Something else that also came to mind - Mr. West spoke in a past thread about broadcasters eventually dumping the National Association of Broadcasters guidelines we grew up with in the 50s and 60s (oh, us old people...). One tenet was to limit the amount of commercial time. I'm doing a show on public access cable called Yestervision, similar to Avery's The Golden Years of Television, except that where the commercial breaks are, I get to share trivia about the show, the actors, the production, whatever. Since most half-hour shows had their after intro commercial, their mid-break spot, and one toward the end of the show, I just have to prepare roughly 3 minutes worth of material for each show.
Going back to Tim L.'s comment on segments on shows like Mike Douglas, shows back then still kept the amount of commercial time down. As networks, stars and syndicators demanded more money, the only source was sell more commercials. It might be that we don't necessarily have shorter attention spans, but show segments are getting shorter and shorter to accomodate the glut of commercials and promos. The trick now is for producers to make each short segment attractive and interesting enough to keep us from tuning out in disgust over the obscene amount of commercials we're stuck with in between them. I'm sorta torn when I watch - I wrote radio and local theater on-screen commercials for years, and I love a good commercial. But by the third in a row with three more to go, I say to heck with it.
By the way, Tim, this has been quite the thread. You posted at 10:33 am. Did you start reading at 4:45 am? :-)
