How did the hour-long drama, half-hour animation and comedy format arise?
It makes sense for TV channels to broadcast with their schedules divided into half-hour chunks, so that (including ads where applicable) 30, 60 and 90-minute episodes are typical. The half-hour comedy format has been prevalent in UK and US TV since at least the 1950s (e.g. Hancock's Half Hour and I Love Lucy), and animations in Japan, the UK and the US have long also had a half-hour format.
I think the hour-long drama format is a more recent standard, since for example The Quatermass Experiment and Dragnet both used a half-hour format in the 1950s, but again it applies to both the UK and US. Though usually child-friendly, Doctor Who is clearly intended as a drama, and experimented with an episode-doubling format in 1985, only to then abandon it until 2005, when it stuck. Whether this is because a tolerance for longer dramas became locked in c. 1990 I don't know.
How and when did these conventions develop? How independent were nations' paths with this? In particular, how far did the US influence the UK and Japan?
Pictures about "How did the hour-long drama, half-hour animation and comedy format arise?"
How do you structure a half-hour dramedy?
Structure of a Half-Hour DramaCan TV drama be half an hour?
The half-hour drama also reflects where the real creative energy is in TV today. Some of the best work is happening in half-hour hybrids \u2014 \u201cTransparent,\u201d \u201cBetter Things,\u201d \u201cAtlanta\u201d and \u201cBarry,\u201d to name a few \u2014 that are \u201ccomedies\u201d for awards purposes but half drama, or more, in substance.What Happens When You Don’t Skip the Ads (feat. Brendan Scannell)
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Jeff Nissen, stein egil liland, willsantt, Pixabay