program and commercials. I know some soap operas say "such and such will return" in the middle of the commercial breaks. And I think some reruns show a silent screen with the shows title during the breaks, especially those that come on non-network stations.

Here is the Matlock theme from about 1988-91
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Ikh5_ndmY

This is 1992-93 which was the last one used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS_dW2Oj3Tw

[Ed in Tx]

They probably figured out they could sell all those 5 second break to commercials to advertisers.

I miss the old commercial lead-ins like they used to do, for example (If I recall correctly) The Andy Griffith Show beginning would show Opie skipping a rock across the water and a "POST" cereal logo commercial tag would appear.

[bgadow]

Easy to forget some little things like that...like full-screen credits with an upbeat announcer cutting in to tell you what was coming up or....do any of the networks still do 'Newbreaks?"

"Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Stewart & Burt Reynolds join Johnny on the Tonight Show following your late local news on most of these NBC stations..." Ah, memories!

[NowhereMan 1966]

A side note, I also remember the days when CBS would have the cue tone at the top of every hour. I remember asking Dad about it when I was a kid and he told me that tone marked the exact hour.

[NowhereMan 1966]

BTW, I also remember the bumpers ABC, CBS and NBC would play between the movies and the commercials when they ran their movies.

[Electronic M]

News radio WBBM had the hour tones until at least 6 years ago....Have not listened enough lately to know if they still do.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by bgadow

Easy to forget some little things like that...like full-screen credits with an upbeat announcer cutting in to tell you what was coming up or....do any of the networks still do 'Newbreaks?"

"Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Stewart & Burt Reynolds join Johnny on the Tonight Show following your late local news on most of these NBC stations..." Ah, memories!

They have that annoucement on METV every evening, regarding the Johnny Carson reruns, that are on later in the evening.
Naturally, they don't mention anything about the late news.

[Jeffhs]

They don't have those announcements anymore because they are out of date. TV stations and networks these days run one program right after another, with no announcements or commercials. Even station identifications are not made until well after the top of the hour, except in the case of some stations the FCC may have cited for failure to identify as close to the top of the hour as possible. The NBC station in Cleveland must have recently been cited for that, since they now identify a minute or so before the top of every hour. I don't know about the other two networks (Cleveland has affiliates of all three major networks), but I do know station three now identifies when it should, instead of throwing in an identification whenever it feels like it. I am amazed the station hasn't been cited, fined or even lost its license for that.

Another thing that bothers me is how local TV stations cut off the last few minutes of programs. I was watching the NBC news last night and the local station cut off the program just as the announcer was saying "More Americans watch NBC News..." The announcement, which I am sure every network affiliate is required to carry in its entirety, is "More Americans watch NBC News than (watch) any other news organization in the world." Are local TV network affiliates starting to do this just so they can squeeze in more commercials?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

They have that annoucement on METV every evening, regarding the Johnny Carson reruns, that are on later in the evening.
Naturally, they don't mention anything about the late news.

Mr. Carson's program is now running in syndicated reruns on cable, not on NBC. There is no announcement regarding late local news on these reruns because the cable channels do not have late local news.

BTW, NBC is so messed up these days it is almost unbelievable. No wonder the network is in fourth place (as its jingle, a parody on "NBC We're Proud", announces, the word "proud" being replaced with "LOUD!"; the jingle is on YouTube). If they don't improve, and I mean fast, they will find themselves out of business so fast it will make their heads spin. I gave up watching NBC (except for Mr. Holt's NBC Nightly News) years ago for just that reason.

I live near Cleveland; that city's NBC affiliate could go off the air tomorrow and I wouldn't miss it. NBC was once my favorite TV network, but not any longer. The programming NBC puts out night after night after . . . is trash, garbage, crap, in my opinion, although today's generation of TV viewers probably enjoy the devil out of it, since NBC is obviously programming the network for that generation and forgetting everyone else.

NBC's late night programming is just as bad, if not worse. The day NBC was sold to Comcast from GE was the beginning of the network's undoing; NBC has gone from bad to worse since, and is continuing its downward slide. I would not be surprised if, as I mentioned above, NBC finds itself out of business very soon. Too darn bad for a TV network which was America's very first broadcast television network. I wish I could get Canadian stations on my cable; I'll bet Canada's TV is one hundred times better than the guff that passes for television programming in the US in the 21st century.



Good grief.

[Titan1a]

Amen!!!

[crt89]

I think I remember CBS doing that announcement about the late show after the news or something like that not so long ago. But it may be longer ago than I thought.