The Scripted TV Project: 1971 vs. 2011
Photo: lilie/sxc.hu
Which year’s primetime schedule offered viewers more original scripted programming?
The most glaring difference between the 2011 primetime grid and the 1971 version is how many more movies were on the schedule then. Of course, many of these were made for television, a fading genre whose quality has historically been all over the map. But many were also theatrical titles seeing television premieres, a trend that exists today on pay networks and cable outlets such as FX.
Since it was unclear which movies were theatricals making their TV debuts and which were made-for-TV, each network has a scripted percentage without movies, and then with them.
While some variety shows had skits and other heavily scripted elements, for the purposes of this analysis I’m considering those as unscripted. It’s safe to say that shows led by Glen Campbell and Dean Martin veered more into musical performance territory, for example.
Specific shows listed are a random sample from that network’s lineup. You may wish to see a full primetime grid for 1971.
ABC 1971
- Scripted shows: The Mod Squad, Marcus Welby M.D., Bewitched, Love American Style
- Movie nights: Sunday, Tuesday, Saturday
- Sports: Monday Night Football
| ABC | 1971 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|
| Scripted hours | 14 | 12 |
| Unscripted hours | 0 | 7 |
| Movie hours | 5 | 0 |
| Sports hours | 2.5 | 3 |
| Total PT hours | 21.5 | 22 |
| Percent scripted | 55.8% | 54.5% |
| w/ movies | 79.0% | 54.5% |
CBS 1971
- Scripted shows: Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-0, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
- Unscripted shows: The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, The Carol Burnett Show
- Movie nights: Sunday, Thursday, Friday
| CBS | 1971 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|
| Scripted hours | 13.5 | 16.5 |
| Unscripted hours | 2 | 4 |
| Movie hours | 5.5 | 0 |
| Sports hours | 0 | 0 |
| Total PT hours | 21 | 20.5 |
| Percent scripted | 64.2% | 80.5% |
| w/ movies | 90.4% | 80.5% |
NBC 1971
- Scripted shows: Bonanza, Ironside, Adam-12, Night Gallery
- Unscripted shows: Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, The Flip Wilson Show, The Dean Martin Show
- Movie nights: Monday, Friday, Saturday
| NBC | 1971 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|
| Scripted hours | 11 | 10 |
| Unscripted hours | 3 | 5 |
| Movie hours | 6 | 0 |
| Sports hours | 0 | 4 |
| Total PT hours | 20 | 19 |
| Percent scripted | 55.0% | 52.6% |
| w/ movies | 85% | 52.6% |
Results
| 1971 | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|
| Scripted average (all networks) | 57.4% | 62.5% |
| Average w/ movies | 83.4% | 62.5% |
You provided no explanation as to how you decided what counted as “PT Hours”, nor did you explain why the networks seem to vary on thier “PT Hours” totals. Regardless, your programing breakdown for ABC in 1971 doesn’t add up – you only included 19.5 hours of programing, and you represented it as 21.5 hours, This, when looking at the year 1971, skews your data about 3%.
Thanks for catching that math error with ABC. I double-checked the listings and corrected the math.
I counted primetime hours as scheduled network programming between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Central time. The listings I consulted for 1971 can be found here: http://epguides.com/grid/pastgrids.asp?gridYear=1971+fall
In 1971, networks regularly programmed at least part of the 6 p.m. hour. This created an unusual variation between them as to total primetime hours, which accounts for the disparity between them. I did not count local programming time in this analysis.
If networks scheduled repeats in primetime, I removed that time from the total because I don’t think repeats of scripted shows should be counted more than once. Though this didn’t occur in 1971, it does occur in later years, most notably in the projected fall 2011 lineups.