From: ijball@mac.com, IJBall@aol.com (Ian J. Ball) Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv,(rec.answers,news.answers) Subject: rec.arts.tv FAQ-Part 1: Frequently Asked Questions List (FAQL) Followup-To: rec.arts.tv Summary: Frequently Asked Questions List for the usenet group rec.arts.tv: made up of a list of some of the most commonly asked questions for rec.arts.tv. Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 1998/06/12 Version: 4.01 URL: http://hompepages.mac.com/ijball/ratv/FAQ-Intro.html Archive-name: tv/rec.arts.tv/faq I. REC.ARTS.TV FAQ: THE GENERAL "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS" LIST FOR REC.ARTS.TV by Ian J. Ball This version: 4.01 Last updated: December 6, 1998 I. THE REC.ARTS.TV FAQ: General FAQL (**this document**) Frequently Asked Questions List for the usenet group rec.arts.tv: made up of a list of answers for some of the most commonly asked questions for rec.arts.tv (imagine that!). Included are the defintion of some terms, a list of TV show abbreviations used in rec.arts.tv (and other TV groups), and a list of TV network addresses & phone numbers for rec.arts.tv. II. THE REC.ARTS.TV FAQ: Usenet & Mail FAQ Frequently Asked Questions about all the usenet newsgroups and internet mailing lists for TV. Included are a list of all usenet newsgroups associated with TV and TV shows, and a list of TV-related and TV show mailing lists. III. THE REC.ARTS.TV FAQ: WWW Pages for Shows Frequently Asked Questions about WWW (Web) pages for TV, and the TV shows associated with rec.arts.tv. Included are a list of known WWW sites arranged alphabetically by TV show. This FAQ is in three sections: - Part A is devoted to the main TV Web sites and WWW sites for all current "first-run" U.S. TV shows. - Part B is devoted to WWW sites for all "classic" U.S. TV shows (i.e. those that are no longer "first-run"). - Part C is a short document devoted exclusively to WWW sites for British and Canadian TV shows. TABLE OF CONTENTS for Part I: 0.0) Introduction 0.1) What is a FAQ? What is an Episode Guide? Etc. 0.2) Acknowledgments 0.3) Where the Author Can Be Reached 0.4) Where Can I Get a Copy of This FAQ? 0.5) The Main Internet TV Group: rec.arts.tv 0.6) How Often Will This FAQ Be Posted? 0.7) CHANGED/ADDED: Since last version The Frequently Asked Questions: 1.0) REC.ARTS.TV, THE INTERNET & TV: 1.1) "Where can I find resources on the Internet for TV [show(s)]?" 1.1.1) "Where can I find a newsgroup or mail list for [show]?" 1.1.2) "Where can I find a WWW/Web site for [show]?" 1.1.3) "Where can I find an episode guide/FAQ for [show] (via FTP)?" 1.2) "I've written a TV episode guide/FAQ, and I want to get it up on the net. What do I do?!" 1.3) "I've seen some abbreviations for TV shows in r.a.tv/other newsgroups, and I can't figure out what they stand for. What are they?" 1.3.1) Abbreviations for shows presently on in the U.S. 1.3.2) Abbreviations for *new* shows (this season) in the U.S. 1.3.3) Abbreviations for classic and old shows in the U.S. 1.3.4) Abbreviations for U.S. soap operas 1.3.5) Abbreviations for shows from the U.K. 1.4) "Which TV shows have been cancelled, or have been put on hiatus, this season?" "What shows have moved timeslots this season?" "What are the new mid-season replacement shows for this season?" 2.0) TV SCHEDULES, PUBLICATIONS & THE INTERNET: 2.1) "Where can I find TV schedule information of the Net?" 2.2) "Where can I get back issues of 'TV Guide'?" 2.3) "What is 'Broadcasting & Cable Magazine'?" "What is 'Epi-Log Magazine'?" 3.0) GENERAL TV QUESTIONS: 3.1) "What's the deal with these TV (content) ratings/labels? What are they, and how does it all work? And The V-Chip: what is it, when and how will it work?" 3.2) "How do the Nielsens ratings work?" "What is the difference between overnight and national ratings?" 3.2.1) "Where can I find the full list of the Nielsen Ratings in print?" 3.2.2) "Where can I find the list of the Nielsen Ratings on the net?" 3.2.3) "Where can I find the Nielsen Ratings for syndicated/cable shows?" 3.3) "HDTV/Digital TV (DTV): When? How? What's it all about?" 3.4) "What else has [actor] been in?" (your question) "Where have I see [actor] before?" "Who played the part of [name] in [TV show/movie]?" "What was the cast of [TV show/movie]?" 3.5) "What is a (broadcast) network?" 3.6) "What is the mail/E-mail address for [network]?" "What is the mail address for supporting [newtork's shows] (i.e. what is the address of the President of the Network)?" 3.6.1) "What is the mail/E-mail address for [station]?" 3.7) "Where did the term 'channel' come from?" 3.8) "What is 'hiatus'? What is 'cancellation'?" 3.9) "What is 'Prime Time'?" 3.10) "What is 'sweeps'?" 3.11) "What is 'syndication'?" 3.12) "OK. What's the longest running U.S. Primetime TV show on the air right now?" "What the longest U.S. TV show of all time?" 0.0) INTRODUCTION This is the most recent full edition of a file that will be regularly posted to answer some Frequently Asked Questions in rec.arts.tv. Permission is granted by the author to use portions of this file in an UNMODIFIED form on other networks and BB's, etc., with full original authorship information *included*, for information purposes only. Rights to modifications to this file are reserved by the author. Note: This document may freely copied and distributed for personal use or for the sake of information purposes only. It may be distributed in its entirety, with all original author and copyright information intact. Any sales of this document or use of it in a for- profit project, or use in any other capacity save those already mentioned, is expressly forbidden without the specific consent of the author. Copyright, Ian J. Ball, 1995, 1998. DISCLAIMER: I will attempt to keep this FAQ as updated as possible. But an absence of any item from this FAQ does not necessarily mean that the item doesn't exist. And I can't promise that I will be able to include everything in this FAQ (as of now, I am sticking to TV shows from English speaking countries, especially the U.S.). Further, certain items may contain typos, so be careful when entering items from this list. Any errors should be forwarded to the author. 0.1) What is a FAQ? What is an Episode Guide? Etc. FAQ's & FAQL's: A FAQ (short for "Frequently Asked Questions") or a FAQL (short for "Frequently Asked Questions List") is a document that serves to answer commonly (or perhaps not so commonly) asked questions about a particular subject. Such a document is usually posted to the Internet to the various groups or BB's (bulletin boards), or to an online service bulletin board or BBS to which it is relevant, or to the World Wide Web (WWW), in the hopes of answering these often asked questions. For instance, a FAQ about a TV show will attempt to answer questions about that TV show, and will usually be posted to some relevant usenet newsgroups (and BB's on the on-line services), and/or to the World Wide Web, in hopes of answering the most commonly asked questions asked about the TV show(s) of interest. It is hoped that a FAQ (like this one) will mean that people will not have to post messages to newsgroups or BB's to get an answer to their question: they can just wait for the FAQ to be posted. Episode Guides & Summaries: An episode guide is a document that serves to provide information about each episode of a particular TV show. Episode guides provide a short synopsis of the plot of each episode, and sometimes other information, including the episode titles, the (crew and/or guest) credits for that episode, the original airdates and/or the prodcution code numbers. They are sometimes posted to the relevant usenet newsgroup(s) and/or BB's, or they are found via FTP or on the World Wide Web. Episode summaries are *much* more detailed plot synopses, but usually of only one particular episode. In other words, while an episode guide is a long list of short plot synopses for all the episodes of a show or a season, an episode summary is a document that deals with only one episode in detail. Shows with a very dedicated fandom (e.g. Star Trek, Babylon 5, ER, etc.) tend to have episode summaries more than they have episode guides. Episode Lists: Episode lists provide only a list of the number of episodes aired and the episode titles for a show, but *without* episode plot descriptions. Others go further and will list original first-run airdates and/or production codes. If it doesn't contain plot synopses, it's an episode list (*not* an episode guide). 0.2) Acknowledgments Special acknowledgements goes to Dave Chapman (dave@cheers.demon.co.uk; this E-mail address may no longer be correct), former maintainer of the Tardis (TV) FTP site located at: ftp://SRC.DOC.IC.AC.UK/media/tv/collection/tardis/ who tirlessly collected all the available TV FAQ's and episode guides when he was the maintainer of Tardis, and to Tom Walsh (avs@netport.com), who maintained the AviMall TV Episode guide archive for several years, and without whose efforts this FAQ would probably not be possible. Special thanks also to Bob Hirsch (FTPAdmin@aol.com) and the FTP team on AOL who have made the "Members" AOL FTP site available to users for WWW and FTP sites, so that this FAQ (and my other FAQ's and episode guides) can have a permanent home for updates: ftp://members.aol.com/IJBall3/FTP/rec.arts.tv-FAQ/ see the "README" or the "README.html" file for more information). I'd also like to thank the people who have helped me along the way, both with this FAQ, and with other questions, including: - Pete Brennan (pete@gateway.grumman.com) - Cliff Chen (fidodido@pacificnet.net) - Tony Cianfaglione (i-ema@chebucto.ns.ca) - Brad Dancer (bdancer@mindspring.com) - Loren Heisey (lorenr@peak.org) - Joshua Kreitzer (j-kreitzer@nwu.edu) - Karla Robinson (karla@pop.uky.edu) - Rick Shae (rickshae@ix.netcom.com) - Nick Tang (aq010@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) - David Tamkin (dattier@miso.wwa.com) - "Vidiot" (brown@vidiot.com) and all the others (many of whom I'm probably unjustly leaving out). 