More isn't necessarily better when it's on TV

Project Runway" — one of TV's more entertaining competition/reality shows — returns in four weeks for its eighth season. And there will be more of it than ever before.

Lifetime has announced that, rather than airing hourlong episodes, the new season will feature 90-minute episodes.

Which sounds like a horrible idea.

Making the show 50 percent longer doesn't mean it will be 50 percent better. As a matter of fact, more often than not addition turns into subtraction when it comes to taking a show outside its regular format.

Arguably the worst episodes of "The Office" are the hourlong installments. Because that show works much better as a half-hour sitcom than as an hourlong comedy.

And "The Office" isn't alone. The finales of shows like "Cheers," "Seinfeld" and "M*A*S*H" were disappointing episodes of great series. And the first two ran 60 minutes, the third ran a whopping 150 minutes.

Despite box-office success, the "Sex and the City" movies were creative abominations, because what worked as a half hour didn't work when it was translated into movies that each ran nearly 21/2 hours.

Blech.

Even when it comes to reality/competition shows, there's certainly evidence that more isn't better. Under any circumstances, watching "Celebrity Apprentice" is a painful experience.

As presented by NBC for the past couple of years — in two-hour blocks — watching "Celebrity Apprentice" has been a poke-your-eyes-out experience.

So, no, the prospect of 90-minute episodes of "Project Runway" isn't exactly encouraging. It's rather clearly just a chance for Lifetime to sell more advertising.

Hey, if Lifetime wants to show us more of the designers, how about wasting less time before commercial breaks showing us what's coming up, and less time after the commercial breaks showing us what's already happened?

The new season of "Project Runway" begins Thursday, July 29, at 7 p.m. on Lifetime.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED: Tyler Labine has become the most successful unsuccessful actor on TV in the past few years.

He's had no trouble finding work despite cancellation after cancellation after cancellation of his shows.

Labine co-starred in the short-lived science fiction series "Invasion," playing the goofy brother-in-law, during the 2005-06 season.