XPost: rec.arts.tv   
   From: et472@ncf.ca   
      
   On Mon, 4 May 2015, anim8rFSK wrote:   
      
   > In article ,   
   > Rhino  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 2015-05-04 8:13 PM, jeebz@invalid.lan wrote:   
   >>> On Mon, 04 May 2015 18:21:53 -0400, David  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>    
   >>>   
   >>>> The longest-running scripted show in television history, THE SIMPSONS   
   >>>> exploded into a cultural phenomenon in 1990   
   >>>   
   >>> I watch hardly any TV and yet even I know that there are longer   
   >>> running scripted shows on TV than the Simpsons.   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> That's correct. The definition that you've cited omits (or implies)   
   >> another condition that affects which shows meet the definition: it has   
   >> to be an American show. And a second condition: it has to be a   
   >> prime-time series.   
   >>   
   >> For example, the British series, Coronation Street, began in 1960 which   
   >> means it has been running for 55 years (and presumably 55 seasons).   
   >> 60 Minutes started in 1968, long before the Simpsons did, but is   
   >> non-scripted. I'm sure some of the sports shows like the various   
   >> football games started long before the Simpsons, although I'm not a   
   >> sports person and could be wrong. (I'm Canadian and just learned that   
   >> Hockey Night in Canada began on radio in 1931 and made the jump to TV in   
   >> 1952 where it's been a staple ever since.) Saturday Night Live has been   
   >> running 40 years and must be largely scripted (as opposed to improvised)   
   >> yet it doesn't count because it's after prime time just as soap operas,   
   >> some of which started long before even Coronation Street, apparently   
   >> don't count. According to Wikipedia:   
   >>   
   >> ======================================================================   
   >> Guiding Light stands as the fourth longest-running program in all of   
   >> broadcast history; only the American country music radio program Grand   
   >> Ole Opry (first broadcast in 1925), the BBC religious program The Daily   
   >> Service (1928), and the Norwegian children's radio program   
   >> L?rdagsbarnetimen (first aired in 1924, cancelled 2010) have been on the   
   >> air longer.   
   >> ======================================================================   
   >   
   > Um ... so we're counting radio programs?   
      
   It becomes an interesting factoid.  "Gunsmoke was the longest running tv   
   show in its time, and incidentally ran longer longer if you include its   
   time as a radio program".   
      
   It's not an extension to lock out any shows that follow (which likely   
   don't have radio as a beginning point), but merely a way to show that the   
   show was very long lasting.  Nobody got tired of it after the time on   
   radio and all those years on TV.   
      
   But you have to compare tv with tv, leave off the radio prehistory.   
      
   But I'm not sure, should things be compared by season, or shows, or time?   
      
   A half hour show has half the time on air as an hour show.  An older show   
   had more episodes per season than a newer show.   
      
   So count up the half hours in all the episodes, then compare to the hours   
   on air of some other long running show?   
      
   I don't know.  That may not be fair assessment either, since things were   
   difrerent in the early days of tv, and a half hour comedy or animated show   
   is half an hour for a reason.   
      
      Michael   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)