LIFE ON MARS on BBC America

I don't recall seeing it mentioned here before, but the *great* BBC
series, LIFE ON MARS (from the same producers as SPOOKS/MI-5 and
HUSTLE) is starting on BBC America this coming Monday, July 24 at
10:00pm Eastern.

On the downside, it's scheduled in a one-hour slot, which means
that the episodes will be cut down for commercials (BBCA *does* air
commercials, right? I don't get the network, so I haven't watched
it). Each episode ran a full hour in the UK.

SoHillsGuy...

It is indeed a great series so far (a second series is slated for the
early part of 2007), but you can definitely expect about 13-14 minutes
of each episode to get the chop for commercials.

GarondoMarondo...

If that's the case then I'll pass and wait for the DVD. I hope they
don't edit down the new "Cracker" film when they run it too. We've
waited a decade for more Fitz, we want all we can get!

Milhouse Van Houten...

Wow, just like A&E with "Spooks." Ridiculous. But BBC America must run into
this problem often. How have they handled it before?

patty1...

Yeah, but that's on AMC. (And my gratitude to them for airing the full
episode.) Milhouse was asking how BBC America has handled the "produced
for BBC but now airing on BBC America" situation before. I know that
they put some half-hour comedies in 40-minute slots, but do they ever
run dramas in extra-long slots to avoid having to cut them?

BTW, I just checked the A&E website again and found some hopeful
information about "MI-5." The show is still MIA from A&E's list of
shows, but the forum for it still exists. And someone there posted
a note a few weeks ago saying that she'd written to the show's
production company and gotten a nice response saying that A&E will
air Season 4 starting on September 15th. I'll be happier when I see
that information confirmed by A&E, but at least this is cause for
optimism.

GarondoMarondo...

Most of the sitcoms that are longer than 22 minutes will be in 40
minutes slots but I don't know how many of the dramas are cut to
shreds. Rocket Man was the last drama I watched on BBC America and I
didn't notice anything missing but they might have some great editors
and they might compress the video which does save a lot of time with
out most people being able to notice.

Barry Margolin...

It looks like they must edit down the hour-long dramas, since they're
pretty all in one-hour time slots with plenty of commercials. I think
this last came up during discussion of "Hex".

jayembee...

Yes, it did. But HEX isn't a valid example of such. The episodes did
not run almost an hour originally; they were closer to the 45m mark,
so any edits done for BBCA were for content reasons, not time.

The BBC's dramas almost invariably run close to an hour without ads,
though there are some exceptions, and those generally run at least
50 minutes. Shows on the other British networks tend to run 45m for
those in an hour slot or 70m for those in a 90m slot, as they are
shown with commercials over there as well.

GarondoMarondo...

But isn't it true that many of the shows now being run on BBC America
aren't BBC originals but also some stuff from other British networks?

jayembee...

Yes. Which is why I said that HEX was edited for content rather than
time. HEX wasn't a BBC program, but was made for Sky One.

BBCA also airs programs from ITV, which also run shorter than an hour.
Whether BBCA cuts these for time reasons would depend on whether they
needed more commercial time than the shows' original running times
would allow.

I'm unclear where you got the idea that I was saying that BBCA ran
only BBC shows.

For example I've been watching Spaced, GREAT SHOW!!, and epguides says
it originally ran on Channel 4 in the UK, and the new Cracker film will
air on BBC America and that's an ITV show.

SoHillsGuy...

Yes, it is true that BBCAmerica does indeed air some programming not
actually originating from the BBC.

David...

And sometimes even originating in Canada.

..
Garondo Marondo!

Anim8rFSK...

BBC America can be real sloppy, too. Like the marathon they're running
this weekend. The shows started at 10 minutes before the hour, but by
the end of it they were ending on the hour. And they're not scheduled
that way. I've got no idea what they're doing.

GarondoMarondo...

BBC America does make some of their shows available OnDemand, do they
at least run the unedited version there?

..
Garondo Marondo!

seerialmom...

I don't usually watch police dramas anymore (still traumatized by the
Cagney/Lacey cancellation), however I did watch this one last night. I
was pretty impressed. Now if the main character was Michael J. Fox he
could make a fortune before he comes out of his coma since he knows
what stocks to buy :)

I might actually like it more if DEK copies it.

..
Garondo Marondo!