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A television special is a television program
Television program

A television program , television programme , or television show is something that people watch on television. It may be a one-off broadcast or, more usually, part of a periodically recurring television series....
 which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a special TV telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 in film Cinema of the United States musical film-fantasy film mainly directed by Victor Fleming and based on the 1900 Children's literature novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L....
 or The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 in film Film that dramatized the story of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrews Slavery....
, as opposed to the telecasting of a film on a continuing movie series such as NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, was the first continuing weekly prime time network series to show relatively recent feature films from major studios in color....
, telecast from 1961 to 1978.

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.






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A television special is a television program
Television program

A television program , television programme , or television show is something that people watch on television. It may be a one-off broadcast or, more usually, part of a periodically recurring television series....
 which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a special TV telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 in film Cinema of the United States musical film-fantasy film mainly directed by Victor Fleming and based on the 1900 Children's literature novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L....
 or The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 in film Film that dramatized the story of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrews Slavery....
, as opposed to the telecasting of a film on a continuing movie series such as NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, was the first continuing weekly prime time network series to show relatively recent feature films from major studios in color....
, telecast from 1961 to 1978.

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
Miniseries

A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a pre-planned limited number of episodes....
. The term "TV special" formerly applied more to dramas presented live or on videotape
Videotape

Videotape is a means of recording images and sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to film stock.In most cases, a helical scan video head rotates against the moving tape to record the data in two dimensions, because video signals have a very high bandwidth, and static heads would require extremely high tape speeds....
 than to filmed presentations especially made for television, which were (and still are) designated as made-for-TV movies
Television movie

A television movie is a feature film that is produced for and originally distributed by a television network....
.

Other forms of TV specials are one-time comedy or musical events, one-shot seasonal programs (e.g. Christmas television special
List of Christmas television specials

The following is a list of Christmas in the media television specials, as well as Christmas-themed episodes of regular television series....
s), irregular sports events ( e.g. the Olympic Games
Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece, Greece....
 or the Super Bowl
Super Bowl

In professional American football, the Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League . The game and its ancillary festivities constitute Super Bowl Sunday....
), live coverage of a popular cultural event (such as the Academy Awards or Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade presented by Macy's Department store. The three-hour event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m....
), or spontaneous interruptions of active programming to cover an important news
NeWS

NeWS was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S....
 event (election coverage, however, is generally scheduled).

See also

  • After school special
    After school special

    ----The American Broadcasting Company coined the term After School Special in 1972 with a series of made for television movies, usually dealing with controversial or socially relevant issues, that were generally broadcast in the early afternoon and meant to be viewed by school age children, particularly teenagers....