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Episode length and how many of them


Black Wizard

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Are we looking at 40 minutes per episode so the Americans can watch all their commericials? It's what happens with most tv shows imported from the USA.

I was also wandering how many episodes per series there will be. I know that Hereos does 24, but about other programs I haven't a clue.
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[quote name='Black Wizard' post='1650125' date='Jan 15 2009, 11.14']Are we looking at 40 minutes per episode so the Americans can watch all their commericials? It's what happens with most tv shows imported from the USA.

I was also wandering how many episodes per series there will be. I know that Hereos does 24, but about other programs I haven't a clue.[/quote]

Not sure on how many episodes, put there are no commercial interruptions on HBO. So each episode could go 55 to 60 minutes.
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Ah fantastic. I thought all American channels had hours and hours of adverts. Apparently some American guy who was over in London once got really confused when at half-time on a televised football match the pundits started talking about the match. He said "At half-time why do they start talking about the game, I WANT TO WATCH THE COMMERICALS!" :lol:
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The beauty of HBO (at least with the Sopranos) is they don't seem to have a set episode time. They let them have as much time as they wanted to tell the story whether that was 45 minutes at the short end or 1hr and 20 at the long.
Given HBO's change of direction since then (towards crap like true blood and Entourage) that may not still be the case.
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Most HBO shows have episode lengths of just under 1 hour, which allows for some bumpers and previews at the beginning and end so the show schedules are on the hour mark. I think [i]Sopranos [/i]was so successful they were allowed to do episode lengths as they wanted because what was HBO really going to do, say to the station's most important moneymaker that they can't do what they want? That show drove the network for years so they get what they want.

I know that at least one episode of [i]The Wire[/i] went well over the 1 hour normal length (about 1:20 or 1:30 I think), but I think that was a season finale. Also, HBO was incredibly generous to the producers of [i]The Wire[/i], probably because they realized that what was being made there was perhaps the best TV show in history - it never had great ratings, but it still got 5 seasons. (It was also relatively in-expensive).

There will likely be about 12 episodes per season, that's the norm on HBO. I think The Wire usually had 13 episodes, but the final season had only 10. The 12 or so episode format seems to be ideal to me. I really think Battlestar Galactica, for instance, would be much better if they stuck to around 12 episodes and just cut the filler one-off episodes that don't advance the plot. They do those, however, because it helps attract new viewers. One-off episodes are easier to follow for new viewers and get people hooked. HBO doesn't bother with those, though. The HBO audience seems content to follow long-term shows - also with the advent of On-Demand video, video online and Netflix, people can go back and catch up on shows much easier.
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[quote name='Growing Stronger' post='1652959' date='Jan 18 2009, 11.07']Will work for us UK viewers aswell then, cause BBC dont have any Adverts.[/quote]

As long as they don't butcher it by cutting it for an earlier audience like they did Rome. I can still remember how they manage to show the first two episodes in a 1 hour slot. I think this was rectified later by showing it after 10pm but I just hope the same isn't true for AGOT. I sometimes worry that because it's a fantasy show they will try and put it on at 8-9pm so the kids can watch it. Hopefully not.

As for show length 50-60 mins seems to be the HBO standard and seasons are usually 13 episodes. If the show makes it to ACOK then they may up it to 16 episodes but i guess that would require it to be a run away hit in the vein of Sopranos. I may be overly optimistic but I think a Fantasy show done really well could pull Sopranos viewing figures - afterall fantasy films are usually the big blockbusters in cinema and us geeks are usually very loyal to shows we like.
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[quote name='red snow' post='1653764' date='Jan 19 2009, 10.37']As long as they don't butcher it by cutting it for an earlier audience like they did Rome.[/quote]
They didn't cut Rome for an earlier audience (although that decision would at least have had some credibility). Rather than excise the quite graphic sex scenes and violence they cut out the expositiion and establishing scenes using the excuse "that British viewers would already be familiar with the historical context" (paraphrasing). So what was left was almost an hour of fucking and killing to appeal to the lowest common denominator and put off people like me who'd had higher hopes. I'm just glad that my friend who'd downloaded the unedited versions persuaded me to watch them.
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[quote name='reiver' post='1653824' date='Jan 19 2009, 13.02']They didn't cut Rome for an earlier audience (although that decision would at least have had some credibility). Rather than excise the quite graphic sex scenes and violence they cut out the expositiion and establishing scenes using the excuse "that British viewers would already be familiar with the historical context" (paraphrasing). So what was left was almost an hour of fucking and killing to appeal to the lowest common denominator and put off people like me who'd had higher hopes. I'm just glad that my friend who'd downloaded the unedited versions persuaded me to watch them.[/quote]

