| abstract | - Common in animated shows, the Ad Break Double Take is an establishing shot or establishing line that appears on both sides of a Commercial Break; the show being wound back a few seconds to allow the scene to be reintroduced to the viewer in a coherent fashion. Sometimes the scenes on both sides of the break are identical, but some shows change the second part by giving the repeated line to another character, or having them rephrase it. To the outside observer, the Ad Break Double Take thus looks like the hero standing calmly waiting to be decapitated while saying "This doesn't look too good." followed by a pause and then "Man, this is baaad!". In extreme cases, the heroes may even be in less danger upon the return from break, in which case you have a Cliffhanger Copout. Medium Aware characters might be able to sense the slight stitch in time and take advantage of it (much to the confusion of the unAware villains), but it's hardly necessary: the heroes will always recover from the threat in plenty of time. Genre Savvy types sometimes hang a lampshade on the repeated line with a yell of "I know we're in trouble, stop saying that!". It's usually not edited out when released for home video or syndicates that use less commercial breaks than the original broadcaster. Unless commercial breaks are punctuated by an Eyecatch, this leads to odd situations where a dramatic line us uttered, fade to black, fade back in, then the dramatic line is uttered again. See also: Act Break and Commercial Break Cliffhanger. Examples of Ad Break Double Take include:
|
