Alternate television

What if instead of having three major television networks, the United States had more? They could be ABC, NBC, CBS, DBA (DuMont Broadcasting Agency), TAN (The American Network), and PBS. The Fox, UPN, and WB analouges could be KBN (Kaiser Broadcasting Network), DTN (Disney Television Network), and Fox. In this timeline, I'm imagining less sitcoms on, no reality shows, and maybe more game shows. Each network could have at least one science fiction show, with UKN showing an entire block of science fiction on Saturday nights during primetime. Primetime would be the smas in this timeline as it is in our timeline, from 8 PM EST to 11 PM EST. Late night television--such as The Tonight Show and The Late Show--would also exist; in this timeline, Letterman was appointed Carson's replacement on The Tonight Show and Leno gets a gig with somebody else, and Saturday Night Live on NBC would be around. What do you guys think?
 
I think it would be better for television shows produced in Hollywood (or Burbank) to be shown live for those in Pacific Standard Time and those audiences back East can see thing tape delayed. Screw New York and all those East Coasters!
 
David S Poepoe said:
I think it would be better for television shows produced in Hollywood (or Burbank) to be shown live for those in Pacific Standard Time and those audiences back East can see thing tape delayed. Screw New York and all those East Coasters!

Is SNL shown live in the Mountain Time Zone? Because if SNL or a SNL-analogue was filmed in Hollywood so it might be shown live here in the Central Time Zone. But that is an interesting idea. Also, what would happen if primetime started at 7 EST instead of 8?
 
Archangel Michael said:
what would happen if primetime started at 7 EST instead of 8?

The Networks experiment with that every so often, and it's just too early for people in EST/PST. It's probably too early for CST/MST, too, but there might be historical momentum for keeping them an hour off.
 
Tom Veil said:
The Networks experiment with that every so often, and it's just too early for people in EST/PST. It's probably too early for CST/MST, too, but there might be historical momentum for keeping them an hour off.

But what do they show from 7-8? They have the local news (which could be moved to before the network news) and a random assortment of the Holywood "news" shows here.
 
Archangel Michael said:
What if instead of having three major television networks, the United States had more? They could be ABC, NBC, CBS, DBA (DuMont Broadcasting Agency), TAN (The American Network), and PBS. The Fox, UPN, and WB analouges could be KBN (Kaiser Broadcasting Network), DTN (Disney Television Network), and Fox. In this timeline, I'm imagining less sitcoms on, no reality shows, and maybe more game shows. Each network could have at least one science fiction show, with UKN showing an entire block of science fiction on Saturday nights during primetime. What do you guys think?

I think part of the problem, ie. no sitcoms, etc. is the expense of producing television shows and the money that one gets from advertisers. As pointed out in the WI No Sitcoms challenge, television was the successor to radio in many ways, including format and stars. The BBC was able to produce short run series of 6-8 episodes since it was dependent upon advertising money to such a great degree.
 
I've also decided to add this to my earlier mini essays over promotion and relegation in American sports leauges and transportation. There's also going to be no Fox in this timeline.

* * * * *

Independent stations remain in most television markets to this day. Up until the mid-Nineties, most independent stations ran syndicated series, movies, and special news programs from such stations as BBC or CNN or even their own local news, and local sports. It was the lower-tier sports leagues that kept the independent stations going and keeping a small margin of profits over the years. Some independent stations, such as WNYW of New York, WGN of Chicago, and KTTV of Los Angeles, had small studios that produced original series.

But begging in the mid-Nineties, several studios were established began producing television series, mini-series, and made-for-TV-movies made exclusively for independent stations. Such hit shows as the crime drama Police Beat, political satire Executive Privilege, science fiction Beyond the Stars, and comedies What's the Problem? were produced by such studios. The Independent News Agency (INA) was founded in 1999 to bring national news directly to independent stations. This led to a boom of independent stations across the country, opening up potential markets for future sports teams.

Another interesting idea that hit independent stations was professional wrestling, which had languished for years on cable networks as TWT (Time Warner Television) but found a new home on independent stations. A new type of show called reality shows also found homes on independent stations. Some stations still produce their own material, but most still get their material either from syndicated series or from independent studios. Talk shows and soap operas similarly have found an increased market in independent stations.

