Sleuth Channel not continuing the series!?

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bbert73 · #1 Post by **bbert73** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:36 pm

Has anyone noticed that the Sleuth Channel is not continuing the series? They started playing the series at the beginning of January, (Jan 1st I think) from the first episode of the 1st season. But a couple weeks ago they stopped at the end of the 3rd season and started playing it from the beginning again (Season 1). I checked The Sleuth channel website, and they will be playing the same episodes that they have already played, at least through April 30th. It comes on every evening at 6:00P.M. Central time. Right now they are coming to the end of the 1st season, again.

Can anyone shed any light on this?? I was really looking foward to seeing the beginning of the 4th season with "Home From The Sea" Episode 4.1.

Billy

grapeshot · #2 Post by **grapeshot** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:07 am

I can't shed any light on this, but I can point out that SleuthTV is owned by NBC-Universal AND that Magnum P.I. is a Universal property, so unless the viewing numbers for Magnum are really in the toilet, there's no reason to believe that they won't eventually show the other seasons. I mean, it can't be costing them very much to obtain the broadcast rights for their own property, so the viewing numbers would have to be horrible for SleuthTV to not be able to make a profit off of the advertising during the broadcasts.

If you'll notice, a lot of the other shows being broadcast on SleuthTV are also Universal or NBC properties. How can you tell? Look the show up on IMDB, and then click on the link for "company credits" on the left hand side. You'll likely see Universal TV or NBC Studios listed as at least ONE of the parties under production companies for most of the series that you're seeing on Sleuth. (Interesting sidenote: take a look at how many times Universal has tried to revive the Dragnet franchise.) In fact, its hard to find ANY series airing on SleuthTV that isn't somehow related to one of the NBC-Universal television production entities.

Otherwise, WGN is showing Magnum P.I., too. and that station may also be on your cable lineup.

It is also conceivable that the syndicated broadcast rights for the later seasons suddenly got tied up in a special syndication deal, but I doubt that.

We are fortunate the SleuthTV is showing the creme de la creme of the NBC-Universal library. I shudder to think that soon we may be getting "A Team" and "Knight Rider". (Sorry, I don't mean to offend, but I never liked those shows, and I don't think age has been kind to them.) On the other hand, Universal Television has a particularly deep library, and seeing something like "Airwolf" or "Richie Brockelman, Private Eye" might be interesting to see....in a sort of academic kind of how-do-they-look-30-years-later kind of way.

#3 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:22 pm

Hi bbert73 from South Louisiana! Welcome to Magnum Mania!

We don't have Sleuth on our, ahem, basic cable package [looks at wife], but they list the airings on their website. You're right. Sleuth is cycling through the first three seasons only, at this point. Weird.

I'll shoot 'em an email and ask them what's up.

bbert73 · #4 Post by **bbert73** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:06 pm

Thanks for the welcome James. I love your site, its very detailed and a great reference. When Sleuth started airing Magnum again, I was thrilled because I loved the show when it came out when I was a young teenager, and I haven't seen it since, until now. It's great to watch it again, reliving some great comedic moments the show has. I have missed a few episodes of the first 3 season's, and everytime I see one I've missed, I run to your site just to look for flubs, and other interesting facts each episode has. Anyway, I got satellite tv recently because the cable company pi**ed me off, and instead of "Basic cable" which was about 70 channels, now with satellite I get about 150 channels for about the same price as cable. Anyway, Thanks and keep up the good work!!
Billy

#5 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:47 am

Hey thanks, bbert73. I appreciate it, man.

Gritty · #6 Post by **Gritty** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:55 am

That's the way it's done. They'll sell the shows and certain episodes are picked and they'll be the same ones you'll see over and over again.

I've seen the same Columbos now for decades on tv and they don't ever change!!! Some better known, real hot shows like The X-Files or Seinfeld will have entire seasons rerunnin.' Columbo's been on over 30 years and you'd think they'd have some completely different shows!!!!

Magnum was first re ran here in New York going on over 10 years I think on a local channel. It went off and started running on the USA Channel for a bit and then it was a mainstay on A&E for a another bit of time.

You'll see the same shows rerun on Sleuth cause they went through their first batch of purchased episodes. They have another batch probably in the future unless they stop running Magnum alltogether and change their programming like they have already. They first started "Simon and Simon" last year and they were in good condition, showing the first shows and they started repeating them within a few months... once they changed the format a newer batch of Simon and Simon reruns started on Sleuth.

What I hate is when the episodes are edited for syndication, parts are cut out for running time. I want to bring that up in another post cause I've noticed that on some Magnum's!!!

And some of us old dudes remember that Magnum and Simon and Simon were a pretty good Thursday night combo on NBC ALL THOSE YEARS AGO!!!

Gritty

#7 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:35 pm

Hey, thanks for the info Gritty. I didn't realize that syndication packages could be purchased in "blocks". I always assumed it was an "all or nothing" deal.

And yeah, all syndication airings are trimmed to increase the time for commercials. I believe most one-hour shows are trimmed ~ 4-5 minutes, if I'm not mistaken.

I remember the MPI/Simon & Simon Thursday night combo well. But this old dude remembers it being on CBS, not NBC!

Gritty · #8 Post by **Gritty** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:16 pm

That was a big ole screw up!!!!! How the Hell did NBC get in there?!?!?

In reality a one hour show is really only 45 minutes long or so. A half hour show is really only 20 minutes long. I've seen scenes totally cut out from shows and a few from Magnum...

Will make my own post about it right now too

Gritty

grapeshot · #9 Post by **grapeshot** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:49 am

I'm not sure when it happened, but shows used to run for slightly less than 55 minutes. (52, IIRC. If you dont' believe me, watch one of the westerns like Big Valley or Alias Smith and Jones which are running in reruns, uncut, on Encore. I think back then the FCC mandated how many minutes of commercials there could be, but they no longer do that.)

And yes, now shows run for about 43 minutes, and the rest is commercials. The actual show length has been gradually reduced to the typical 43 minutes that we now get.

I don't know where Magnum episodes fell in the spectrum between 52 and 43 minutes. It's very likely that broadcasters would have to cut quite a few minutes out of each episode in order to get what today is the usual 17 minutes of commercials every hour.

I hate to see a show hacked up, too. I'm not defending the practice, but as much as we gripe and groan about it, it's the commercials that pay for the show so that we can see it for "free".

It's just another argument in favor of getting the DVDs.

Shermy · #10 Post by **Shermy** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:14 pm

Universal may not be much when it comes to extras, but at least they are including uncut episodes on the dvds. There are several shows that have not been as fortunate, and simply had their syndicated versions (or at least multiple edits in each season) released on dvd.