Quarter Hour Short

A type of Format, popular for animated shows (though there are examples for Live-Action TV).

The Quarter Hour Short was popular in the early days of television. It has occasionally fallen out of favor and been revived. There are both advantages and challenges with the format.

• The shows may be quicker/cheaper to produce, since a Quarter Hour Short is generally producing only 11 minutes of showtime (to allow for commercials). Might not need as many viewers to be renewed as a more expensive Half-Hour Comedy.
• Viewers will often appreciate a Quarter Hour Short for its lack of Filler. The writers only have 11 minutes, so they need to get right to the good stuff.
• Maybe it's a Gag Series so over the top that it's funny, but not palatable for more than 11 -15 minutes at a time.
• The Quarter Hour Short allows networks unique flexibility in their schedule (provided they have an even number of these shows at their disposal).
• It allows for a more time-consuming type of animation to hit the airwaves faster (Claymation and CGI).
• Conversely, it allows for a less time-consuming and cheaper type of animation to be more acceptable to the audience, probably for the same reason why a Gag Series is considered more palatable in such a short run-time.

The Quarter Hour Short is at least as Old as Television, but is currently experiencing a revival in Western Animation, where shows of this length are shown on animated-specific networks, the biggest one being [adult swim]. About one-third to half of Adult Swim's schedule on any given night will be Quarter Hour Shorts. But this format has been around in both Anime and Western Animation since the beginning.

Compare the Three Shorts format, where multiple shorts are packaged into a 30-minute block for television, whereas a Quarter Hour Short is supporting one plot, concept or progression of sketches for the entire 15 minutes and isn't intended to air with a companion short like it would in that or a Two Shorts format.

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Examples:

Anime

• Bakugan: Battle Planet
• B-Daman Crossfire
• Cromartie High School
• Galaxy Angel
• Hen Zemi
• Palm Town, Sequel Series to Maple Town was this in the remaining 12 episodes.
• Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G
  • Metal Fight Beyblade 4D adopted this halfway through its Japanese run.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
• Pop Team Epic is a strange case - although an episode runs for 11 minutes, the immediate re-airing of the episode is exactly the same except for having completely different voice actors and (occasionally) slightly different dialogue.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred
• PriPri Chii-chan!
• Onegai My Melody was this during Sukkiri, when it aired alongside Robby and Kerobby in a program called Anime Lobby.

Asian Animation

• The standard Boonie Bears episode is somewhere around 10 to 13 minutes long.
• Including the theme song and end credits, Bread Barbershop episodes are about 10-11 minutes long.
• Crazy Candies episodes started out as being somewhere around 10 minutes long, before being shortened to 7-8 minutes starting in Season 3.
• Flower Fairy has episodes that are 13 to 14 minutes long.
• The standard episode length for GG Bond is 12-15 minutes or somewhere thereabouts. Originally, in Seasons 1 and 2, episodes were 20 minutes long.
• Every episode of Happy Heroes is about 10 to 12 minutes long.
• Episodes of King Shakir are about 10-13 minutes long.
• The Mole's World animated series has 12-minute-long episodes.
• Episodes of Planet of 7 Colors are usually around 14 minutes long.
• A vast majority of episodes of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are around 11 to 15 minutes long, with a few exceptions:
  • The season Around the World in 20 Days has episodes that are five minutes long.
  • Paddi the Amazing Chef extends the length of the episodes to 25 minutes.
  • Episodes of the Pleasant Goat Fun Class series are eight minutes long.
• All episodes of Simple Samosa are about 11 minutes long. None of them are paired with each other as in the Two Shorts format; Disney Channel India's official YouTube uploads of a few of the episodes do pair "Sumo Momo" with "Chutney Dam" and "Makkhi Makkhi!" with "Jalebi's Birthday", however.
• All episodes of Yamucha's-Kung Fu Academy are about 10 to 11 minutes long.