0.3) Where the Author Can Be Reached This FAQ is an evolving document, and it is probably either incorrect in parts or is missing useful information. If any person has any questions, comments or suggestions about this FAQ, please contact the author, Ian J. Ball at: IJBall@aol.com (prefered address for private E-mail) Any help on this project will be appreciated. 0.4) Where Can I Get a Copy of This FAQ? WWW (the Web): Presently the only Web site which contains this FAQ (that I know of) is mine. But I'd appreciate it if anyone else would like to archive it elsewhere, so please drop me a line if you're interested! At present, the Web site for this FAQ (in HTML format) will be found through my home page. It is updated monthly, so it is quite up-to-date: http://MEMBERS.AOL.COM/IJBall/WWW/ratv/FAQ-Intro.html (better URL) *or*, http://USERS.AOL.COM/IJBall/WWW/ratv/FAQ-Intro.html FTP: As of now, this FAQ is available from two FTP sites: The first one is my own personal folder available at one of AOL's own FTP site for user; the most up-to-date version of this FAQ can be found there. (NOTE: Enter the menus as shown when trying to reach this site, as AOL does *not* allow a "dir" listing of the root directory of that site, as it would contain up to 2.5 million different folders!) (ALSO NOTE: My other FAQ's and episode guides are available from this same FTP site.) It can be found at either of the following addresses: ftp://MEMBERS.AOL.COM/IJBall3/FTP/rec.arts.tv-FAQ/ *or* ftp://USERS.AOL.COM/IJBall3/FTP/rec.arts.tv-FAQ/ The second FTP site is the Tardis FTP site; all manner of TV FAQ's and episode guides are available from here. However, the version of the FAQ avilable here is several *years* OUT-OF-DATE (so use my FTP site at AOL if you can). Still, the address for Tardis is: ftp://SRC.DOC.IC.AC.UK/public/media/tv/collections/tardis/meta_info/ 0.5) The Main Internet TV Group: rec.arts.tv *rec.arts.tv* is the primary usenet newsgroup for discussion of all TV shows and related subjects. It's official newsgroup description is: "The boob tube, its history, and past and current shows." *rec.arts.tv* is widely distributed as part of the full "big 7" usenet newsfeed (e.g. comp., misc., news., rec., sci., soc., talk.). Unlike some other rec.* groups, *rec.arts.tv* is unmoderated. Any questions concerning a TV show, foreign or domestic, should probably directed here first. It is appropriate to discuss any TV show or movie; first-run or rerun; network, cable or syndicated show in *rec.arts.tv*. Besides *rec.arts.tv*, there are other more specialized TV groups, including the rec.arts.sf.tv.*, rec.arts.startrek.*, and rec.arts.tv.soaps.*, as well as some newsgroup hierarchies devoted to TV in other countries, such as the rec.arts.tv.uk.* and aus.tv.* hierarchies; there is also the larger but much more limitedly distributed alt.tv.* hierarchy. But *rec.arts.tv* is the primary usenet group for general TV discussion (i.e. *do* start here first). 0.6) How Often Will This FAQ Be Posted? All parts of this FAQ will be posted once a month (hopefully!) to rec.arts.tv (and perhaps eventually to news.answers, etc.), probably on the first weekend of every month. If it is necessary, Part 1 of this FAQ will be posted more often (likely, bimonthly). However this FAQ can also be obtained via FTP and the Web (see Section 0.4 above), and information in this (e.g. part of the introduction to this FAQ) may also be posted more often (perhaps bimonthly or weekly). 0.7) CHANGED/ADDED: Since last version - CHANGES: - Introductory section reedited. - FAQL updated for the '98-'99 TV season as FAQ was updated from v3.10 to v4.01. - Section 1.2 was updated. - Section 1.3 was updated. - Section 1.4 was updated. - Section 2.1 was updated. - Section 3.2 was expanded. - Section 3.3 was updated. - Section 3.4 was updated. - Section 3.11 was updated. - Section 3.12 was updated. THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: 1.0) REC.ARTS.TV, THE INTERNET & TV: 1.1) QUESTION: "Where can I find resources on the Internet for TV [show(s)]?" A: Funny you should ask, becuase that is *exactly* one of the questions this FAQ tries to answer. This Part of the FAQ, together with the other parts, are posted monthly to this newsgroup, rec.arts.tv. The information in this FAQ can also be found on the Web at either of the following addresses: http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/ratv/FAQ-Intro.html *or*, http://users.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/ratv/FAQ-Intro.html There are many resources for TV on the Internet. Perhaps the 3 most common resources are the following, which are dealt with in the sections below: 1) Usenet Newsgroups & Mail Lists (see Section 1.1.1) 2) World Wide Web sites (see Section 1.1.2) 3) FTP archives (see Section 1.1.3) But besides those resources in the next sections, here are some of the other resources useful for information on TV, and for putting together an episode guide: 1) The TV networks themselves (see Section 3.5 and Section 3.6) 2) The TV production company for a show 3) "TV Guide", recent and back issues (see Section 2.2) 4) "Broadcast & Cable Magazine" (see Section 2.3) 5) The Library of Congress The last in that list, The Library of Congress, has some useful copyright information, which can be obtained from its "LOCIS" information system. "LOCIS" can be reached through: telnet://locis.loc.gov/ Once reached, navigate to the copyright database and search for the *(script) title of the episode* or the title of the show you are interested in. Unfortunately, it's not very complete. 1.1.1) "Where can I find a newsgroup or mail list for [show]?" A: Funny you should ask, becuase that is *exactly* one of the questions this FAQ tries to answer. For a list of all the (known) usenet newsgroups devoted to TV shows and TV-related subjects, and for a list of all the known TV mail lists, please see Part II of the text version of the rec.arts.tv FAQ: The Usenet & Mail TV FAQ (or see the WWW version of the FAQ, which can be reached through the link listed above). Part 2 of this FAQ will be posted around the first weekend of each month to rec.arts.tv. 1.1.2) "Where can I find a WWW/Web site for [show]?" A: And, guess what?!, this FAQ also answers that question. Many TV show episode guides, as well as other information about TV shows and TV resources on the Internet, are now found on "The Web". So, for a brief introduction to the Web, for a list of the major TV WWW sites, and for a list of all the Web sites for individual TV shows, see Part III of the FAQ: The WWW Sites for TV Shows FAQ (or see the WWW version of the FAQ, which can be reached through the link listed above). Note though that Part III of the text version this FAQ is divided into three sections: - Section III.A is devoted to the main TV Web sites and WWW sites for all current "first-run" shows. - Section III.B is devoted to WWW sites for all "classic" TV shows (i.e. those that are no longer "first-run"). - Section III.C is devoted to WWW sites for British & Canadian TV shows. Part 3 of this FAQ will be posted around the first weekend of each month to rec.arts.tv. 1.1.3) "Where can I find an episode guide/FAQ for [show] (via FTP)?" A: Funny, because this FAQ tries to answer that question too. There are numerious examples of TV episode guides and FAQ's archived at various FTP sites. For a list of all the major TV FTP sites, all the TV-show specific FTP sites, and for a list of where various episode guides and FAQ's are kept, see the WWW version of this FAQ; the FTP information can be found there. Unfortunately, there is no longer a currently maintained FTP site for archiving up-to-date episode guides, so more recent TV-related information should be searched for on the Web. 1.2) QUESTION: "I've written a TV episode guide/FAQ, and I want to get it up on the net. What do I do?!" A: Well, you have several options. If a newsgroup, and/or mail list, exists for the show that you've written the guide/FAQ for (see Part 2 of this FAQ for a list of TV newsgroups and mail lists), you should (regularly) post the guide to that newsgroup (and to rec.arts.tv, if you feel that's appropriate), and/or to the mail list. Or, at the very least, you should regularly post a message to the newsgroup or mail list describing how your guide/FAQ can be obtained. If it's a true FAQ, you may also want to look into making it "official" with news.answers (send E-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the command "send usenet/news.answers/news-answers/guidelines" for more information). If you have access to an internet provider that allows users to set up their own WWW or FTP site (e.g. AOL, Earthlink, Worldnet, etc.), then I strongly advise you to put your guide up either on the Web, or make it availiable via FTP, or both. If you don't know how to do this, you have two options: 1) Find out how! (you probably should anyway!), or 2) Send your guide along to "The Episode Guides Page" web site. "The Episode Guides Page" is the main archive for TV episode guides right now. I urge anyone with a guide to think about sending it along to "The Episode Guides Page". Their URL is below (see also Part 3.A of this FAQ), and information about submitting guides can be found at this web site: WWW link - http://www.xnet.com/~djk/main_page.shtml An explanation of how to set up a web page using HTML is beyond the scope of this document. But a simple word processor, or an application dedicated to web page design (e.g. Claris Home Page), and any of the number of books out there on HTML, and/or a couple of examples of downloaded HTML source code from web pages you like, should get you well on your way. 1.3) QUESTION: "I've seen some abbreviations for show in r.a.tv/other newsgroups, and I can't figure out what they stand for. What are they?" A: Sometimes, people will begin the titles of a thread to rec.arts.tv (or other TV newgroups such as rec.arts.sf.tv) with a common abbreviation for the show, as an ID tag for interested readers (and to fascillitate the use of kill-files for those who aren't interested!). In fact, this practice should be *encouraged* in rec.arts.tv (look at the posts in the rec.arts.tv.soaps.