TV shows that take place over a very short period of time

So...

Twin Peaks takes place over just a few weeks
Breaking Bad takes five and a half seasons to cover two years (and most of the show is just 1 year)
Rectify covers just a few months, I think
And I'm not sure what timeline Walking Dead is on, but it's been on seven years, and I'm sure that much time hasn't passed

Any other examples of this?

uh, there was a show called 24

lol never saw that but I remember having the same thought everybody else did when I heard the concept: "so.. do they like, show characters sleeping?"

The Bob Newhart show all took place during the same night

good one!

24 began skipping through time between seasons a lot, though.

Lost has that three year hole in it, but otherwise it all takes place during a couple of months in 2004, and a couple of months in 2007. Btw double checking the plot-description of Lost to make sure I'm right about this makes me angry again.

Each season of Deadwood mostly took place over consecutive days. In season one it annoyed me, because each couple of days someone else hugely important would arrive at the camp. It felt like too many coincidences. In season 3, with the danger of Hearst hanging over everything, the compressed timeline is absolutely thrilling, though.

Orange is the New Black can really only take place during one year, as that's as long Piper's sentence is.

This led to continuity problems all over the place (like one of the final episodes being set in 1951), but MASH spent 11 seasons on the 4 years of the Korean War.

On a related note, the first three seasons of China Beach took place over about a year and a half of the Vietnam war (late '67 to mid '69 iirc) and then the final season covered ground over 20+ years, including a significant amount of material that predated the first season.

And on a final final note, I recently read the Hogan's Heroes was supposed to be set over a single winter, hence why it was always snowy.

I thought in Orange is the New Black Piper would get extra time on her sentence for nearly killing a fellow inmate and that was the device they'd use to keep the show running but yeah instead they just pretended time doesn't exist. That is a lot of prisoners to escape from one prison in just a year

And whoa from what I knew about Hogan's Heroes the show couldn't get any weirder but sure enough

Allo Allo spends 10 years on a few years of WWII.

Wiki on Hogan's:

Though the series spans several seasons, it always appears to be winter at Stalag 13; there are ever-present patches of snow on the ground and on buildings, and prisoners regularly gather around a barrel fire or shiver through roll call. However, some episodes do in fact take place in spring or summer (such as the episode dealing with the D-Day invasions).

The Simpsons, obviously--a single year stretched out over 25+ seasons, more microscopically chronicled than Ulysses.

Roy, Archie and Norman are long-term patients in a British hospital ward. Though they don't seem terribly ill, neither do they seem to be getting better and going home. So they pass their days side by side in the hospital ward, chatting and occasionally getting on one another's nerves.

http://networkonair.com/shop/339-large/only-when-i-laugh-the-complete-series.jpg

Three years they spent in that hospital.

Comedy series about two couples on holiday in Spain. Although from different backgrounds, the Pearce's and the Cochran's each seek the same thing, sun, sand, sea and infidelity.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Nd3rh3-9L.jpg

Two years they spent on holiday.

Quantum leap

Stranger Things season 1 is only about a week (plus a month at the end).

The Netflix show Love has covered maybe two months during its two seasons so far.

The couple dozen episodes I've seen of Mary Hartman seem to only cover a couple of days. Don't know how that pans out in the long term but I'll let you know once I've made my way through the 498 subsequent discs.

iirc because sorkin's 'studio 60' got cancelled less than a season in, its short time-scale (sort of week to week, w/ the revamping of the show the instigating event) is also ridiculously exaggerated because the last like, 5 episodes are all continuous over the course of however many days. and earlier in the season there are two different two-part episodes that follow the same bloating principle.

every snl sketch is happening at the same time

The Bob Newhart show all took place during the same night

― Karl Malone, Monday, March 27, 2017 5:17 PM

And by the same token, St Elsewhere's 6 seasons took place in a few moments.

what's the timeframe for The Prisoner?

every snl sketch is happening at the same time

dude...

Crashing UK is definitely over a short span at the abandoned hospital, but I can't remember how long

what's the timeframe for The Prisoner?

For the number of episodes, it's quite a long time. Each episode is definitely not continuous from the last (except the last two obvs) and many episodes take place over more than one day.

Cavemen

South Park kids aged maybe 2 years in 20 seasons

Been years since I re-watched it, but most Twin Peaks episodes took place over just a day, right? Kind of gave each episode a nice momentum, since shit tended to go down at night

yeah it was a day per episode except there was a 3-day gap between episodes at a particular juncture

I haven't seen enough long running shows to come up with a good example, everything I can come up with has already been said, but this is one of my favourite things about tv

Yeah, it's one of my favorite things about comics, too (off-topic e.g. a Hickman Fantastic Four storyline taking place over two titles for the better part of a year IIRC but that only took place over an action-packed day or two).

Blackadder Goes Forth is like what..2 or 3 weeks during 1917? could be the same few days even.

That 70s Show spent 8 seasons covering the last 3 1/2 years of the '70s.

Not quite within the rubric of the thread, but I found it hilarious when Conan's 'In The Year 2000' segment continued well into the 21st Century.

Happy Days must have been set during only a few years?

It officially took place mid-Fifties to 1965, since Laverne and Shirley. officially took place in 1966 and was officially set afterwards. For varying values of "Officially" versus "What actually happened in the show,"
of course.

Blackadder Goes Forth is like what..2 or 3 weeks during 1917?

Interesting, I never got that sense of time from it! I just assumed the whole "we're going over the top this time, honest" was a joke being dragged out over months in the trenches.

A comprehensive and well-referenced Blackadder timeline has to have been documented somewhere on the Internet by now.

Happy Days lasting through the Beatles and Vietnam so weird. What was Potsie's reaction after JFK?

"Sit on it, Lee Harvey!"

lol

Blackadder 4 could be months yeah, internet remarkably isn't throwing much up to confirm!

John from Cincinnati lol took place over a single consecutive day each episode.

Torchwood: Children of Earth was set over 5 days, each episode being 1 day