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Looking around Wikipedia, EPGuides.com, and TV.com yesterday on some shows that I watched in reruns when I was growing up and was wondering why did TV shows have their season finales in March in the 60s and 70s as looking around online I couldn't find anything about why season finales of shows (give or take a few exemptions) aired in March or in some cases late February or in early April during the 60s and 70s.
Last edited by FoodPornHater87; 09-15-2017 at 09:40 AM..
Both shows run 24 episodes per season. The earlier show only took the second half of December off, with its season finale on March 6th.
The later show takes much more time off in the second of November, most of of December, and most of March, pushing its season finale to May 11th.
So that's the answer, earlier television series ground out their episodes every week, with time off only around the holidays, while current broadcast television series take three "vacations" during the season.
The networks also feel the need to provide original episodes of their top shows for May Sweeps, a period when the ratings determine ad rates. Sweeps occur in November, February, May, and (I think) August. The networks (and many syndicators) will purposely air the original episodes in and around Sweeps months, and go into reruns or pre-empt the shows in non-Sweeps periods. I'm not sure they still do it in August, since I rarely see any effort to juice up ratings in that month in the way they do the other three.
As was said above, shows in the earlier decades didn't get pre-empted as much, and in many cases they produced more episodes per season. A "season" of episodes kept shrinking as production costs rose, and the increasing intricacies of TV production made it much harder to film more than 26 episodes per year, rather than the 30+ you saw in some shows.
The networks also feel the need to provide original episodes of their top shows for May Sweeps, a period when the ratings determine ad rates. Sweeps occur in November, February, May, and (I think) August. The networks (and many syndicators) will purposely air the original episodes in and around Sweeps months, and go into reruns or pre-empt the shows in non-Sweeps periods. I'm not sure they still do it in August, since I rarely see any effort to juice up ratings in that month in the way they do the other three.
As was said above, shows in the earlier decades didn't get pre-empted as much, and in many cases they produced more episodes per season. A "season" of episodes kept shrinking as production costs rose, and the increasing intricacies of TV production made it much harder to film more than 26 episodes per year, rather than the 30+ you saw in some shows.
Yes, number of episodes kept "shrinking" ....back in the mid 1960s it was not unusual
to have more than 30 episodes per season....like the first few seasons of Bewitched averaged
about 32 or 33 ..same with first two seasons of I Dream of Jeannie.
Then in the late 60s it became a standard "26"....then 24 ....then 22 for years.
Just like 1960s pop groups regularly released 2 or 3 albums a year!
Then by the 1970s one album a year ....got even lazier in the 80s ...every couple of years,
then artists like U2 or Michael Jackson would take 3 or more years between albums.
Nothing like that 1950s / 1960s work ethic .....now long gone..
..today stars make more money for less work
Back in the '50s, '60s and '70s, you could tell what "time" of the year it was. September was always the new shows. May was finale season for all shows. June, July and August were repeats. Even if a show wasn't very good, I can not recall it being yanked before May. There were no "summer shows". People were out and about during the summers, not watching tv. Ah, the good ole days.
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