45 minutes and counting...

Lately I've been watching reruns of E.R. endlessly. When I say endlessly, I mean it. I turn on my DVD when I get home from work, and keep it running till I go to bed. Sometimes, the episodes blend in, and I don't know when one ends and another begins.

Anyway, I couldn't help but compare how different the series is to many of my favorites of today, such as Grey's Anatomy and Gossip Girl. For one, it seems to me (or maybe it's just a figment of my imagination) that the hour of TV shows before were longer than the hour of a tv show today. What I mean is before, the one-hour show would be about 48-52 minutes long. Comparatively, today's shows, such as episodes of Grey's, only go up to 43, 44 minutes at most. Must be the many commercials nowadays as compared to before. Another thing I noticed is before, shows had minimal music playing in the background, save for the theme song and sound effects. It's not that there were no songs played in climactic scenes in the shows, but today, music is very much another character in the story lines of shows. What's more is many of the songs we hear in the show are actual songs that become hits on the airwaves.

What hasn't changed, however, is the pattern in many shows, whether it be a medical drama (such as E.R. vs. Grey's Anatomy), a legal drama (L.A. Law vs. Ally McBeal), or teenage lifestyle show (Beverly Hills, 90210 vs. Gossip Girl). There is always something similar about the way they cast the characters: there's a popular figure, there's the handsome hero, the jerk, the rebel, and the nerd. Also, love is always a central figure in these stories. No matter what, there has to be a love affair somewhere there!

In the end, whether today or in the past, television is really a part of our lives already. Just like real life, changes of day-to-day are seen in the changes in our favorite tv shows. No matter what, however, the basics will always be the same.