Mack & Myer for Hire

Ah, the golden age of television! When was that, anyway? And WHAT was it? Were they talking about live TV dramas?

Because I'm sitting here watching Mack & Myer for Hire. A terrible 12-minute TV sitcom from 1963. Mack and Myer are handymen by trade. They dress a little like Abbott & Costello but look and sound nothing like them. Over 100 episodes were filmed in the one year the show was in production. They were shown on local TV programs---shows that were often hosted by clowns that would show cartoons or Three Stooges shorts.

Filmed with a two camera set-up, according to Wikipedia.

Look at a show like Modern Family. Each episode is 21 minutes not including commercials. Each episode has three storylines, and each story gets almost equal time. So each of the three subplots is less than seven minutes.

A twelve minute show like this would give you plenty of time. In fact, it could be a little too long for a single storyline. You could intercut between two plots.

But it was just awful.