Live-Action TV

• Look Around You in the first season.
• Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. Thank goodness.
  • Similarly, its Spin-Off, Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule.
• Childrens Hospital
  • Similarly, its Spin-Off, NTSF:SD:SUV::.
• Dream Corp LLC
• Season 1 of Punky Brewster did this with shows 2, 3 and 4.
• The Television Ghost
• Overseas of airings of the 10th, 11th and 14th seasons of Barney & Friends use this format.
• Emilys Wonder Lab runs 15 minutes per episode.
• The 1981 Canadian Edutainment Show Music Box, which taught principles of music.
• Many children's shows broadcast on NHK utilize this format:
  • Chatty Jay's Sundry Shop is a 10-minute show.
  • Design Ah is 10 minutes long per episode.
  • Eigo de Asobou and its' spinoff Nihongo de Asobou both run for 15 minutes.
  • With the brief exception of a period from 1997 to 1999 where the show was 10 minutes and the Wan Wan Wonderland specials that run for 30 minutes, Inai Inai Baa! has always run for 15 minutes.
  • Kitchen Sentai Cookrun runs for 10 minutes per episode.
  • Miitsuketa! runs for 15 minutes per episode. However, there is a Sunday edition of the program that runs for 30 minutes.
  • Pythagora Switch runs for 10 minutes.
• Gather Round, a 1978 educational show for PBS hosted by Paul Lally featuring a story told by Lally while artist Rae Owings would illustrate scenes from said story in charcoal pencil.
• Another PBS show Cover to Cover and its many incarnations (The Book Bird, Readit, etc) ran this length. Similar to Gather Round, this program featured illustrator John Robbins featuring a book which he'd illustrate scenes from as a narrator read an excerpt to viewers.

Puppet Shows

• The Furchester Hotel
• Mopatop's Shop
• The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo
• The Letter People: All 60 episodes from the 1970s series ran roughly for this length.
• In Canada, Donkey Hodie is this, running as a single episode. In the United States and Australia, the show is Two Shorts.
• The Pajanimals was sometimes presented as this. On streaming, it is presented as Two Shorts, but each short still retains the opening theme song, even though the credits are only shown at the end of both.

Web Animation

• Hanazuki: Full of Treasures is a Web Animation that follows this format. All its episodes are within the range of 10 to 12 minutes. The first two episodes were aired in Canadian stations as a Two Shorts episode.

