According to a forum post by an angry viewer, TBS paused Everyone Loves Raymond right at a critical point in the final scene to promote another show by animating a graphic across the screen. “It hit a spot on the screen and the show ‘paused’ mid-joke,” writes Devanchya. “Then went back to the show for another 10 seconds so the joke could finish before going to regular commercials. Oh I am so pissed.”
Adds DWS below: “I saw this and while I found it annoying – TRULY – it did not pause before the punch line, it was just after the punch line while I was still laughing. From a technology POV, it was creative and smart. From a consumer POV – annoying as hell!”
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I saw this and while I found it annoying – TRULY – it did not pause before the punch line, it was just after the punch line while I was still laughing.
From a technology POV, it was creative and smart. From a consumer POV – annoying as hell!
Knowing that show, the punchline wasn’t funny anyway.
These in-program advertisements are SO annoying – they are taking up larger and larger portions of the screen and are getting increasingly more intrusive.
“and are getting increasingly more intrusive.”
TBS: “Watch us all the time. Then we won’t feel we have to do that.”
I doubt that these animated ads cause anyone to watch the show advertised. Generally, people either know what they want to watch when one show goes off, or they channel surf.
Those large pop-up ads are getting more and more obnoxious. I like The Closer, but I don’t want that big graphic of Kyra Sedgwick sweeping her flashlight across whatever other show I’m watching. And FX’s promos are getting increasingly bad, too. Pretty soon, our shows will just be shown on one half of the TV screen so the other half can feature those large, interactive ads.
Unfortunately we live in a VTR/DVR/TIVO world where we can zip past commercials in a breeze. The byproduct of these modern conveniences is programmers and advertisers work harder to get our attention. To do this they embed obnoxious, intrusive and invasive ads in the programming stream so we are forced to watch them. Not only am I appalled at such a gratuitous grasp on our viewing time I also cannot help but wonder what the director/producer of the program feels about the altering of his/her story line.
Personally I will go out of my way to avoid watching a program or purchasing a product that uses such tactics to force me to watch their ads.
UPDATE TO MY ABOVE POST of 7-16-07: Seven days ago I sent TBS an e-mail through their website under the “Contact Us” tab. The e-mail was well worded and not threatening. I complained about their inserts as discussed in this forum. I am yet to receive a response. To this writer that sends a loud and clear message about how much they care for comments from their viewer base. This is one viewer that they lost.
I know this thread is from like a year ago but they just paused family guy to promote bill engvall. I turned off the program and I don’t plan on watching TBS anymore.
I too am watching TBS for Family Guy, and cannot believe how annoying they are to a loyal viewerbase for such a boring sitcom as Bill Engvall’s.
I saw a recently aired re-run regarding his “midlife crisis” and need for a motorcycle that I’m sure was a rehashed “Home Improvement” plot, and cannot believe how heavily promoted it is.
I’m not going to stop watching Family Guy. I’m definitely no more amused by pop-up ads interrupting my viewing on TV than I am on the web, and hope this doesn’t catch on.
Yeah i just saw bill engvall pause family guy also, In case any TBS execs are reading this. THIS RUINS THE SHOW YOU IDIOTS! IT MAKES PPL HATE BILL FRICKING ENGVALL WHO FOR SOME REASON DONT ALLREADY!!!! QUIT MESSING WITH TV SHOWS OR YOU WILL FIND YOURSELVES THE NEW NICK AT NITE!
Saw the same thing. Searching the TBS website for an email address in order to complain
Funny! I just saw the same pause/ad garbage at 9:20ish tonight. What is with TBS? If you go to their website you can go to the “Contact Us” link to send an email. It probably won’t accomplish much, but it made me feel a lot better!
Here’s what I sent them:
Dear TBS,
I have to say, you have reached a new low, and I’m stunned. As I was watching Family Guy this evening I was becoming increasingly annoyed at the large pop-up ads that were showing up for the “Dear God, Please Watch This Hideous Piece of Crap” a.k.a. House of Payne show. Truly, do those ads need to take up 1/3 to 1/2 of the screen? But around 9:20 p.m. you topped those with a pop-up ad for the Bill Engvall show. He sauntered into the bottom third of the screen and PAUSED THE SHOW in the middle of a scene! Then gave some inane ad pitch, and unpaused the action. Really, TBS? Is that show really worth interrupting another show? Is it worth interrupting a joke on Family Guy? Is it worth losing a viewer? I’m sure you’re catering to the lowest common denominator with that tripe. The sort of unbraching family tree, mayonnaise sandwich eating, rebel flag waving troglodyte who thinks “Git ‘er done” is comedy genius. I used to enjoy your channel for the Family Guy line up, but with these incessant ads plus the loss of the Braves this year, I find I no longer have a reason to watch. I’ll stick to my DVDs. Better yet, I’ll crack open a book
If you will note my post above I commented on this back in July 2007. I encourage everyone to complain but be warned as I noted in Reply # 8 that comments to the website seem to either not be read or TBS takes a “We don’t give a damn†attitude to viewer comments and suggestions. To date I still have not received an acknowledgement of my three e-mails to TBS.
I am not surprised that TBS is back to their old tricks but I would not have known unless I read these recent comments. I have removed/blocked the TBS channel from my receiver so I will not even surf through the channel. I have not watched the channel since July 2007 and I do not ever intend to view TBS or their shows again because of their antics and cocky attitude.
The bottom line here is that we as consumers have choices now. I refused to be exploited by guerrilla marketing tactics and have made an educated choice not to view the offending network. That, my friends, is Power!
