Invasion of the Widescreen

Anyone else annoyed by all these shows coming on in widescreen? It seems like every other primetime show is in widescreen now.

Often, it fits, but sometimes, it just doesn't. American Dad, for example, does not need to be widescreen. It doesn't add anything to the show, and it actually looks weird. Maybe that's just me though.

The biggest problem is when they air the shows in syndication. The Simpsons became widescreen a few seasons ago, and a local channel has started airing the widescreen episodes at night. But they air them fullscreen, so the edges of the screen get cut off. Same thing happens with American Dad and (I assume, not sure) Family Guy on Adult Swim. Bit of a bitch.

Am I the only one that dislikes this growing movement? Widescreen is fine - for dramas. Why does a cartoon need to be in widescreen? Next thing I know, they'll be airing kids' shows in widescreen. Ugh. I guess I'm just a Luddite.

ok I know I will probably get some hate for saying this but fuck widescreen sorry had to say it I hate it I get a big screen to enjoy a big screen not to have a crap load of my tv not showing anything but darkness that sucks

Nah, it not my TV because I'll see the shows in widescreen when they come on in primetime but fullscreen when in syndication. It's just the channel airing the repeats not bothering to (or are unable to) air them in widescreen.

I really don't mind widescreen, and I do like it in movies, too, but yeah, it's unnecessary with most TV shows.

I think it's because of the whole "everything is in HD" thing, and unless I'm incorrect, most broadcast HD movies are aired in widescreen format.

feh, doesnt matter to me, I dont watch much TV as it is. so all im concerned about is gaming in widescreen, man it gets squishy without the right settings -_-

I wish they would just stay one way or another. I have my TV set to stretch all programing to widescreen as most programming is still Fullscreen and it's irritating to not use ~40% of my screen.

Heh, probably. I think it's a ginormous improvement. Although I would prefer my monitor to be in 16:10 as opposed to 16:9. 16:9 is good for video but for everything else it's a bit of a pain.

I can understand having a widescreen TV for movies, and I'd like to see more movies be in widescreen when they come on TV, but like Mergedloki said, how does it improve a TV show? Movies have been in widescreen for decades, but TV has only been in widescreen for the past five years (mostly this past year). Why fix something that isn't broken?

The more I talk about this, the more I feel like an old fogey. Maybe what pushed me over the edge was looking at high-definition TVs the other day and seeing that they were all widescreen. Sure, movies will look good on it, but what about my season sets of The Simpsons? Would they be surrounded by black bars?

Eh? How does it make it look worse? again, I thought it was an improvement.

Widescreen is am improvement in that you can see more on each side, but it's not like that's a necessary thing for every show. It makes a show feel more like a movie, but do you really want a cartoon or sitcom to feel like a movie?

I feel like a lot of shows are going to widescreen just to appeal to people with widescreen TVs and not for any artistic reason. It feels like a fad. And it's disruptive because there's a mix of widescreen and fullscreen all across TV; no matter what you have, something is going to have either its edges cut off or black bars around it.

I disagree

The obvious answer to your question is that you pretty much can't buy a 4:3 TV any more, so the tv channels are of cause switching over to sending in the new format, since that is what most people will have after a while.