* hierarchy to see how this should work). So take a close look at the lists below and see if there are abbreviations for shows you talk about in rec.arts.tv. For example, a thread title with the proper abbreviation might look like this: "MSCL: ABC Must Save It!" If you don't know what "MSCL" stands for, it can be confusing. So here is a list of some of the abbreviations used for American TV shows in rec.arts.tv, and elsewhere (new US shows, classic US shows, US daytime soaps and British TV shows follow): 1.3.1) Abbreviations for shows presently on in the U.S. Here's a list of potential abbreviations you may see for many of the current first-run shows on TV this season (new shows are not included; see the next section): Abbreviation Net. For TV Show: ------------ ---- ------------ 3rd Rock NBC Third Rock From the Sun 7H WBN 7th Heaven 90210; BH90210 FOX Beverly Hills, 90210 AM; AMcB FOX Ally McBeal BMW ABC Boy Meets World BtVS WBN Buffy, The Vampire Slayer CH CBS Chicago Hope CitC NBC Caroline in the City D&G ABC Dharma & Greg DC WBN Dawson's Creek tDCS ABC The Drew Carey Show DM CBS Diagnosis: Murder DS9; ST:DS9 Syn. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine EE CBS Early Edition E:FC Syn. Earth: Final Conflict ELR CBS Everybody Loves Raymond HI ABC Home Improvement (also: High Incident (ABC)) HL, HL:tR Syn. Highlander; Highlander: The Raven H:LOTS NBC Homicide: Life on the Street H:tLJ Syn. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys JSM NBC Just Shoot Me KotH FOX King of the Hill L&O NBC Law & Order MAY NBC Mad About You MMPR FOX Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers MP FOX Melrose Place MST; MST3K; COM/SCI-FI Mystery Science Theatre 3000 MST3000 NB CBS Nash Bridges NR NBC Newsradio NYPD; NYPDB ABC NYPD Blue OL SHOW/Syn. The (new) Outer Limits PL CBS Promised Land PoF FOX Party of Five SbtB NBC Saved by the Bell (was & is) (there are several versions) SC ABC Spin City SMP FOX The Simpsons SNL NBC Saturday Night Live SS USA Silk Stalkings; or NBC Suddenly Susan StTAW ABC Sabrina, The Teenage Witch ST:V UPN Star Trek: Voyager TbaA CBS Touched by an Angel VC NBC Veronica's Closet WTR CBS Walker, Texas Ranger WWoD ABC The (new) Wonderful World of Disney XF FOX The X-Files X:WP Syn. Xena: Warrior Princess 1.3.2) Abbreviations for *new* shows (this season) in the U.S. Here's a list of potential abbreviations you may see for the new shows this season: Abbreviation Net. For TV Show: ------------ ---- ------------ 7D UPN Seven Days BF CBS Buddy Faro FI ABC Fantasy Island HB WBN Hyperion Bay tKoQ CBS The King of Queens ML CBS Martial Law MW CBS Maggie Winters SN ABC Sports Night VU ABC Vengence Unlimited W&G NBC Will & Grace 1.3.3) Abbreviations for classic and old shows in the U.S. There are many abbreviations for either classic TV shows, or for shows which are no longer first-run but can now be seen in re-runs, or for some cult-favorite "one season wonders". A list of those abbreviations follows below: Abbreviation Net. For TV Show: ------------ ---- ------------ Classics: tBH was CBS The Beverly Hillbillies tBNS was CBS The Bob Newhart Show DVD; DVDS was CBS Dick Van Dyke Show GI was CBS Gilligan's Island IDoJ was ??? I Dream of Jeannie ILL was CBS I Love Lucy KF; KF, tOS was ABC Kung Fu (the original series) MTM; MTMS was CBS The Mary Tyler Moore Show OL was ABC The Outer Limits (the original series) ST; ST,tOS was NBC Star Trek (the original series) TZ was CBS The Twilight Zone WBC was ABC Welcome Back, Kotter Cancelled shows/Shows that ended their runs: AG was CBS American Gothic AM; tSWoAM was NICK The Secret World of Alex Mack B5 Syn./TNT Babylon 5 CEIA was NICK Clarissa Explains It All CPW was CBS Central Park West DQ; DQMW was CBS Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman DS was NBC Dark Skies E2 was NBC Earth 2 EZ was CBS EZ Streets FC was CBS Falcon Crest FH was ABC Full House FK was USA/Syn. Forever Knight /CBS FM ABC/CBS Family Matters KF; KF:tLC was ABC; Kung Fu; Kung Fu: was Syn. The Legend Continues KL was CBS Knots Landing L&C was ABC Lois & Clark M1 was ABC Murder One MB was CBS Murphy Brown MSCL was ABC My So-Called Life MWC was FOX Married With Children NwM; NM was UPN Nowhere Man NT was ABC/NBC The Naked Truth NX; NE was CBS Northern Exposure NYU FOX New York Undercover PF was CBS Picket Fences PL; PLCL was FOX Parker Lewis (Can't Lose) QL was NBC Quantum Leap S:A&B was FOX Space: Above & Beyond SbS ABC/CBS Step By Step SIS was NBC Sisters SQ was NBC seaQest, DSV (or 2032) TNG; ST:tNG was Syn. Star Trek: The Next Generation WY was ABC Wonder Years 1.3.4) Abbreviations for U.S. soap operas The rec.arts.tv.soaps.* groups also have abbreviations for soap-operas, daytime and nighttime (which sometimes pop up in rec.arts.tv). Here are some of those: Abbreviation Net. For TV Show: ------------ ---- ------------ Daytime soaps: AMC (i.e. not ABC All My Children the cable newtork) ATWT CBS As the World Turns AW NBC Another World B&B CBS Bold & the Beautiful DOOL NBC Days of Our Lives GH ABC General Hospital GL CBS Guiding Light OLTL ABC One Life To Life PC ABC Port Charles SUBE NBC Sunset Beach Y&R CBS The Young & the Restless Daytime soaps (of the past): CITY/LOV was ABC The City (was: "Loving") EoN was CBS/NBC Edge of Night GEN was NBC Generations RH was ABC? Ryan's Hope SB was NBC Santa Barbara SfT was CBS/NBC Search for Tomorrow TX was NBC Texas Nighttime (and other) soaps: CPW was CBS Central Park West (cancelled) DAL was CBS Dallas (syndicated?) FC was CBS Falcon Crest (cancelled) KL TNT (was CBS) Knots Landing (syndicated rerun) SAV WBN Savannah SIS was NBC Sisters (cancelled) 1.3.5) Abbreviations for shows from the U.K. And of course, the rec.arts.tv.uk.* groups also have thier own abbreviations too. Here are those (though this list is probably incomplete): Abbreviation Net. For TV Show: ------------ ---- ------------ AbFab; AbF; AF BBC(COM) Absolutely Fabulous AYBS? BBC Are You Being Served? B7 BBC Blakes 7 BA BBC Blackadder CS Coronation Street DtDD C4 Drop the Dead Donkey FT BBC Fawlty Towers HIGNFY Have I Got News For You ISIRTA I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again KMKY Knowing Me, Knowing You MP BBC Monty Python OFitG One Foot In The Grave RD BBC Red Dwarf WLIIA C4 Whose Line Is It Anyway YM BBC Yes, Minister tYO BBC The Young Ones 1.4) QUESTION: "Which TV shows have been cancelled, or have been put on hiatus, this season?" "What shows have moved timeslots this season?" "What are the new mid-season replacement shows for this season?" A: I've got a web page on this. Depending at which time during the TV season you access it, it will lists all the shows that have been renewed, cancelled, moved and/or put on hiatus, as well as the shows that are "in trouble" in terms of renewal, and the new shows that show up at mid-season. In any case, go here for an answer to any of the above questions: http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/ratv/articles/status98-99.html UltimateTV (http://www.ultimatetv.com/) also does a pretty good job of keeping trakc if this information. 2.0) TV SCHEDULES, PUBLICATIONS & THE INTERNET: 2.1) QUESTION: "Where can I find TV schedule information of the Net?" A: See Section 1.3 of Part 3.A of this FAQ for a full list, or see the WWW equivalent found at the URL below; this web page also includes TV schedules sites for Britain and Canada: http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/ratv/WWW/sched.html But of the half a dozen or so sites, perhaps the best are any of the three following sites: 1) TV Guide : http://www.tvgen.com/tv/listings/ 2) TV-1 : http://www.tv1.com/ 3) TV Week : http://www.tmstv.com/ The latter site is mainly for the Chicago area, but it also provides national listings. TV-1 and TV Guide both give schedule information by metropolitan area (i.e. by TV market) or by cable provider . All three of the above sites list the schedule in a grid format to maximize usability. 