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Minisode Network Condenses TV Shows to Under Six Minutes

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the readers-digest-television dept.

CNN is reporting on a (relatively) new website called the Minisode Network that allows users to watch popular television shows that have been strategically condensed down to somewhere between four and six minutes. "Don't think of the Minisode Network as a brand-new Web site. Think of it as a long-overdue public service. That is, who among us hasn't felt the double-edged sword of our media age: So much video from TV, DVDs, the Internet and even cell phones ... but too little time to watch it all? The Minisode Network has a solution. Launched in June as a broadband channel on the MySpace site, it offers, for our streaming pleasure, episodes of vintage Sony Pictures Television series like 'Silver Spoons,' 'Starsky & Hutch,' 'Diff'rent Strokes' and even Ricki Lake's talk show."

28 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. hmm by Winckle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is this a rather sad reflection of today's culture?

    Or am I just being outmoded and stubborn?

    1. Re:hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you want a sad reflection on todays culture, consider that most Hollywood movies would benefit from being cut down to 6 minutes.

    2. Re:hmm by ChrisMounce · · Score: 3, Funny

      tl;dr

    3. Re:hmm by g0dsp33d · · Score: 3, Funny

      2 minutes previews and 4 minutes credits? What is going to be in the previews? The credits?

      --
      lol: You see no door there!
    4. Re:hmm by Aladrin · · Score: 2

      Yesterday's culture, you mean. All the shows are from 20 years ago.

      I don't doubt that today's shows could receive the same treatment with the same results, though. Nothing changes. TV will always be 90% fluff and commercials as long as it's how they make money, and it doesn't appear that other money sources are likely.

      I had hoped to see shows like Kyle XY on there, that I like the story but the majority of the ep is fluff. Grey's Anatomy (ow, gimme back my geek card!) too. Oddly, Lost is one of the shows that wouldn't benefit, as there are too many little hidden things that you notice later.

      --
      "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
    5. Re:hmm by g0dsp33d · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Back in my day we used to have to pay attention for 30 minutes...

      That's it. I'm investing all my money in ADD medicines.

      --
      lol: You see no door there!
    6. Re:hmm by Bullfish · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, you're outmoded and stubborn. I bet you read books printed on paper too

    7. Re:hmm by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Is this a rather sad reflection of today's culture?"

      Maybe. Or maybe it's a reflection of how hard (or easy) it is to squeeze a story into exactly 22 minutes.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    8. Re:hmm by Seumas · · Score: 2

      I don't see a problem with it. Personally, I'm a busy person. A lot of professionals have very busy careers, then they may have personal projects that they hope to turn into a business some day. Then they have hefty hobbies of some sort. Some also have family to deal with. The last thing they want to waste time on is a three hour movie or an hour long television show with twenty-two minutes of commercials.

      I have a habit of listening to podcasts or books on audio or even radio talk shows like Rick Emerson at as much as double speed. I listened to John Stewart's American History book in this fashion and ran through it very quickly, without missing the actual content.

      Do I wish there were enough time to sit back and watch a three hour hour movie in real time, spend twelve hours reading a huge tome of fiction or listen to music while staring into a black night room? I sure do. But I don't have that kind of time. Sorry.

      Is it a sad reflection of today's culture? I can't really comment on that. Perhaps as a country that spends more days and hours working than any other nation on the planet and takes the least vacations, we have less and less available time for other things. Leisurely entertainment falls to the wayside. I just know that every time I sit down to read a lengthy non-technical, non-career related book, I am constantly thinking "I should be writing code on my personal project. I should be finishing some stuff at work. I should be building a new computer for my little sister away at college.".

    9. Re:hmm by kebes · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One interpretation is that it's sad that people don't have the attention span to watch a 30-minute show, and would rather watch a 5-minute compressed version of it.

      Another interpretation is that it's sad that the content in question is so bad, so filled with fluff and useless scenes, that it can be comfortably compressed by a factor of 6 with little loss in intelligent commentary or entertainment value.

      Frankly I don't think many people are going to want to watch compressed versions of Schindler's List. But many shows truly are needlessly long and slow-moving (the intention, I suppose, it to increase the ratio of commercials to production dollars). I think a crappy hour-long show could conceivably be compressed into an entertaining 5-minute show by a talented editor. In fact, many movie trailers (which are only a few minutes long) are quite a bit more compelling, funny, and entertaining than the full-length movies they advertise. Some things are really not worth an hour of my time. But 5 minutes? Maybe.

    10. Re:hmm by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's a great idea! I'll also invest all my money into SUB... erm.