Western Animation

• Many [adult swim] series, including:
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Arguably the best example of a Gag Series not being palatable for more than 15 minutes, since the biggest complaint about The Movie was that it was too long to stand watching the characters.
  • Ballmastrz: 9009
  • Brad Neelys Harg Nallin Sclopio Peepio
  • The Brak Show
  • China, IL
  • Frisky Dingo
  • Lazor Wulf
  • Major Lazer
  • Metalocalypse For the first two seasons. The third was a brief switch to half hour shows, before switching back in season 4.
  • Moral Orel
  • Perfect Hair Forever
  • Robot Chicken - An example of Claymation taking so long to produce for a half-hour show, that the Quarter Hour Short is more feasible.
  • Sealab 2021
  • Space Ghost Coast to Coast - The show used to be accompanied by an original Space Ghost cartoon to fill the half-hour, but two episodes were run back to back when there was enough for reruns.
  • Squidbillies
  • Superjail!
  • Tom Goes to the Mayor
  • 12 oz. Mouse
  • Xavier: Renegade Angel, and thank God.
• Numerous Cartoon Network series made since ~2009. Some of these began as Two Shorts, with all of them usually having reruns aired as such:
  • Adventure Time, produced as Two Shorts with the credits reflecting so for the first six seasons
  • The Amazing World of Gumball after the first few episodes, which were Two Shorts.
  • Chowder starting in season 2, initially Two Shorts for season 1
  • Clarence
  • Craig of the Creek
  • DC Super Hero Girls
  • MAD
  • Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart
  • Mighty Magiswords
  • The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack starting in late season 1, initially Two Shorts for first half of season 1
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
  • The Problem Solverz
  • The Powerpuff Girls (2016)
  • Regular Show
  • Robotomy
  • Steven Universe
  • Teen Titans Go!
  • Uncle Grandpa; like Gumball, the first couple episodes were Two Shorts.
  • Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production
  • We Bare Bears
• Looney Tunes Cartoons on HBO Max.
• My Little Pony 'n Friends (the first was always My Little Pony; the second rotated among Glo Friends, The Potato Head Kids and Moon Dreamers)
• Teen Titans did it once, as a half-length episode that was originally available only on the Postopia website. It has since been released on the Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo DVD.
• Any show by Britt Allcroft.
• Several Disney Channel cartoons:
  • Fish Hooks
  • Phineas and Ferb was originally only aired as Two Shorts, but episodes past 2012 usually premiered with one short by itself with an opening and closing.
  • Wander over Yonder, although episodes often premiere as Two Shorts as well.
  • This has been used for Star vs. the Forces of Evil episodes, which are normally Two Shorts.
• LEGO City Adventures is released this way on Netflix.
• The animated version of Punky Brewster was this when it and Beverly Hills Teens aired as part of the syndicated programming block Maxie's World.
• Series 1, 5, 6 and 8 of Danger Mouse were formatted like this for American television when Nickelodeon aired it.
• A lot of British Stop Motion shows tend to use this format, including Noddy's Toyland Adventures, Postman Pat, Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam and Bob the Builder.
• Grojband was produced as a Two Shorts series (but originally envisioned as a full half-hour series), but Cartoon Network decided to air it in the form of quarter-hour shorts instead. Its original network Teletoon prefers to show it in the intended two-shorts format though.
• A handful of Netflix series tend to use this format, usually Preschool Shows. To give a few:
  • Beat Bugs for its third season, instead of all together like the first two.
  • Buddi
  • The Cuphead Show!
  • The 2016 revival of Danger Mouse, save for the first episode.
  • Go! Go! Cory Carson
  • Hello Ninja
  • I ♡ Arlo
  • Johnny Test used a Two Shorts format; the 2021 reboot for Netflix, however, shortens it to Quarter Hour Short.
  • Karmas World
  • Kayko & Kokosh
  • Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own is released like this on services like iTunes, and airs like this in several countries as well such as Treehouse TV in Canada. However, the series airs as Two Shorts on Discovery Family.
  • Mighty Express for the first three seasons. Season 4 switched to Two Shorts.
  • Motown Magic
  • The 2019 reboot of Ninjago.
  • Pinky Malinky, and the first Nickelodeon series to do so.
  • Rhyme Time Town Singalongs
  • Robocar Poli
  • Star Beam
  • Super Monsters airs like this on Discovery Family.
  • Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy
  • Trash Truck
  • Twelve Forever, with the exception of the first which is a regular-length episode.
  • Word Party
  • YooHoo to the Rescue
• Total DramaRama uses the single 10-minute episode format popular with many Cartoon Network shows these days, which is a bit unusual given that it's a spinoff of a show that uses a full 22-minute format. However, on its original network of Teletoon, it's aired as a Two Shorts show instead. Interestingly, this results in the end credits scenes that appear in the CN airings being completely removed from the Teletoon airings in favor of a generic text-on-black-screen credits.
• The Canadian show Wishfart followed this format for its original British broadcasting on CITV and the country's Cartoon Network feed, with every 10-minute short airing with its own intro and credits sequence. In its home country on Teletoon however, the show was aired as Two Shorts.
• Toonami:
  • In the block's early years, they ran a 15-minute Cartoon Roulette segment that featured an episode of a Hanna-Barbera adventure show (i.e., Space Ghost, Birdman (1967), The Herculoids) or a Max Fleischer Superman short.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998) aired in 15-minute increments when it aired on the original Saturday version of the Midnight Run block.
• The 2015 reboot of Miffy does this.
• Puppy Dog Pals and Muppet Babies (2018) occasionally air as this, usually after a movie or special on Disney Junior.
• Many shows on Channel 5's Milkshake! block air like this, which even extends to imported shows like PAW Patrol which normally air as Two Shorts.
  • PAW Patrol also airs as a Quarter Hour Short on TV Ontario, usually as filler between shorts that air before a half-hour show.
• The "splitting a Two Shorts show into a single 10-minute show" treatment also happens to shows aired on CBC, with one example being Rolie Polie Olie.
• Dragon Tales aired as a Quarter Hour Short on PBS Kids Sprout and Netflix. This also happened on the former with Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat and early airings of Make Way For Noddy (post-2006 airings used the Two Shorts format).
• Nickelodeon sometimes airs episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants and The Loud House in this format, beginning with "Best Day Ever" for the former and "Driving Miss Hazy" for the latter.
  • On TV Osaka, SpongeBob airs as a quarter-hour short alongside Kinder TV, a preschool program which adapts a magazine.
• Some Nick Jr shows like Butterbean's Cafe, Top Wing and the live-action Ryan's Mystery Playdate occasionally air as this as well. Averted for the latter two after moving to the Nick Jr. channel.
  • Baby Shark's Big Show! and Face's Music Party do the same thing.
• Episodes of Billy are around 10 minutes long.
• Although episodes of Over the Garden Wall were initially aired with two back to back and sold digitally with two packaged together, episode are still Quarter-Hour Shorts rather than Two Shorts because each part has an opening and credits individually.
• Rocky Kwaterner has episodes of 11 minutes each.
• Nate Is Late: Each episode is 11 minutes.
• Oswaldo aired all of its 52 episodes as 11-minute shorts, making for twenty-six 22-minute episodes.
• Get Ace was aired in this format.
• The Strange Chores airs in this format, with every 11-minute episode have its own intro and credits.
• 50/50 Heroes airs in this format.
• Every episode of Kitty Is Not a Cat is aired a single 11-minute episode, with its own intro and credits sequence.
• Bat Pat: The Animated Adaptation has episodes that last 12 minutes each.
• Mr Moon has a variant: Each episode runs for eleven minutes, but the main plot takes eight minutes to complete, with the last three minutes being an interactive activity, often featuring characters who didn't appear in the main plot.

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