2.2) QUESTION: "Where can I get back issues of 'TV Guide'?" A: [NOTE: This section, edited by me, was constructed from a post by Richard K Mains (rkm@engin.umich.edu) in response to a question posted in rec.arts.tv.] In the pursuit of building an episode guide for classic TV shows people often need old copies, or back-issues, of "TV Guide" magazine. Such issues are available from collectors and such. One such source for back-issues of "TV Guide" is the following company: TV Guide Specialists Box 20 Macomb, IL 61455 (309) 833-1809 Some issues are expensive, but they seem to have about all of them. 2.3) QUESTION: "What is 'Broadcasting & Cable Magazine'?" "What is 'Epi-Log Magazine'?" A: Let's answer these questions one at a time, with the first question first: Broadcast & Cable Magazine: --------------------------- [NOTE: Some of the information in this section was provided "Vidiot" (brown@vidiot.com).] Broadcast & Cable Magazine is actually a trade magazine. However, some people outside of the TV industry also subscribe to Broadcast & Cable because it contains some information useful to fans of TV. Perhaps its most interesting information is the Top 20 rated shows on cable and in syndication. Currently, a year's subscription to Broadcast & Cable Magazine costs $99.00 (so it's a bit expensive). The address for subscribing (and for obtaining information) is: Broadcasting & Cable PO Box 6399 Torrance, CA 90504-9865 Epi-Log Magazine: ----------------- [NOTE: This section, edited by me, was provided Loren Heisey (lorenh@hpcvra.cv.hp.com) to the Tardis FTP site (ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/media/tv/collections/tardis/).] One of the more asked questions in Usenet newsgroups for TV is "Are there episode guides for [shows]?". Besides internet TV episode guides and FAQ's available via WWW and/or FTP (see Sections 1.1.2 & 1.1.3 of this document, and Part 3 of this FAQ for more information), one source for TV episode guides is Epi-Log Magazine. Epi-Log is a magazine specifically devoted to printing TV episode guides. The quality of the Epi-Log's TV episode guides varies quite a bit depending on who wrote the synopses. They do list all the episodes of a TV show, and they usually give the original air-dates. Early issues of Epi-Log were known to have lots of errors, so be warned. More recent issues have gotten better, but still contain the occasional error. People who are looking for error-free information on a show will probably not be interested in Epi-Log guides, but they are useful for keeping track of which episodes one has seen or has yet to see. In the U.S. the magazine can often be found at Sci-Fi conventions, and a few comic book stores. They can also be ordered by mail from: Star Tech P.O. Box 456 Dunlap, TN 37327 Star Tech's catalog, which contains information on Epi-Log Magazine, as well as other sci-fi and fantasy TV and movie paraphernalia, is $1 (in the US). In the U.K. the magazine can be found at Forbidden Planet, on New Oxford Street, London. For a list of the TV episode guides done in Epi-Log magazines, see the Tardis FTP site at: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/media/tv/collections/tardis/ NOTE: I have received information stating that Epi-Log is no longer in production. It can still be obtained, but new issues are no longer being produced. (No doubt this is a result of the prevelance of Internet-inspired TV episode guides!) 3.0) GENERAL TV QUESTIONS: 3.1) QUESTION: "What's the deal with these TV (content) ratings/labels? What are they, and how does it all work? And The V-Chip: what is it, when, and how will it work?" A: Let's start off with the V-Chip. As part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress mandated that all televisions manufactured after 1997 must include a so-called "V-Chip". The "V-Chip" will *allow* (not force) owners of TVs (i.e. parents) to program the V-Chip to block out programming above a certain "rating". The V-Chip will be defaulted to *off*, and must be manually activated by the owner of the TV for it to work. When activated by an objectionable rating, the V-Chip will either "black out" the TV screen or turn the TV off (technically, how the V-Chip will work exactly has yet to be resolved). In order for the V-Chip to work, TV shows needed to be rated. After much anguish, that job finally fell to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS; the people behind the Emmys) and a coalition of broadcasters, producers and MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti. On December 19, 1996, the (first) TV ratings system was unveiled. This (first) TV rating system is/was an age-based system. It consists of 2 ratings specific to *children's* programming (i.e. Saturday morning, FOX and WBN afternoons, NICK, Cartoon Network, etc.), and 4 ratings for all "general" programming. Sports and news programming, it was decided, would *not* be rated; the exact definition of "news" programming is still somewhat undefined. Here are the (initial) age-based rating categories, with descriptions. Let's start with the children's ratings: TV-Y: ALL CHILDREN: "This program is designed to be appropriate for all children. Whether animated or live-action, the themes and elements in this program are specifically designed for a very young audience, including children ages 2-6. This program is not expected to frighten young children." EXAMPLES: "Sesame Street", "Barney" TV-Y7: DIRECTED TO OLDER CHILDREN: "This program is designed for children age 7 and above. It may be more appropriate for children who have acquired the developmental skills needed to distinguish between make-believe and reality. Themes and elements in this program may include mild physical or comedic violence, or may frighten children under age of 7. Therefore, parents may wish to consider the suitability of this program for very young children." EXAMPLES: "Power Rangers", "X-Men", "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" And here are the "general" age-based categories: TV-G: GENERAL AUDIENCES: "Most parents would find this program suitable for all ages. Although this rating does not signify a program designed specifically for children, most parents may let younger children watch this program unattended. It contains little or no violence, no strong language and little or no sexual dialogue or situations. EXAMPLES: "Touched by an Angel", "Two of a Kind", "7th Heaven" TV-PG: PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED: "This program may contain some material that some parents would find unsuitable for younger children. Many parents may want to watch it with their younger children. The theme itself may call for parental guidance. The program may contain infrequent course language, limited violence, some suggestive sexual dialogue or situations. EXAMPLES: virtually everything on Primetime TV TV-14: PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED: "This program may contain some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age. Parents are strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring this program and are cautioned against letting children under the age of 14 which unattended. This program may contain sophisticated themes, sexual content, strong language and more intense violence. EXAMPLES: "NYPD Blue", "The X-Files", "Politically Incorrect", most daytime (and nighttime) *soap* operas TV-MA: MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY: "This program is specifically designed to be viewed by adults [only] and therefore may be unsuitable for all children under 17. This program may contain mature themes, profane language, graphic violence and explicit sexual content. EXAMPLES: virtually all original pay-cable programming, e.g. "Red Shoe Diaries" Unfortunately, this first system satisfied no one. The ratings are self-imposed by the production companies and the networks, rather than from an independent board. As a result, different networks rated similar programming differently. In addition, many felt the networks were skirting the intent of the ratings by giving most everything in Primetime (including such racy fare as NBC's "Friends") a "TV-PG" rating. This whole thing led to an uproar among so-called "Children's Advocacy Groups", and among some Washington politicians, who all demanded further content ratings. After many squabbles, a secondary system was developed and agreed to in July, 1997. This system involves supplementing the old age-based ratings with content-based labels devoted to specific programming content and situations. However, citing so-called "First Amendment concerns", NBC has opted not to use these supplementary labels, and will stick to using just the age-based ratings. Five new labels were agreed to. The first one is devoted solely to children's programming, and it is: "FV" : FANTASY VIOLENCE: This label will be added to certain "TV-Y7" shows (e.g. "Power Rangers", "X-Men", "Batman & Robin", etc.) in which a lot of action place. The other four labels will be added to "TV-PG", "TV-14" and "TV-MA" shows, and are for more general content; these labels are: "V" : VIOLENCE: This label is added to any show in which violent situations take place (e.g. "NYPD Blue", "Walker, Texas Ranger", "The X-Files", "La Femme Nikita", etc.). "L" : ADULT LANGUAGE: This label is added to any show in which a fair amount of adult language (i.e. profanity) will be spoken (e.g. "NYPD Blue", etc.). "S" : SEXUAL SITUATIONS: This label is added to any show in which sexual-type situations will be depicted on screen (e.g. "Silk Stalkings", etc.). "D" : SUGGESTIVE DIALOGUE: This label is added to any show in which suggestive (i.e. sexual) dialogue will be spoken (e.g. "Friends", "The Nanny", etc.). 3.2) QUESTION: "How do ratings/Nielsens work?" "What is the difference between overnight and national ratings?" A: This may be the most complex question asked by people in rec.arts.tv, and perhaps only the A.C. Nielsen Company (specifically, NielsenMedia) knows all the answers for sure. Why ratings are collected is much simpler question. The broadcast and cable networks, as well as local TV stations, need to know the actual number of viewers that are tuning in, as well as the percentage of total viewers tuned into the particular station/network in question (this is known in Nielsen terms as the ratings "share"), and also the type of viewer tuning in (e.g. the demographics). All this information is then used by the network and/or station to set the advertising rates for sponsors (see Section 3.9: "What is 'sweeps'?" for more information). How ratings are collected is fairly straightforward, as well. There are two methods of collecting ratings information: 1) Overnight Ratings: These ratings are collected in many of the largest (i.e. urban) TV markets) for immediate (overnight) analysis. 