That's it, I wasn't sure what was cut but I knew there was a lot of stuff missing in that first airing by the Beeb. Can you imagine what "thrones" first episode would be like if they cut out "talky" scenes and concentrate on the sex and violence. A mess. On the bright side the BBC is usually good with these things and they can't use the excuse of viewers knowing the history, unless all of the UK has read the books.
I'm really hoping that the BBC will air the episodes within the week it is shown in the U.S.A. as they are investors in the show and will know that ratings will be damaged by downloads if they leave it too long (they learnt this lesson with Heroes i think)
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Does BBC edit out the voilence and sex in prime time? I guess it's just different over in the states because we all pay for HBO and what we get on T.V. is what we get on the DVD. Do you have to wait untill the DVD to get the full episodes?
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[quote name='dizzy' post='1653947' date='Jan 19 2009, 16.04']Does BBC edit out the voilence and sex in prime time? I guess it's just different over in the states because we all pay for HBO and what we get on T.V. is what we get on the DVD. Do you have to wait untill the DVD to get the full episodes?[/quote]

Usually British TV is fine as long as it is on after the "watershed", which is 9pm based on the premise that kids will be in bed before then. Sometimes they will cut things if they decide to show it in an earlier timeslot (eg they have a 6pm version of torchwood as well as the real 9pm one). On other occasions they'll just put it on at 11pm. As stated in an earlier post, the case with Rome was almost the opposite in that exposition was cut, incresing the amount of sex and viloence in the episode.

On the whole terrestrial (non-cable/subscription) TV is a lot more liberal than non-cable/subscription channels in the U.S.A. Although we still get prudes complaining whenever there is something overly sexual and paganistic and fail to grasp the concept of "If you don't like it, don't watch it".
Some shows bizarrely never make it over here such as Deadwood and Battlestar Galactica, unless you pay for them. Luckily with the BBC wanting to co-invest in the show - it will definitely air on British TV.
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is 12 episodes enough? lost has near twice that many @_@ though they're 40 minutes... and the recent season had a lot less. i just hope it's not too compacted and we miss out on all the lovely subtleties and things >_<

oh yeah! and i hope it's really graphic (Dany and Drogo o.O) not cuz i'm a perve but it shouldn't be waterred down; i'm so glad HBO are doing it!
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[quote name='Hinkle' post='1659120' date='Jan 23 2009, 02.27']is 12 episodes enough? l[/quote]

I think 12 sounds like too much. Except maybe for ASOS. I would much rather they moved the story along than have them include every last detail from the books. I think the AGOT could be told at a reasonable pace in 9 episodes or so.
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[quote name='Hinkle' post='1659120' date='Jan 23 2009, 02.27']is 12 episodes enough? lost has near twice that many @_@ though they're 40 minutes... and the recent season had a lot less. i just hope it's not too compacted and we miss out on all the lovely subtleties and things >_<[/quote]
Put it this way, the average novel is something like 350 to 450 pages and when they are adapted as movies the screenplays will typically be 90 to 120 pages long - such an adaptation will invariably need to streamline and cut some things from the novel, but this is how it goes.

A Game of Thrones is about 800 pages long but the screen adaptation for it will be 720 to 780 pages long, assuming a 12 or 13 episode run (that's 60 pages per script each). It is much more room to do the work justice and make it something closer to the original story as presented in the books.
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HBO dramas run anywhere from 51 to 58 min. per episode unless season opener/finale. [i]Rome[/i], [i]Deadwood[/i], [i]Sopranos[/i] [i]The Wire[/i], all had uneven episode seasons. Sometimes a season was 11 or 14 or 8, they don't stick to a formula. To be fair the 8 episode season was [i]The Sopranos[/i], which they followed up with 6 more after a two-month hiatus. With ASoIaF, if it goes multiple seasons, I could see SoS having one or two more episodes than other seasons, and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for HBO. As for other American TV, [i]Lost[/i] has fluctuated between 24 and as low as 16 episodes per season, same with [i]Heroes[/i], whose last season was only 12 before a break.
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[quote name='reiver' post='1650591' date='Jan 15 2009, 17.28']The beauty of HBO (at least with the Sopranos) is they don't seem to have a set episode time. They let them have as much time as they wanted to tell the story whether that was 45 minutes at the short end or 1hr and 20 at the long.
Given HBO's change of direction since then (towards crap like true blood and Entourage) that may not still be the case.[/quote]

We should be glad they are moving toward stuff like True Blood. (Which is a good show imo) I think it shows they are willing to do more fantastical shows than say Six Feet Under or Sopranos. I know Carnival had fantasy elements too and it never finished it's run so lets hope they knock this pilot out of the park.
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People have the right of it in this thread. HBO dramas definitely run 50-55 min avg with some leeway with about 12 episodes per season.

I think ~12 hours should be good enough for AGOT, at least I hope so. Even though I despise Terry Goodkind's books, The Legend of the Seeker is so bad it makes me want to go back to the books. I would be devastated if GRRM's work gets hacked like that, even though GRRM has a history in TV right? So I'll just assume he wont let that happen like that clown Goodkind who probably just wants to make an extra buck.
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