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Topic: Salem's Lot (1979)

9th Aug 2021, 7:02 PM
	Twistin Member since Jan 2012 2057 Points	While that book may have referred to it as a mini-series, I still contend that a 2-part TV movie was never considered a mini-series in the mainstream until IMDb re-defined its listings. As influential as IMDb may be, they never considered this for the majority of their existence, then suddenly every 2-part TV movie was changed on their site to mini-series, each part defined as an episode. In the 60s & 70s, Disney had a one-hour 7PM Sunday night program which featured a lot of 1 hour shows, as well as 2-hour movies shown in two parts. This included a mix of their theatrical hits, as well as original made-for-TV films. Those TV-movies in two parts were no different from, say, "The Love Bug" shown in 2-parts -- the only difference being that one was made for TV, so suddenly those two parts are TV show episodes. In my view, a TV movie is simply a movie that debuts on television instead of cinema. 2-parts doesn't convert it to a TV program simply for being too long for a specific time-slot. Those two parts are not a separate plot utilizing the same cast & characters the way a TV program does, it's the same story / plot split in two parts...just as with my example of "The Love Bug", only done so to placate a television's time-slot layout. Those two parts of "Salem's Lot" are not episodes, the story just picks up where it left off at the end of the first part. And being trimmed to under two hours for a theatrical run doesn't change that fact. When I watch either "Salem's Lot" film on home video, it's a movie, not a television program. It's only defined as a mini-series when broadcast in two parts. That just seems silly. Like defining a vinyl or cassette album differently because the two parts (sides) are divided rather than contiguous like a CD. That is the logic the way I see it.