2) National Ratings: These ratings are collected over the course of a week by people who record what they watch in Nielsen "log books". It's how sample members are chosen, and how the ratings information is analyzed that's much more of a mystery. According to the A.C. Nielsen Company, the National Ratings are a cross-section of 4,000 (American) TV households; how this sample is chosen is not well known. To avoid the possibity of influencing of participants by either broadcasters or advertisers, the identities of Nielsen participants are kept secret. For National Ratings, the TV viewers in the household are told to log what they watch for Nielsen. The logging of TV viewing is done by members of the household in the infamous Nielsen "diary" (or by electronic means). Each diary contains entries for one week (a new diary is sent to participants weekly). The viewing circumstances of each member of the household (including guests) is then supposd to be logged in the diary (in 15 minute increments) everytime anyone in the household watches TV. The dairy also contains entries in the back for the recording (and later viewing) of TV shows by simulataneously recorded VCR tape. For demographic purposes, the age, sex, ethnicity, etc. of the viewer(s) is also recoreded in the Diary. All this data is then sent to the Nielsen company on a weekly basis (or in the case of the Overnight Ratings, on a daily basis), where it is compiled by Nielsen. In this way, the "Nielsen families", as these households are called, are used to represent the larger (American) TV viewing audience in much the same way that polls of roughly 1,000 people are used to represent the views and opinions of the (American) public. The key questions here are, 1) How does the Nielsen company select the households it uses to determine TV ratings?, 2) How accurate are the viewing logs kept by these "Nielsen families", and how is this data compiled?, and 3) Overall, how accurate are the Nielsen ratings? Only the Nielsen company knows the answer to the first two questions. As for the last question, there are a number of people who are skeptical as to the accuracy of the Nielsen ratings. Nontheless, ratings from the Nielsen company are widely used and followed. 3.2.1) "Where can I find the full list of the Nielsen Ratings in print?" For a full list of the Nielsen ratings for the Primetime shows on the six (US) broadcast networks, there are three main published sources: 1) USA Today (Wednesday edition (usually), Page D4) 2) The LA Times (Wednesday edition (usually), Calendar Section, third-to-last page) 3) Broadcasting & Cable magazine If there is a Monday holiday or a 4-day weekend, the Nielsen ratings are sometimes delayed a day. Ratings information can also often be found in "The LA Times" Business Section. For example Morning, Late Night and Daytime (Soap) ratings, and demographic breakdowns can be found in the Friday edition of the Business Section. Many publications publish only the Top 10 or 20 or 30 (e.g. "Entertainment Weekly", etc.), but (as far as I know), only the above two newspapers publish the full ratings list. 3.2.2) "Where can I find the list of the Nielsen Ratings on the net?" Guess what? If you're looking for US Nielsen ratings you maybe can't... Or can you now? Until recently, the NielsenMedia company hasn't let *anybody* publish the full list on the net for long before making them stop. For example, "USA Today" (http://www.usatoday.com/) used to publish the full list, but does not appear to now (and I'm pretty sure NielsenMedia made them stop). However, recently, the FOX News (http://foxnews.com/news/wires/) website does publish the full ratings list (just do a search for "ratings"). But I make no promise as to how long sites like the FOX News web site will be allowed to publish the Ratings List on the net. In addition, here are several sites that somtimes post the full Nielsen Ratings List; they are: http://www.startribune.com/ http://www.hotcoco.com/juke/index.htm http://www.startext.net/news/doc/1047/1:NIELSENS/ http://www.kcstar.com/featured_links/ If you try to publish the Nielsen Ratings List on the net, expect to hear from Nielsen's lawyers. Inexplicably, NielsenMedia doesn't put the list at their own site (http://www.nielsenmedia.com/). Go figure... 3.2.3) "Where can I find the Nielsen Ratings for syndicated/cable shows?" Last I heard, a list of ratings for the top syndicated and cable shows can be found in the trade magazine "Broadcasting & Cable" (see Section 2.3). In addition, this information (in a Top 20 list) can also be found at the "Ultimate TV" web site (see also Part 3.A of this FAQ) at the following links: http://www.ultimatetv.net/news/nielsen/syndication.html http://www.ultimatetv.net/news/nielsen/cable.html 3.3) QUESTION: "HDTV/Digital TV (DTV): When? How? What's it all about?" A: On December 24, 1996, the FCC adopted a (mostly) single standard for the broadcast of what is now known as "Digital TV" (DTV). Formerly, this was usually known as "High Definition TV" (HDTV), but early HDTV systems were based on analog technology (pioneered by Japanese companies) and were abandonded several years ago in favor of the superior DTV technology (developed in the U.S.). However, there are further wrinkles on the difference between DTV and HDTV (see below). But before you can take advantage of DTV technology, the broadcasters need to begin transmitting in DTV format. The FCC ruling on this came down around April 1, 1997. The FCC ruled that the broadcasters (i.e. the broadcast networks) must begin transmitting DTV signals in thier 10 biggest TV markets by fall 1998. The Top TV 35 markets are to be online by 1999. And all TV markets must have access to DTV signals soon after. In return, portions of the broadcast "spectrum" were given (for free) to the TV broadcasters for DTV transmisions. Several of the 10 largest TV markets now have TV stations that are broadcasting DTV/HDTV signals, as of Dec. 1998. By November 1999, all TV stations in the Top 30 TV markets will be broadcasting in DTV/HDTV; all TV stations are supposed to be broadcasting in DTV/HDTV as of May 2003. The portion of the spectrum devoted, at the present, to (analog) TV is to be sold back to the FCC by 2007, which is when (analog) TV is supposed to be obsolete (but don't bet on this date being firm!). DTV promises, among other things, "movie-quality" pictures and sound on home TV systems; this is what HDTV has come to mean. Presently, television pictures are roughly square in shape (see below for actual size ratio) and are made up of pixels lined up in approximetely 540 horizontal rows. HDTV promises wider TV screens (see below), and pixels in 1,080 horzontal rows. So, to compare: SIZE RATIOS: Regular (analog) TV - 1.00 : 1.33 Digital (HDTV) TV - 1.00 : 1.78 "Regular" Movies - 1.00 : 1.85 "Wide-screen" Movies - 1.00 : 2.25 This will allow DTVs to display much sharper and crisper images, and will allow most movies to be broadcast in their original form with DTV (without the cropping and "pan and scan" techniques needed to broadcast movies on TV right now). Also, digital broadcasting will allow for "CD" quality digital sound. To take advantage of DTV, you will one of two things: a "DTV" TV (which will be different from your present "analog" TV), or a TV "converter" box (similar to a cable box). Converter boxes will likely cost around $200-300 to start, but will probably end up costing $100-150 after a couple of years. A "DTV/HDTV" TV will cost you over $5000 at this time, but these prices will likely decline over time and level off at a price higher than your standard (analog) TV (which these days cost $150-300, and up). Note, though: to take *full* advantage of HDTV, you *will* need a new "DTV/HDTV" TV. Additionally, digital technology will likely help realize the promise of "interactive TV", i.e. the merging of your TV with your computer. The recent FCC ruling leaves questions in this particular area open to development by the market. The problem is that this tends to be an either/or proposition: there tends to be only enough spectrum for either HDTV, or interactive/data-intensive TV, but not necessarily for both. What this probably means is that premium movie channels (e.g. HBO, Showtime, etc.) may take advantage of HDTV before the broadcast networks do (who may opt for interactive TV over HDTV transmissions); indeed, HBO and TNT have already announced that they will soon convert to the HDTV format. All of this should be worked out over the next 2-7 years. So, where are we in the process of converting to DTV and HDTV? As of Dec. 1998, the early work has been done, some stations in some cities are broadcasting DTV/HDTV signals, and early HDTVs are available. But don't expect this process to be any where near consumer-ready until around the year 2000, at the earliest. 