When it comes to television programming, do you like 9:00 programs to start late because of basketball playoffs, or would you prefer the old the “Heidi Game” policy? Let me explain.
On November 17, 1968, NBC broadcast a football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets which ran longer than the expected time allotted. In those days, programming was run by the clock, so the network promptly cut off the game at 7:00 PM on the east coast to present the scheduled film, “Heidi.” According to the story, viewers were calling their affiliates as early as 6:45 wondering if the movie would be on time and, unfortunately for the football fans watching, it was. Executives at NBC were unable to reach their own people because of the phone inquiries from their viewing audiences, so nobody got the instructions to run the game to its conclusion. Oakland was losing 32-29 and managed to score two touchdowns for a spectacular comeback in the last-minute of the game, but they both happened after 7:00, so many fans didn’t see them.
Today CBS is running college basketball games under the current policy, which was started after the irritable events of 11/17/68: games are aired until they are through, and are often padded out with additional commentary from the booth to round out any floating minutes of time. What we know by rote as “regularly scheduled programming” picks up on the hour or half-hour. Usually. I’ve never used a TiVo or other such automatic recording device, but I wonder how it works if a show starts at 10:24 PM? Does one still get the last 24 minutes of the game? Of course, the scheduled commercials always air.
March Madness serves more than two purposes (determine the best basketball team and revive bars and betting establishments after weeks without football), because series are filmed in 22-episode blocks each year. If we didn’t let basketball and Christmas interrupt the flow, new television programming would be stale by Presidents Day. As it is, once the din of the cheering for the Final Four grows silent, we will have some reruns at their regularly scheduled time until May sweeps roll in. And maybe there will be a broadcast of “Heidi” in there somewhere, too.
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