      MOV... no...

      SHR... that's not it either...

      ah, now I remember! NOP medicines.

    11. Re:hmm by fritzbrown · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You do have the time to enjoy a good book or movie, you choose not to. Nothing wrong with that, though I'd be willing to bet that if you actually read John Stewart's book you'd realize that you missed quite a bit of content.

      I'm a busy person also but if a one hour television show can be cut down to six minutes and retain it's story, it isn't worth watching at any length.

  2. huh by aquabat · · Score: 3, Interesting
    This reminds me of those old half hour versions of Knight Rider they used to show on Saturday mornings. They would edit out all the drama dialogue, so that all that was left were the Hoff talking to his Firebird and Lots of Turbo boosts. Basically only scenes with action music under them.

    They're doing the same thing with Holmes on Homes, on HGTV. Personally, I can't stand it, but I'm one of those guys who always waits for the extended edition of a film to be released before buying it.

    I guess I like my entertainment for the nutrition, rather than the taste.

    --
    A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
    1. Re:huh by hob42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On GSN, they compress Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for extra commercial space too. Though you can't catch the dropped frames, it's pretty obvious when everyone's voices suddenly go up in pitch by a few steps.

    2. Re:huh by dangitman · · Score: 4, Funny

      Being older and wiser you can see plain as day that the plot structure was basically the same on every show... almost down to the very second the plotline would unfold the same way.

      Michael: Faster, Knight Boat! We gotta catch those starfish poachers.
      Knight Boat: You don't have to yell, Michael, I'm all around you.
      Michael: Oh, no! They're headed for land.
      Michael: We'll never catch them now.
      Knight Boat: Incorrect--look! A canal.
      Homer: Go, Knight Boat, go!
      Bart: Oh, every week there's a canal.
      Lisa: Or an inlet.
      Bart: Or a fjord.
      Homer: Quiet! I will not hear another word against the boat.
      Marge: OK, TV off. It's family time.
      Homer: Oh, but Marge! Knight Boat, the crime-solving boat!
      Marge: Homer, you promised. One night of family time a week. Besides, that back-talking boat sets a bad example.
      Bart: Says you, woman.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
    3. Re:huh by VGPowerlord · · Score: 2, Informative

      Knight Boat clip.

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  3. Today on Maury... by KillerCow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who's the father of Kisha's baby? Tyrone.

    Tune in next week!

    1. Re:Today on Maury... by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Funny

      As for the out-of-control-teens episodes, those can usually be summed up in one word:

      "Whatever."

  4. Been there shun that by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've noticed they've been compressing Trek reruns by dropping occassional frames. It creates jerky motions that are annoying, such as when a ship glides by. It also seems to occasionally scramble a word or two. I think I would rather have a human decide where to cut than randomly drop frames, although both suck.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  5. Blipverts! by geoff+lane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm more and more convinced that TV companies think that Max Headroom is a model to copy rather than a warning.

    1. Re:Blipverts! by Ginnungagap42 · · Score: 2, Funny

      / Checks to see if somebody mentioned blipverts. Yup. Very good. Carry on.

  6. You don't have to watch everything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...a long-overdue public service... So much video from TV, DVDs, the Internet and even cell phones ... but too little time to watch it all?"

    I don't think it's a service to the public. Nobody needs to watch everything. Sometimes it's better if you don't - if you don't have the time or don't want to put in an effort. Just because you have read the 40-pages condensed version, don't think that you have actually read the novel or play. You have not. The creation of half-informed population does not help to face the ever increasing complexity of issues that the society needs to address.

  7. Genius! by SinGunner · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is the perfect thing for anime!

  8. Finally! by captainboogerhead · · Score: 5, Funny

    A non-infuriating way to watch Lost.

  9. Contentless programmes? by jareth-0205 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think by far the scariest thing about this site is how the episodes don't seem to have lost anything in the edit.

  10. Re:Speed Watching by kebes · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For awhile I used to watch the evening news using this method. I had my MythTV set to record the 6-o'clock news, so that when I got home I would watch it at high-speed. By skipping commercials and segments I wasn't interested in (especially the numerous fluff pieces), and by setting the playback speed to ~150%, I could watch an hour of news in 8-12 minutes.

    It worked fine, and taught me that TV has a very high ratio of filler to content.

  11. Unfortunately... by WereRaven · · Score: 2, Funny

    Half of each minisode is taken up by the "Previously on Lost" segment.

  12. Ahem... by JRHelgeson · · Score: 2, Funny

    ADHDTV anyone?

    --
    Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.