3.4) QUESTION: "What else has [actor] been in?" "Where have I see [actor] before?" "Who played the part of [name] in [TV show/movie]?" "What was the cast of [TV show/movie]?" A: [NOTE: The original version of this section was from a document which was written by Pete Brennan (pete@gateway.grumman.com) from a document originally posted by Colin Needham (cn@imdb.UK) of the Internet Movie Database, and which was edited by me.] [Subsequently, I have been asked by IMDb to abridge that version. What follows is the abridged version, which is mostly written by me, based on the original. Further information can be found at the IMDb web sites.] The questions above, and those similar to them, are frequently asked by Internet users. As they have numerous hyperlinks (URLs) to other sites for images, episode guides, etc., but more importantly have a massive database of movie and TV casts, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an excellent starting point for finding the answers to all your questions. It is the largest, freely available, movie/TV database in the world. Users are not only encouraged to consult the database for information, but also to add accurate information that may not yet be stored, or to correct faulty or incomplete information in the database (which happens more often then you might hope). All information comes from Internet users. The Headquarters for the IMDb database can be found through: http://www.imdb.com/ Worldwide, there are (at present) 3 different IMDb sites, including 1 in USA; they are found at: 1. USA: http://us.imdb.com/ 2. UK: http://uk.imdb.com/ 3. ITALY: http://italy.imdb.com/ Information on either an actor's filmography, or on a movie's of TV show's cast, can easily be searched for using the IMDb's search page, which can be found at (for example): http://us.imdb.com/search.html Just a sampling of the information available at IMDb includes: People (includes: actors/actresses, directors, producers, composers, etc.): o filmography (movie and TV credits (with character names when known)) o guest appearances made (incl. TV commercials) o birthdate o spouse (where applicable) o bios, triva, and much more Titles: o regular cast members (with character names when known) o notable guest appearances (for weekly TV series only) o crew (directors, producers, etc.) o genres (Comedy, Drama, etc.) o composers (check out the list of Mike Post's credits!), and much more Hyperlinks: o to sites containing images, fan pages, episode guides, etc. All movie/TV show titles are uniquely named for storage in the Internet Movie Database. Because of potential conflicts between titles, certain 'additions' to titles, the most important of which is the necessary addition of quotes (i.e. "[title]") to TV series titles (see below). The following additions are especially important if you are planning on submitting new titles to the IMDb: 1) All titles contain the title debut year/year of release in parentheses (in addition to other special notations) 2) All titles beginning with "The", "An", and "A" have these words moved to the end of the title. There are five (5) major classifications: 1) TV Series - shows running weekly episodes. Double Quotes around the name. "X-Files, The" (1993) "Friends" (1994) "King of the Hill" (1997) 2) TV Mini-Series - longer serials made for TV or made for cable. Double Quotes around the name. (mini) notation at the end. "Pandora's Clock" (1996) (mini) "Beatles Anthology, The" (1995) (mini) "Shining, The" (1997) (mini) 3) TV Movies - movies made for TV or made for cable. No quotes. (TV) notation at the end. London Suite (1996) (TV) Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!, The (1997) (TV) Riot (1997) (TV) 4) Theatrical Movies - self-explanatory. No quotes. No extra notations. Batman & Robin (1997) Empire Strikes Back, The (1980) 5) Straight-to-Video Movies - titles issued on video only. No quotes. (V) notation at the end. Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) (V) Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997) (V) As stated above, users of the IMDb can make additions or corrections to the database, but only *after* they have signed up as officially registered users of the IMDb. Such changes can be made but pushing buttons on database pages. Refer to the IMDb itself for more information on becoming a registered user of the IMDb and on making submissions and corrections to the database. For questions/comments on anything in this section, or further questions about how IMDb works, or how you can make submissions to IMDB, please refer to the IMDb sites themselves. 3.5) QUESTION: "What is a (broadcast) network?" A: A network is a collections of stations in different TV markets which combine together to show common programming at commonly defined times. Such stations may be owned directly by the network company, or they may be an independently owned stations which have entered into an agreement with the network to become a network affiliate. The "Big 3" networks are the best known networks in the U.S., and they also are the most "complete" networks. These three networks provide common programming in the morning (e.g. the morning news/talk shows), in the daytime (e.g. daytime soap operas, and talk shows), in the evening (e.g. network news), in "Prime Time" (e.g. nighttime dramas, soaps, comedies and news shows; see section 3.9 below for more info on "Prime Time"), and in late night (e.g. the late night talk shows, and latenight news). The "Big 3" achieve 100% viewing coverage in the U.S. (though after the FOX-CBS swap over the early 1990's, I am not sure whether CBS still has 100% coverage.) In foreign nations, the most "complete" networks are BBC and C4 in the U.K., CBC and CTV in Canada, ABC (Note: This stands for "Australian Broadcasting Company"; not to be confused with the U.S.'s "ABC" which stands for the "American Broadcasting Company") and C7 in Australia, and TVNZ in New Zealand. In the U.S., there are several other "baby" or smaller networks. The biggest of these is FOX, which was formed in the mid 80's from a collection of then-independent stations; as a result, FOX does not have coverage in 100% of the country like the "Big Three" networks do (FOX achieves about ~95% national coverage these days). FOX is now almost considered a "big" network, as its programming now extends beyond "Prime Time" into daytime and late night. There is also PBS, the publicly-supported network, which was formed in the late 1960's from a collection of "public" broadcast stations. PBS has nearly 100% coverage in the U.S. Finally, in 1994, two new "baby" networks were formed by Paramount and Chris-Craft (UPN) and Time/Warner Brothers (WBN) by cobbling together some of the few remaining independent stations as affiliate stations. These new networks are still well short of 100% coverage in the U.S.: WBN achieves about 90% coverage and UPN achieves about 87% coverage, from their so-called "primary affiliates". The "baby nets" then attempt to reach the remaining markets through so-called "secondary affiliates" (i.e. those stations in which the network's programs have been syndicated to local stations in markets which are not covered by the networks themselves) and through cable "super" stations. Network programming is not to be confused with programming on the "cable" networks (which do not have affiliate stations), or "syndicated" programming which is not shown at a set time and is sold independently to stations in different markets (see Section 3.10 for more information). 3.6) QUESTION: "What is the mail/E-mail address for [network]?" "What is the mail address for supporting [newtork's shows] (i.e. what is the address of the President of the Network)?" A: Here is a list that I have collected for network mail and E-mail addresses and telephone numbers. As of now it is pretty complete; though it probably does not contain all of the available (cable) network E-mail address. Included in the list are the present Presidents of the broadcast networks. Letters in favor of particular shows should be addressed to the President of the Network (it would probably be a good idea to include the name of the show you are corresponding about on the envelope). (Don't forget to also check Part 3A of this FAQ, for the "WWW Sites for US Television Networks, Etc." section (Section 1.5)!) Here is the list: U.S. BROADCAST NETWORKS: ABC: ---- E-mail address(es) : ABCPrimeSC@aol.com abcaudr@ccabc.com (for audience info) daytime@ccabc.com (for daytime) Headquarters Address : American Broadcasting Company 1330 Ave. of the Americas New York, NY 10019 (212) 456-7294 President's Address : Jamie Tarses President, ABC-TV 2040 Avenue of the Stars Los Angeles, CA 90067 (310) 557-7777 CBS: ---- E-mail address(es) : marketing@cbs.com cbso01a@prodigy.com lateshow@pipeline.com (for "The Late Show with David Letterman") Headquarters Address : Columbia Broadcasting System 51 West 52nd St. New York, NY 10019 (212) 975-4613 (212) 975-3877 (for CBS news) President's Address : Les Moonves President, CBS-TV 7800 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036 (213) 852-2345 FOX: ---- E-mail address(es) : askfox@foxinc.com Headquarters Address : FOX Broadcasting Company P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90213 (213) 856-1502 (213) 856-1481 (310) 277-2211 President's Address : Doug Hertzog President, FOX-TV (or FBC-TV) 10201 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90035 (310) 369-1000 NBC: ---- E-mail address(es) : viewersv@nbc.com viewersv@corpcomm.nbc.com nightly@news.nbc.com (for NBC Nightly News) today@news.nbc.com (for "The Today Show") Headquarters Address : National Broadcasting Company 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10020 (212) 664-2634 President's Address : Scott Sassa President, NBC-TV 3000 West Alameda Avenue Burbank, CA 91523 (818) 840-4444 PBS: ---- E-mail address(es) : www@pbs.org Headquarters Address : Public Boradcasting System ???? Alexandria, VA 22314 (202) 488-5126 President's Address : [unknown] UPN: ---- E-mail address(es) : UPNMail@aol.com Headquarters Address : United Paramount Network 11800 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90025 President's Address : Dean Valentine President, UPN 11800 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 (310) 575-7000 WBN: ---- E-mail address(es) : WBNetwork@aol.com Headquarters Address : The Warner Brothers Network 4000 Warner Blvd. Building #34R Burbank, CA 91522 President's Address : Jamie Kellner President, WB 4000 Warner Blvd. Burbank, CA 91522 (818) 977-5000 U.S. CABLE NETWORKS: Network E-Mail Address Mail Address (& Phone #) ------- --------------- ------------------------ A&E 235 E 45th St New York NY 10017 (212) 210-1340 Cartoon toonnet@aol.com CNN cnn.feedback@cnn.com ? cnn.world.news@cnn.com Atlanta, GA (for Global News) 30309 cnnglobal@aol.com (404) 827-2260 Comedy ????@comcentral.com Central Court TV (on AOL) (503) 727-9800 (questions/ comments) C-SPAN viewer@cspan.org 400 N. Capitol, cspanguest@aol.com Suite 650 (for Questions during Washington, DC live call-ins) 20001 cspanviewr@aol.com (202) 626-7963 (Viewer services and (202) 737-3323 (fax) questions) cspanprogm@aol.com (Requests for coverage) Discovery letters@discovery.com Discovery Communications, Channel Inc. (also on AOL) 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814 ESPN espnet.sportszone @starwave.com (for "SportZone") Learning (on AOL) 1-800-443-1212 Channel LIFETIME (on AOL) LIFETIME Studios 34-12 36th Street Astoria, NY 11106 MTV feedback@mtv.com MTV mtv@aol.com(?) 