Sunday August 16, 2009
Bite-sized classics
Missing the TV shows that you once loved? Then dig into these easy-to-digest fillers.
YOU must have seen them by now. Minisodes. They’re all the rage – especially for those of us who can’t afford to spend more than 15 minutes at one sitting in front of the telly. In a stroke of genius Sony Pictures Television came up with the idea to condense episodes of previously broadcast full-length TV shows and serves them up to today’s audience. In all of three to five minutes – down from between 30 minutes and an hour – for each minisode!
You can be sure all your favourites from the 1960s to the 80s have been included – Charlie’s Angels, The Facts of Life, Fantasy Island, I Dream of Jeannie, The Young and the Restless, Silver Spoons, Starsky and Hutch ... yep, there’s a vast reservoir of shows out there which Sony has the rights to, and they’ve been niftily edited to fit into your busy lifestyle.
And don’t be fooled into thinking these are just clips of the shows; they are, in fact, actual episodes with entire story arcs, all told in as little time as possible. Amazing!
While minisodes might be new to local audiences, they’ve actually been around for a couple of years now. The Minisode Network (www.minisodenetwork.com) was launched in June 2007, and it offers a range of shows that can be viewed on television (you might have caught some of them on Star World recently) or online via various digital channels including YouTube, MySpace video, Crackle and AOL video.
Jennifer Batty, vice-president of programming for Star World, said the minisodes were added to the channel’s schedule to enhance viewing experience.
“We realised that as the running time for shows in the United States became shorter and shorter, we were not giving our audience a great viewing experience. Therefore, we decided to find something that our viewers would enjoy to fill in the remaining hour,” she said.
The minisodes fit the bill, of course.
Already, viewers in Malaysia have been offered minisodes of Diff’rent Strokes, Bewitched, Who’s the Boss? and Charlie’s Angels.
According to Batty, minisodes are a hit with many. “We have received great feedback from viewers. People are reconnecting with the favourite shows from their past in bite-sized form.”
Mary Chan, 41, loves catching minisodes and reminiscing about old times. “I don’t tune in intentionally, but it’s great when I do catch a minisode of a programme that I remember watching before,” said Chan whose 15-year-old daughter loves them too as they are what she calls “small episodes” and are easy to digest, although she points out that the scenes are sometimes edited choppily.
And these little nuggets can be a useful tool for Dad and Mum. For Chan, the minisodes give her a chance to discuss with her daughter what television was like when she was growing up. “The minisodes act as a vehicle to bridge the generation gap between us, if you like!”
Chan said reruns of shows like Bewitched and Who’s the Boss? are screened on television anyway, so they are not totally new to the younger generation. “But I think it’s people like me who were teens in the 1980s who will appreciate the minisodes the most because they make us feel all nostalgic and don’t take up much of our time,” she said. “It’s a chance to look back and laugh a little. It’s also amazing to see how they manage to keep the stories intact with just five minutes of footage!”
Rebecca Thomas, 49, who has only watched a couple of minisodes so far feels less enthusiastic about this “new” TV fad. She questions just how much entertainment content there is in the series that were once her favourites.
“I keep wondering why I liked these programmes so much if entire episodes can be condensed into just three minutes!” she laughed. “Every episode appears to follow the same formula. Somehow they seemed so much more exciting back then!”
Johan Johari, 34, prefers reruns of the original series to minisodes, which he finds too short and “don’t really make any sense most of the time”.
“The continuity is lost because these programmes were originally made as full episodes. I feel the minisodes are there only for viewers to kill time,” he added.
When it was launched two years ago, The New York Times reported that the minisodes were a method for Sony Pictures Television to “try and squeeze new value out of old assets”. Apparently, the idea for minisodes sprang from a conversation between Steve Mosko (president of Sony Pictures Television) and another executive. They noticed that an increasing number of people liked watching snippets of entertainment on websites like YouTube, rather than entire shows.
A great example of this was the Seven-Minute Sopranos – a clip posted by two college grads in Los Angeles that reduces almost the entire dark saga of New Jersey’s famous mob family to just seven minutes and 36 seconds in 2007. This short clip garnered a huge audience (check it out on YouTube, if you haven’t already seen it).
The rest, as they say, is minisode history.
Today, in Malaysia, Star World (available on Astro Channel 711) screens the minisodes towards the end of the hour (four times a day). “Previously we would have screened credits or promos for upcoming titles or commercials,” explained Batty. “With the minisodes, you get a bit more entertainment with a short-time commitment.”
The entertainment channel acquires the content from Sony Pictures Television and has a team in Hong Kong who shortlists the minisodes to be aired for the region.
This month, the minisode menu (broadcast on Tuesdays to Fridays) includes the misadventures of the rich Manhattan family who adopted the children of their late African American maid on Diff’rent Strokes (which ended on Tuesday), and the crime-busting capers of the three gorgeous “angels” who answer to a never-seen boss named Charlie. Yep, that would be Charlie’s Angels (showtime: 9.55pm), the 1970s smash hit that launched the late Farrah Fawcett’s celebrity status (and golden locks) into the stratosphere.
And if you’re into animation, check out the minisodes of Jackie Chan Adventures from Aug 26 (10.55pm), where the martial-arts hero plays an undercover agent posing as an archaeologist who gets his kicks travelling the world and battling supernatural enemies. – ANN MARIE CHANDY
Have you tasted these bite-sized classics? How do you find them – short and sweet or short and unpalatable? Email starmag-feedback@thestar.com.my.
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