Television special

Television special

A television special is a television program, typically a short film or television movie, which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a special TV telecast of a theatrical film, such as "The Wizard of Oz" or "The Ten Commandments", as opposed to the telecasting of a film on a continuing movie series such as "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies", telecast from 1961 to 1978.

The term originally applied especially to major dramatized presentations of an hour or two which were broadcast during times normally occupied by episodes of one or more weekly television series, thus replacing the(se) series for a week. In the 1960s, multi-part Specials, over several days in a week, or on the same day for several weeks, evolved from this format, though these were more commonly called miniseries. At the same time, the designation "TV Special" for single-episode dramatized presentations was dropped in favor of Made-for-TV-movie, as a publicity gimmick.

Other forms of TV specials are one-time comedy or musical events, one-shot seasonal programs (e.g. Christmas television special), irregular sports events ( e.g. the Olympic Games or the Super Bowl), live coverage of a popular cultural event (such as the Academy Awards or Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade), or spontaneous interruptions of active programming to cover an important news event (election coverage, however, is generally scheduled).

ee also

*After school special


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • 25 Years (television special) — 25 Years was a three and a half hour television special beginning at 7:30pm, June 1, 1985 on Television New Zealand s TV ONE channel.The special was held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of television in New Zealand and was hosted by a variety… …   Wikipedia

  • Christmas Lights (television special) — Christmas Lights is a 2004 British Christmas television special broadcast by ITV starring Robson Green and Mark Benton and written by Jeff Pope and Bob Mills. Although originally produced as a one off 90 minute special, it spawned two spin off… …   Wikipedia

  • A Man and His Music (Television special) — Infobox music DVD Name = A Man and His Music Type = DVD Artist = Frank Sinatra Background = orange Released = 2001 Genre = Jazz Vocal Length = 50:00 Recorded = 1965 Label = Warner Bros. Records Producer = Reviews = Last DVD = This DVD = 1965 A… …   Wikipedia

  • Special — may refer to: *Special needs, a diagnosis used to classify children as needing more services than those children without special needs *Special teams, units in American football and Canadian football that are on the field during kickoffs, free… …   Wikipedia

  • Television Parts — (also known as Michael Nesmith in Television Parts ) was a summer TV series run by NBC in 1985. It was a 30 minute comedy variety series created by Michael Nesmith as a sort of continuation of his Grammy Award winning video production Elephant… …   Wikipedia

  • Television film — Telefilm redirects here. For the Canadian government s film and television funding agency, see Telefilm Canada. MOTW redirects here. For the band commonly abbreviated as such, see maudlin of the Well. A television film (also known as a TV film,… …   Wikipedia

  • Television movie — articleissues disputed=August 2007 confusing=August 2007 refimprove=December 2006 tone=August 2007 essay=November 2007A television movie (also known as a television film, TV film, TV movie, TV movie, feature length drama, made for TV movie,… …   Wikipedia

  • special — 1 / speSFl/ adjective 1 not ordinary or usual but different in some way and often better or more important: a special case, deserving special treatment | diabetics on a special diet | special occasion (=an important social event): I keep this… …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • Television in Australia — began as early as 1934 in Brisbane with experimental transmissions by amateur station VK4CM.cite web title = Birth of Our Nation publisher = Brisbane Courier Mail url = http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/federation/Timelines/CMFedTimelineNa… …   Wikipedia

  • Television content rating systems — give viewers an idea of the suitability of a television program for children or adults. Many countries have their own television rating system and each country s rating process may differ due to local priorities. Programs are rated by either the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”