A series or radio program belonging to the drama genre that lasts about 30 minutes. It originated on radio, with several Radio Drama following the format.
This format was fairly common in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly for Soap Operas and Sunday Evening Drama Series, but has fallen out of use in favor of the Dramatic Hour Long. In The '70s, most soaps in the United States switched to an hour-long format. The format was more common in the United Kingdom, and still is to a degree, probably because that half-hour doesn't get quite as severely whittled down by commercial breaks. This is now becoming something of a dead trope.
Latterly, however, British sitcoms are deliberately trimmed to the 21-minute mark which is standard for North America, with one eye on lucrative American sales. Pre-producing them so American-length commercial breaks can be inserted without the need for obtrusive edits now appears to be standard. For domestic broadcast, this fits in with the BBC's obsessive need to broadcast trailers —effectively internal advertising— which bite into the half-hour slot as deeply as adverts do in the USA.
The format saw a resurgence happen in the late 2010s (known among TV observers as Peak TV) thanks to the less rigid format allowed by the absence of ads on streaming services and some cable channels.
Contrast Sitcom, which often last half an hour too but belong to the comedy genre.
Examples:
Live-Action TV
- Adam-12
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- All My Children (until 1977)
- Another World (until 1975)
- As the World Turns (until 1975)
- The Barbara Stanwyck Show
- Barry
- The Bill (some seasons)
- Black Saddle
- The Bold and the Beautiful
- Californication
- Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
- Colonel March of Scotland Yard
- Coronation Street
- Danger Man (season one only)
- Days of Our Lives (until 1975)
- Decoy
- Degrassi:
- Dimension X
- Dixon of Dock Green
- Doctor Who (the classic series, with the exception of Season 22 in 1985, where the format was briefly changed to 45 minutes)
- Dr. Kildare (season 5 only)
- Dragnet
- Eastenders
- The Edge of Night
- Emmerdale
- Flight 29 Down
- Forensic Files
- General Hospital (until 1976)
- The Girlfriend Experience
- Guiding Light (between 1968 and 1977, when it was extended to 60 minutes; before 1968 each episode was only 15 minutes long)
- Gunsmoke (Seasons 1-6. The show went to an hour with season 7)
- The Green Hornet
- Hero Corp (seasons 1 & 2)
- Homecoming
- Honey West
- Love of Life
- Loving
- M*A*S*H (The later seasons, when it stopped being a sitcom)
- The Mandalorian (All episodes so far have been between 35 and 38 minutes)
- Maniac (2018) (though its episodes are often 40-ish minutes long, it is nominally a half-hour show)
- Mr. Inbetween
- One Life to Live (until 1976)
- Peter Gunn
- Port Charles
- The Rat Patrol
- Search for Tomorrow (expanded from 15 minutes in 1968)
- Spynet
- Sorry For Your Loss
- Sweetbitter
- Tales of the Unexpected
- A Teacher
- The Twilight Zone (seasons 1, 2, 3, and 5. Season 3 of The Revival)
- Vida
- Wanted: Dead or Alive
- The Young and the Restless (until 1980)
- Z Cars
- Zombie Detective
Radio
- The Lone Ranger (proving this trope is Older Than Television)
Western Animation
