When the credits roll on a TV show...

It used to be that the length of an hour long TV Drama was around 50 minutes (or even 53 minutes for some episodes of The Original Star Trek Series). Sitcoms could last for as long as 25 to 30 minutes.

In today's modern, advertising friendly world, this is completely unacceptable. As advertising space has increased, actual running time, actual story space (the essence of what happens in the drama) has gone down to as little as 42 minutes for an hour-long show and 18 to 19 minutes for a sitcom that is supposed to be 30 minutes long.

A similar trend has been observed on Documentaries or even Faux-Documentaries as seen on The History Channel. Case in point the show "Ancient Aliens".

The problem, however, is not so much the reduction in content, which conceivably could cause a decrease in quality, but rather what happens when the credits roll in the end...

Too many shows─as of late─have been using the end (closing) credits to actually conclude the show. By that, I mean, they finish telling the story that has been running throughout the episode during the closing credits. I find this astounding and distracting as well as in bad form. The biggest culprit of this is the ABC show: Suburgatory.

 However, other networks do this quite a lot. I mentioned the History Channel previously. They do this on almost all of their shows, including Ancient Aliens.

Why are TV Networks doing this?

The only thing I have figured out is that it's a tool they use against the users of DVR recording like myself. They actually want people to watch their shows LIVE. What a concept! Watch a TV show LIVE? That is so outdated and outmoded! With DVR technology and time-shifting and the power to watch what I want, when I want, YOU, the TV Networks will never have that power over me. If you continue to insist and play these game with the closing credits, one of two things are going to happen:

1. I, and many viewers like me, will give up on your stupid show.
2. Or, we will continue to time shift, ignoring your pathetic attempts to block us.

Please understand, the technology is here, the tool is powerful, and it give us control over our lives. And control is all about making our lives better. So no, we will not give in to you. So, give up this obsession of running your show during the closing credits. IT'S ANNOYING! Thanks.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Contributor has a best seller

Why doesn't that surprise me? Of course he does! His name is Dr. Sanjay Gupta! Oh look, he wrote a novel! And oh look, we constantly advertise it and promote it on our crawl at the bottom of all our stations, there fore it becomes a best-seller:

Monday Mornings

Of course one has to answer the question: If he was not a CNN contributor / reporter, would his book be promoted as much? Probably not. And if it was not promoted as much, would people buy it to make it a best-seller? Probably not!

Dr. Gupta's New Novel

I am not going to make any qualitative statements about this book, and neither am I going to read it or review it, unless CNN and/or Dr. Sanjay Gupta sends me a FREE copy. why the heck should I read it? What makes it such a great read after all? Because some TV personality wrote it? How about  the two novels I've written? How would they become best-sellers? See how that works?

Precisely...No one, at least in the real world, cares.