1515 Broadway New York, NY 10036 (also address for VH1) NICK feedback@nick-at-nite Nickelodeon .viacom.com 1515 Broadway nickmail00@aol.com New York, NY 10036 SCI-FI feedback@www.scifi.com feedback@usanetworks.com TBS Turner Broadcasting System ? Atlanta, GA 30303 (404) 827-2191 TNT TNT@turner.com lunchbox@turner.com USA feedback@USAnetwork.com 1230 Ave. of the Americas usao03a@prodigy.com New York, NY 10020 (212) 408-9100 NON-U.S. BROADCAST NETWORKS: Network E-Mail Address Mail Address (& Phone #) ------- --------------- ------------------------ BBC iac@bbc-ibar.demon.co.uk (for World Service) CBC tvnews@toronto.cbc.ca Box 500, Station A (for evening news) Toronto, Ontario ptn@toronto.cbc.ca CANADA M5W 1E6 (for "CBC Prime (416) 205-3311 Time News") 3.6.1) "What is the mail/E-mail address for [station]?" A growing number of individual TV stations have E-mail addresses. Indeed, it is too large a list for me to keep track of. Check the "Media E-mails FAQ" (see, for example, the newsgroup news.answers) for more information. Also check the "Ultimate TV" Web site, for their list of station E-mails on the followng WWW page: http://www.ultimatetv.com/tv/us/us.html 3.7) QUESTION: "Where did the term 'channel' come from?" A: [NOTE: This section, edited by me, was constructed from a post by David Chesler (chesler@world.std.com) in response to a question on this topic in rec.arts.tv.] The bandwidth of an AM radio signal is so narrow that for all practical purposes it's one point on the dial, and a station can be correctly identified as "1340 Hertz". The same is also roughly true of FM radio signals. But a TV signal takes a big chunk of the spectrum, so the FCC assigned a series of separate chunks for use in TV broadcasting back when TV was first starting. But it would have been awkward to call each chuck as "in between 45 and 55 megacycles on your dial." Besides, the TV sets were just going to have pretuned settings for each chunk of airwave anyway, so they had to call them something. At this early date in the history of TV, the term "channel" was already in use in commercial two-way radio and was used by the FCC to describe FM radio assignments (which are a lot wider, in terms of spectrum, than AM radio signals), although FM stations were still identified to the public as "93.5 on your dial." The deiniftion of a "channel" is basically a groove of finite width in the spectrum, so it embraces the idea of a wide range of frequencies, as opposed to just one frequency. It makes more sense to refer to frequencies when they are evenly spaced (as they tend to be in radio), but with the odd allocation of TV channels, a simple identifier made more sense. So the term "channel" was adopted into wide use to describe TV signals. 3.8) QUESTION: "What is 'hiatus'? What is 'cancellation'?" A: Many fans of a TV show become panic stricken when they hear that the network has put a show on "hiatus". Many equate "hiatus" with "cancellation". In fact, though, they are not the same thing: one can be temporary, the other is almost certainly permanent. When a TV show is put "on hiatus", it is removed from the schedule for *later use*. It does not necessarily mean that a particular TV show will never return to the network's schedule. Often, when a TV show is put on "hiatus", it will be "retooled" or "reworked" by the network. In this case, a TV show will often return to the network's schedule at a later date, in an altered format (examples of this over the past couple of years are "The Mommies", "The Bonnie Hunt Show" and "Central Park West"). In any case, "hiatus" is by no means an automatic death sentence for a show, as many shows have returned from hiatus and thrived (e.g. "Wings" and "Seinfeld"). Still, not all shows that are put on "hiatus" do return; most do move from "hiatus" to official "cancellation". "Cancellation" for a TV show is almost always fatal in the near term, and it is always fatal in the long term (of course!). When a show is "cancelled" it is officially pulled from the network's schedule and will not return. Few shows have come back from cancellation. Some have been "uncancelled" and returned to a network's schedule for a season or so (e.g. "Cagney & Lacey", "Quantum Leap"). Others have jumped to another network after the original network has cancelled them (e.g. "Clueless", from ABC to UPN; "JAG" from NBC to CBS; "Sister, Sister" from ABC to WBN, etc.). And a few have jumped from network TV to direct syndication and thrived there (e.g. "Baywatch", which was cancelled by NBC, and then syndicated). But when a show is cancelled, 99 times out of 100, it isn't coming back as a first-run show. (A list of shows from this season on hiatus or cancelled can be found at the WWW site for this FAQ; see Section 0.4 for more information.) 3.9) QUESTION: "What is 'Prime Time'?" A: "Prime Time" is the time at which the most people are watching television; thus it is "prime time" for advertising (to reach the most people). I have seen several different definitions for "Prime Time". Officially though, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines of primetime as the hours from 7 pm to 11 pm (Eastern/Pacific), or 6 pm to 10 pm (Central/Mountain) Sunday through Saturday. However, from 1970 to 1996, network affiliated stations in the 50 largest markets were prohibited by FCC rules from showing either network programming or former network programs, for more than 3 hours per night during Prime Time. As a result, the 8 to 11 pm (E/P) or 7 to 10 pm (C/M) time periods came to be those in which the networks would broadcast all of their prime time programs, while the remaining hour would often be filled with local or syndicated programming. The FCC's goal was to increase competition in program production and to reduce the influence of the networks. The rule was called the Prime Time Access Rule; the FCC abolished the Prime Time Access Rule on August 30, 1996. In any case, "Prime Time" is when the most watched and highest rated shows are shown. This is when the networks (and independents with syndicated programming) trot out their best dramas and comedies, and when the cable networks (and other independent stations) trot out their best movies, etc. "Prime Time" is also when sponsors are charged the highest rates for advertising. 3.10) QUESTION: "What is sweeps?" A: [NOTE: Thanks to Brad Dancer (bdancer@mindspring.com) for helpful suggestions for and additions to this section.] There are four "sweeps" periods during the year (though the fourth sweeps period in the summer is less important): November sweeps, February sweeps, May sweeps and July sweeps. It is during these "sweeps" periods (usually lasting 3-4 weeks) that the advertising rates for a network's schedule of shows (and for local channel's programming) are set with sponsors and advertisers. Sweeps start on a Thursday, and end on a Wednesday. They *always* run exactly 4 weeks. They generally take place during the following times: November sweeps : 1st week of Nov. thru 4th week of Nov. February sweeps : 1st week of Feb. thru 4th week of Feb. May sweeps : last week of April thru 3rd week of May July sweeps : 2nd week of July thru 1st week of August There are also January sweeps in 17 markets, October sweeps in 25 markets and March sweeps in the top 4 markets. It is of the upmost importance that a particular network get the highest ratings possible during these sweeps, so that they can charge higher rates from advertisers. Further, a secondary goal for the networks is to "win" the sweeps period both in terms of overall ratings and in terms of the ratings for "favorable" demographics (e.g. people 18-49, especially those 18-39 years old), again with the eye on charging higher advertising rates (and thus generating higher profits, which in turn can lead to the development of better shows, etc.). So sweeps periods are often when networks roll out "big" specials (such as miniseries, TV movies or "reunion" shows) and the "best" (i.e. controversial) episodes of some of their most popular shows. Sweeps periods are also used by local affiliates, and are considered very important by the affiliates. Still, sweeps results are but one factor in the setting of ad rates. Of these four sweeps periods, the May sweeps seem to be the most important, for two reasons. Firstly, May is most usually when shows have their season-closing episodes. Season-closing episodes (e.g. cliff-hangers) are important in helping to draw viewers back to those same shows when they premiere in the fall. Secondly (and more importantly for the network overall), the May sweeps are used to set advertising rates for the upcoming fall premiere season (though the previous November sweeps are also a factor in this process). November sweeps set the ad rates for the following spring; they are probably as important as the May sweeps, and they are used to gauge the success of new TV shows that premiere in the fall. February sweeps set the ad rates for the following summer. The least important, fourth sweeps period, is in July/August, and seem to be used to set ad rates for fall/winter. 