Public Broadcasting Service: Difference between revisions

Whereas an NBC or CBS affiliate is owned for profit, such is not really the purpose of a PBS station.  Therefore few have the ability to stand completely on their own, receiving only the donations of their viewers and federal grants.  Most require a physical presence at or near universities, if only to get a financial discount on their physical plant.  Many PBS stations so located also have a reduced overall labor cost than their completely independent counterparts, because they can easily get interns to work in the studios.  Many PBS stations also choose to be located close to universities because much of their local documentary programming is easier to create if they are close to local scholars who provide the on-air talent.   

PBS broadcasts of ''Doctor Who'' in the 1980s and 1990s often used an "omnibus" format. Instead of airing each individual episode on a weekly or daily basis, each [[serial]] was edited together into a movie format. This meant that individual broadcasts could be as short as 45 minutes (for broadcasts of 2-episode stories), to 90 minutes which was the most common length for airing a stiched-together four-episode story, to a four hour marathon in the case of ''[[The War Games]]'' (''[[The Trial of a Time Lord]]'', however, was never broadcast as a single omnibus, but was aired in four installments broken down by the generally-defined story arcs - three 90-minute episodes followed by a 45-minute conclusion). Due to the independent nature of affiliate stations, however, viewers in one part of the United States often had a very different experience of ''Doctor Who'' than those in another. Some stations exclusively aired omnibus editions, some never did. And some stations broadcast omnibuses on the weekend, while transmitting standard episodes during the week.

The omnibus format varied in quality with regards to episode transitions. Sometimes cliffhangers were edited together smoothly, while other times the "electronic scream" episode-ending sound effect and sometimes a few moments of the episode opening credits were accidentally left in (this occurred frequently with Davison-era episodes). Some Pertwee omnibus episodes would switch from color to black and white and back again in the case of serials where only B&W prints of some episodes survived; ''[[Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]'' was the only incomplete serial to be broadcast by PBS, with its then-missing first episode omitted (when the missing episode was recovered, a complete omnibus was compiled).

The omnibus style broadcasts were not universal; for example, California station [[wikipedia:KTEH|KTEH]] would run episodes individually on weeknights, and as an omnibus late on one weekend night. PBS affiliates also produced their own documentaries based upon the series, utilizing behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew at American Doctor Who conventions. KTEH, notably, would bring some of the actors portraying the Doctor to their studio to film original interviews (as well as meet American fans).

When the ''Doctor Who'' resumed producation again in [[2005]], PBS did not initially receive broadcast rights to the newer episodes, which instead went to the [[Syfy|Sci Fi Channel]], and in 2009 the rights for first broadcast were taken over by [[BBC America]]. However, PBS affiliates subsequently received rebroadcast rights to [[Series 1 (Doctor Who)|Series 1]] of ''Doctor Who'' starring [[Christopher Eccleston]]. These episodes aired in summer of 2007 and [[Series 2 (Doctor Who)|Series Two]] episodes aired in the summer of 2008. Individual PBS affiliates as of 2010 have been airing not only [[Series 4 (Doctor Who)|Series 4]] episodes, but also installments of ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]''.