NationMaster - Encyclopedia: 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. Television series redirects here. ... Short subject is an American film industry term that historically has referred to any film in the format of two reels, or approximately 20 minutes running time, or less. ... â€œTelefilmâ€ redirects here. ...

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. A miniseries (sometimes mini-series), in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. ... A television movie (also TV movie, TV-movie, made-for-TV movie, etc. ...

Other forms of TV specials are one-time comedy or musical events, one-shot seasonal programs (e.g. Christmas television special), irregular documentary biatch events (usually of a sporting nature, e.g. the Olympics; or for live coverage of a popular cultural event, such as the Academy Awards), or spontaneous interruptions of active programming to cover an important news event (election coverage, however, is generally scheduled). In American television, a Christmas television special is typically a one-time, half-hour program aired during the Christmas season. ... Olympic Games Summer Olympic Games Medal count Winter Olympic Games Medal count Olympic sports Medal counts Participating NOCs Olympic symbols Olympics WikiProject Olympics Portal Athens 2004 â€¢ Beijing 2008 Torino 2006 â€¢ Vancouver 2010 ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... For other uses, see News (disambiguation). ...

NBC.com/Footer/HDTV (1236 words)
	In 1992, we performed the world's first simultaneous transmission of digital HDTV and analog television from our TV station in Washington, D.C. We later participated in establishing the final technical standard, and we hosted an industry testbed for digital HDTV broadcasting, again at our station in Washington.
	Traditional televisions use a 4 by 3 aspect ratio, which means the screens are 4 units wide by 3 units high.
	The resulting "Grand Alliance" system was developed, documented as the ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) standard, tested, and recommended to the FCC by the end of 1995.

Television special - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (204 words)
	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.
	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.

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