Bilka
I saw this and it made my blood BOIL. I swear i’m going to stop watching family guy on TBS because of this. What a loss to them this is going to be. I used to watch all four episodes one after another: now I’m going to watch NONE on tbs. It was the worst insult to a viewer I’ve ever seen, and an insult to the show too. Whoever came up with this idea needs to be fired – NOW.
What a stupid, idiotic, retarded, insulting, cheap, utterly F**king stupid idea. When it first happened I *couldnt believe my eyes*. I couldnt believe that they just did that. And then in the following show it happened again and my eyes popped out of my head: it wasnt a mistake, its actually their campaign! I hope TBS pays SEVERELY for this. I hope they go out of business, I really really really do, just for having thought of this and just for having had the STUPIDITY to implement it and think that viewers will just let it go by. Who are these CLOWNS running TBS?
Mute the TV or switch channels. It helps. I can’t quit watching FG for this but it is total BS.
I love family guy, watch it every night after work, after I take the time and money to DVR it so that I can fast-forward all those annoying commercials. When I first saw this, I was uhh…
outraged!
insulted!
annoyed!
and especially upset that I honestly couldn’t enjoy the show that I PAY TO WATCH. Sorry TBS, even if people do watch the Bill Engvall show, now they surely will not. F*** you tbs, get your act together.
wtf?…I was just watching an episode of Family Guy and Bill Engvall paused the show to promote his lame show. Then the show went on again just to take a commercial break. I better see Peter or Stewie interrupting his show to do a little promoting!
Update – I got a generic, “Thank you for your response. Your comments have been forwarded on to the appropriate person…” blah blah blah. I’m sure that will be the last I hear from them.
Oh well. At least we’ve got Adult Swim and DVDs to turn to. I know that the Cartoon Network is owned by the same parent company as TBS, but at least the powers that be there understand how to broadcast a decent show.
Keep sending them letters & emails! Maybe if enough people do they’ll get the message.
Congratulations Linda! That is better than I got last year.
Bilka
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@ Linda | June 16th, 2008 at 7:45 am SAID:
Update – I got a generic, “Thank you for your response. Your comments have been forwarded on to the appropriate person…†blah blah blah. I’m sure that will be the last I hear from them.
Oh well. At least we’ve got Adult Swim and DVDs to turn to. I know that the Cartoon Network is owned by the same parent company as TBS, but at least the powers that be there understand how to broadcast a decent show.
Keep sending them letters & emails! Maybe if enough people do they’ll get the message.
I AGREE WITH ALL THOSE PEOPLE.I HATE ALL THAT ADVERTISING ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TV.I USED TO WATCH EVERYONE LOVES RAYMOND ON THAT STATION BUT NOW IT SEEMS LIKE THEY TOOK IT OFF.I AM GLAD I DO NOT HAVE TO PUT UP WITH ALL THAT MESS INTERRUPTING MY VIEW TO WATCH A PROGRAM,THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW THAT FORBIDS ALL THAT.I USED TO ENJOY WATCHING TV BUT NOW I WILL PLAY MY DVR’S AND CD’S AND MAYBE GET BACK TO READING A BOOK.I THINK I WILL BLOCK THAT STATION ON MY TV ALSO.THERE ARE A LOT OF OTHER PROGRAMS THAT DO NOT PLAY THAT STUFF.
I AGREE WITH ALL THOSE PEOPLE.I HATE ALL THAT ADVERTISING ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TV.I USED TO WATCH EVERYONE LOVES RAYMOND ON THAT STATION BUT NOW IT SEEMS LIKE THEY TOOK IT OFF.I AM GLAD I DO NOT HAVE TO PUT UP WITH ALL THAT MESS INTERRUPTING MY VIEW TO WATCH A PROGRAM,THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW THAT FORBIDS ALL THAT.I USED TO ENJOY WATCHING TV BUT NOW I WILL PLAY MY DVR’S AND CD’S AND MAYBE GET BACK TO READING A BOOK.I THINK I WILL BLOCK THAT STATION ON MY TV ALSO.THERE ARE A LOT OF OTHER PROGRAMS THAT DO NOT PLAY THAT STUFF.THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I WROTE THIS.I EMAILED THE CABLE CO.QUITE A WHILE AGO BUT NOT TO TBS.
When they put those annoying little ads at the bottom or side of the screen. It started out small and now they almost take half of the screen.
They are getting more and more annoying with animation and now they add sound just to make it worse.
Others make it stay there through the whole show. Others turn it on when you need to see the bottom of the screen.
These people who do this call themselves professional, this isn’t what I would call professional. A professional would know not to mess with people’s entertainment.
I haven’t seen anything online, why aren’t people complaining big time?
Ad-Crawlers – Bugs on Your Screen
I would say that viewers ARE complaining, Tram but the networks are not listening. As obnoxious as these things are the reality is that DVRs, VCRs and TiVo are allowing viewers to skip past the commercials with ease and impunity. That was the time slot in which these things were previously seen. Now they make them part of the content to “be sure†you will see their message. One is not going to fast scan through program content so what better place to put their ads.
I think another reason is to deliberately prevent the pilfering of content. You probably will not want to record a favorite movie to keep in your archives if it contains animations that consume the entire lower third of the screen every ten minutes. You are more likely to go out and purchase the flick. Corporate America = One; American Consuming Public = Zero… I am sure you get the picture. This is just another way to force viewers into viewing advertisements.