Despite being labeled 'independent' stations, many independent stations are owned by larger corporations that have formed several "mini-networks". Notable examples include SBC (Sinclair Broadcasting Corporation), CTV (Cox Television), My Network TV, and TBS (Taft Broadcasting Services). Those four "mini-networks" only own somewhere between ten and twenty independent stations each out of nearly 300 independent stations. Compare that to NBC, who owns over 200 affiliates.

In recent years, there have been calls by several "mini-networks" to merge to form one larger television network. However, only a few independent stations are willing to cooperate. And independent stations still continue to show lower-tier sporting games, a long-time stable of their programming.
 
David S Poepoe said:
I think part of the problem, ie. no sitcoms, etc. is the expense of producing television shows and the money that one gets from advertisers. As pointed out in the WI No Sitcoms challenge, television was the successor to radio in many ways, including format and stars. The BBC was able to produce short run series of 6-8 episodes since it was dependent upon advertising money to such a great degree.

As I said, there are still sitcoms but not as many. Not every third television program in TTL is a sitcom as it is in OTL, and I'm invisioning more half-hour dramas and sketch comedy. Sitcoms have been very important to the development of the current society and pop cultuer: Happy Days, M*A*S*H, and Taxi
 
"KBN (Kaiser Broadcasting Network)"? Somehow I have to think of a German Reich defeating the US in WW1... KBN, 24/7 nothing but shows about what the Kaiser is doing, saying, whatever.
 
Archangel Michael said:
As I said, there are still sitcoms but not as many. Not every third television program in TTL is a sitcom as it is in OTL, and I'm invisioning more half-hour dramas and sketch comedy. Sitcoms have been very important to the development of the current society and pop cultuer: Happy Days, M*A*S*H, and Taxi

Half hour soap operas? What sort of story line can be told within 24 minutes or less?! Your vision is clouded unless the show was to be shown a half hour every night. However, one could be showing remakes of Flash Gordon with a cliffhanger at the end of each show in order tempt the viewers back next week. However I don't see the plots being too complicated.
 
David S Poepoe said:
Half hour soap operas? What sort of story line can be told within 24 minutes or less?! Your vision is clouded unless the show was to be shown a half hour every night. However, one could be showing remakes of Flash Gordon with a cliffhanger at the end of each show in order tempt the viewers back next week. However I don't see the plots being too complicated.

Drama doesn't necessarily equal soap opera. And yes, there will be cliffhangers.
 
Early 70's

Your vision is clouded unless the show was to be shown a half hour every night.
In the U.S. soap operas are generally shown during the daytime. Until the early to mid 70's there were some 1/2 hour soaps on TV in the U.S. They died off because the format lends itself to a hour much more and the reduction in time due to commercials really killed them.
 
The timing of this topic is interesting, considering the network shake-up in the U.S. this fall. UPN and the WB are becoming the CW, with some newly released affiliates becoming a new Fox spin-off called, "MyNetworkTV."
 
Half hour soap operas? What sort of story line can be told within 24 minutes or less?! Your vision is clouded unless the show was to be shown a half hour every night.
You're forgetting how common half-hour programming was. Until about 1975, a lot of (most?) soaps were half-hour. So were a lot of other dramas, including cop shows, well into the '60s: "Dragnet", just for instance. "Adam 12" was in the '70s. Things have changed a lot...
 
Is SNL shown live in the Mountain Time Zone? Because if SNL or a SNL-analogue was filmed in Hollywood so it might be shown live here in the Central Time Zone. But that is an interesting idea. Also, what would happen if primetime started at 7 EST instead of 8?

SNL is shown with a one hour delay in the mountain time zone; a three hour delay in the Pacific. For instance, when there is a call-in to vote, the MTZ has to cut off after 15 minutes or so, to match the timing in the east. In one case, they emphasized that the west coast could not vote, but Canadians in the east could!
 
I thought this was about more than the big three back in early Fifties.

Until the late seventies and early eighties, the big three reigned supreme because the barriers to entry for other networks was too high. At that time, cable TV was for rural areas only, as it could not get a foothold in any city with four or more broadcast stations. The number of markets with five or more VHF channels was even too small to support a new network.

Also, television was rather labor intense because the equipment lacked today's automation in the seventies. Even stations in large cities signed off at some point in the night.
 
Top