3.11) QUESTION: "What is syndication?" A: There are two types of syndication: 1) First-run Syndication; and 2) "Back End" (or Re-run) Syndication First-run Syndication: ---------------------- [NOTE: Thanks to Karla Robinson (krobinso@merle.acns.nwu.edu) for some useful suggestions to this section and the next one.] In case you hadn't noticed, there a lot of good shows that don't make it onto network television. In some cases, they are shows produced by networks in foreign nations, but which domestic networks don't pick up. First run syndication comes about when a production company makes a show, which (maybe) has been turned down by a network or which was intended for the syndicated market all along. If a show is turned down by a network, the production company has two choices: drop the show (and take a financial loss on it; this often happens if the network owns the production company), or sell and syndicate it as a first-run show (e.g. "Babylon 5", "Star Trek: Deep Space 9", etc.). If the production comapny has chosen syndication, it will then sell the TV show directly to local TV stations on a TV-market-by- market basis. Examples of syndicated shows include most games shows, some "reality-based" TV shows, many syndicated dramas (e.g. "Star Trek: Deep Space 9", "Highlander", etc.; see below), some syndicated comedies and variety shows, and many daytime talk shows (e.g. "Oprah", "Jerry Springer", etc.). The advantage of syndication is that a production comapny can avoid a loss on an already partly-completed series (though, as above, profits are unlikely to made on the show until it is rerun in syndication). In addition, a production company need not worry about interference from a network (though they still have to worry about sponsors and the local stations that carry their show!), and can produce the show as they see fit. However, there are several disadvantages to syndcation. The first is that syndication does not guaratee that a show will be shown in every market (i.e. in a particular market, every station may choose *not* to buy the show), and thus a syndicated show may not be available to viewers in 100% (or even 90%) of the nation. The second is that the nature of syndication almost guarantees that a show will be shown at *different* times and on different days in different markets and cities. Often, syndicated shows get "graveyard" timeslots (e.g. between 12 am and 6 am). This, in turn, guaratnees more viewer confusion as to when a show is actually on, and reduces the profile of the show to potential new viewers. And of course, the advertising budget for syndicated shows is lower than for network shows, as ads sold to lesser- watched independent stations generate less revenue, which reduces a syndicated show's potential budget. Thus most shows in syndication get ratings *substantially* below that of "the Big Three" (or even "the Big Four") newtorks. Finally, there is another major disadvantage: distribution costs. It is cheap for the network to distribute programming to its affiliates; it's pretty costly for syndicators to do the same thing, though satellite technology helps a lot in this regard. A first-run syndicated show (I'm talking mostly about the drama shows here) is considered successful if it gets ratings above 3.0 points (i.e. it is profitable if it has a viewership above 3.0 ratings points). In contrast, a show on "the Big Three" networks would likely be considered unsucessful if a show's ratings were much *below* 10.0 ratings points. Recently, there has been an explosion (thank God!) of good first- run shows (e.g. drama and sci-fi) that have been syndicated. The current bounty (some might say glut) of relatively good syndicated dramas (and the occational comedy) is the direct result of the success of "Star Trek: the Next Generation", which was syndicated between 1987-1995, and which is considered by some to be the first "hit" in syndication. Here is a list of some of the popular drama and sci-fi shows that are currently in first-run syndication (to my best knowledge): Air America Baywatch The Crow: Stairway to Heaven Earth: Final Conflict Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Highlander: The Raven Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Mortal Combat: Conquest Nightman Pensacola: Wings of Gold Psi Factor S.O.F. Special Operations Force Star Trek: Deep Space 9 V.I.P. Viper Xena: Warrior Princess "Back End"/Re-run Syndication: ------------------------------ [NOTE: This infomration in this section, which was edited by me, was provided Rick Shae (rickshae@ix.netcom.com), Nick Tang (aq010@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) and Karla Robinson (krobinso@merle.acns.nwu.edu).] This type of syndication refers to the "back end" cycle of a TV program. Once a show acquires enough episodes for "stripping" (that is, to run 5 days a week), the production company then sells the show on a market-by-market basis to the highest bidder (typically). That station then has the rights to air each episode a specified number of times over a specified period of time. Often the program is also still airing on the network as is the case with "Home Improvement", "Friends", "The Nanny", "Frasier", "The X-Files", "ER", etc. It should be noted that there are two types of "rerun syndication" (my term, not an official term): "off-network syndication", when a show is rerun in syndication after 5 seasons (e.g. "Friends", "Home Improvement") or after the end of a show's run or cancellation, and "off-first-run syndication", where the reruns of first-run episodes are syndicated (most prominent example is the stripped ST:tNG episodes). Most production companies lose money producing the show for a network. A production company might get a license fee of $500,000 per episode of a half-hour comedy, while it may cost them, say, $600,000 or more to produce. The hope of the production company is that they will be able to amass enough episodes to take the show into syndication, make up the loss with syndication fees, and make a profit at this point. Programs that run only 1 or 2 (regular length) seasons are difficult to syndicate since there are too few episodes (roughly less than 40) to be successful in syndication. Those programs may be sold to cable, or they may be syndicated on a weekly basis instead of a daily (i.e. 5 days a week) basis. Or the production company could decide to produce the show on a "first run" basis (the other form of syndication; see above) and attempt to sell the show market by market. "Baywatch" is an example of this latter form of syndication. It had a limited run on a network (NBC, in the 1989-90 season), but was dropped by the network. A company called All American picked up the rights, produced new episodes and has turned the show into an international blockbuster. Now that they have amassed a larger number of episodes, the company then "back-end" syndicated the entire run for stations after the fall of 1995, and can now be seen in reruns on stations such as the USA cable network. 3.12) QUESTION: "OK. What's the longest running U.S. Primetime TV show on the air right now?" "What the longest running U.S. TV show of all time?" A: The longest running U.S. Primetime TV shows presently on the air are the following (I've tried to include a couple from each major netowrk): TV Show Net. Run. Time (Date) ------- ---- ------------------ 60 Minutes CBS 30 years (1968-pres) Monday Night Football ABC 28 years (1970-pres) 20/20 ABC 20 years (1978-pres) The Simpsons FOX 9 years (1989-pres) Beverly Hills, 90210 FOX 8 years (1990-pres) Law & Order NBC 8 years (1990-pres) Home Improvement ABC 7 years (1991-pres) Mad About You NBC 6 years (1992-pres) Dateline NBC NBC 6 years (1992-pres) The Nanny CBS 5 years (1993-pres) Walker, Texas Ranger CBS 5 years (1993-pres) Boy Meets World ABC 5 years (1993-pres) NYPD Blue ABC 5 years (1993-pres) The longest running U.S. TV shows of all time are shown in the following list. Only shows on >20 years are listed. (NOTE: Shows on >10 years are listed at the WWW site for this FAQ; see Section 0.4 for more infomration). (Note: "pres" = to the present day): [NOTE: This section, edited by me, was constructed from a post by Breck Richardson (bigk@access2.digex.net) in response to a thread on this topic in rec.arts.tv. Further corrections were provided by Mark Jeffreys (MJSaints@aol.com).] TV Show Net. Run. Time (Date) ------- ---- ------------------ Meet the Press NBC 51 years (1947-pres) The Today Show NBC 46 years (1952-pres) The Guiding Light CBS 46 years (1952-pres) The Tonight Show NBC 44 years (1954-pres) As the World Turns CBS 42 years (1956-pres) Face the Nation CBS 42 years (1954-1961; 1963-pres) ABC's Wide World of Sports ABC 37 years (1961-pres) General Hospital ABC 35 years (1963-pres) Search for Tomorrow CBS/NBC 35 years (1951-1986) CBS This Morning / CBS Morning News / etc. CBS 35 years (1963-pres) Wonderful World of NBC/CBS/ABC 35+ years (*total*) (Walt) Disney from: 29 years (1954-83, NBC; 1981-83, CBS) and then another 4.5 years (Feb. 1986 to Sept. 1990) 1 year (Sept. 1997 to present, ABC) Another World NBC 34 years (1964-pres) Days of Our Lives NBC 33 years (1965-pres) The Price is Right NBC/ABC/CBS 33 years (1956-61, NBC; 1962-64, ABC; 1972-pres; CBS) American Bandstand ABC/Syn. 32 years (1957-87, ABC; 1987-88, syn; 1988-89, USA) One Life to Live ABC 30 years (1968-pres) 60 Minutes CBS 30 years (1968-pres) All My Children ABC 28 years (1970-pres) Monday Night Football ABC 28 years (1970-pres) The Edge of Night CBS/NBC 28 years (1956-75, CBS; 1975-84, NBC) Soul Train Syn. 27 years (1971-pres) The Lawrence Welk Show ABC/Syn. 27 years (1955-71, ABC; 1971-82, syn) Phil Donahue Syn. 26 years (1970-1996) The Young and the Restless CBS 25 years (1973-pres) What's My Line? CBS/Syn. 24 years (1950-67, CBS; 1968-75, syn) Good Morning America ABC 23 years (1975-pres) Saturday Night Live NBC 23 years (1975-pres) The Ed Sullivan Show / Toast of the Town CBS 23 years (1948-1971) Hee Haw CBS/Syn. 23 years (1969-71, CBS; 1971-92, syn) To Tell the Truth CBS/Syn/NBC 22 years (1956-68, CBS; 1969-77, syn; 1990-91, NBC) 20/20 ABC 20 years (1978-pres) Gunsmoke CBS 20 years (1955-1975) Lassie CBS/Syn. 20 years (1954-71, CBS; 1971-74, syn) The Red Skelton Show CBS/NBC 20 years (1951-70, CBS; 1970-71, NBC) Secret Storm CBS 20 years (1954-1974)