{{Short description|Television or film segment used to frame or package other content}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2025}}
'''Wraparound''', '''wraparound segment''', or '''wraparound program''' (also styled '''wrap-around''') is a term in film and television for short connecting media that either form a frame story (often around an anthology’s individual parts), hosts context for the primary media, or serves to package or bridge longer media using interstitials.
== Framing device ==
{{Main|Frame story}}
In narrative media, a wraparound (sometimes "wraparound tale")<ref>{{cite web |title=Anthology Film |url=https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/glossary/anthology-film/ |website=Filmmakers Academy |date=July 16, 2021 |access-date=August 28, 2025 |quote=A multi-part or multi-segmented film with a collection or series of various tales or short stories sometimes linked together by some theme or by a 'wrap-around' tale.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wloszczyna |first=Susan |title=Locker 13 movie review & film summary (2014) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/locker-13-2014 |website=RogerEbert.com |date=March 28, 2014 |access-date=August 28, 2025 |quote=...features four vignettes surrounded by a wrap-around tale...}}</ref> can be a narrative container that opens, links, and/or closes one or more stories. For example:
* Portmanteau films, particularly with a story within a story that connects otherwise standalone segments. For example, The ''V/H/S'' franchise * Clip shows commonly employ a wraparound narrative, functioning as the episode’s flashback framing device * Small changes for localized narrative; for instance Fraggle Rock was designed with modular human-world wraparound segments that could be re-shot with local casts, sets, and context; international versions replaced the U.S. wraparounds featuring Doc and his dog Sprocket with locally produced inserts such as a lighthouse keeper in the U.K. and a retired baker in France.<ref name="Overland">{{cite web |last=Knight |first=Aimee |title=Work your cares away: Revisiting ''Fraggle Rock'' |url=https://overland.org.au/2019/02/work-your-cares-away-revisiting-fraggle-rock/ |website=Overland |date=February 21, 2019 |access-date=August 28, 2025}}</ref><ref name="HensonRB">{{cite web |title=9/25–26/1984 – “France – PR ''Fraggle Rock.''” |url=https://www.henson.com/jimsredbook/2013/09/925-261984-2/ |website=Jim Henson’s Red Book |publisher=The Jim Henson Company |date=September 25, 2013 |access-date=August 28, 2025}}</ref> Wraparound content is limited scope, in contrast to hybrid off-market splicing or recombination which fundamentally changes the narrative in important ways, as with Power Rangers and Robotech.
== Interstitial programming ==
{{Main|Interstitial television show}}
In broadcast theory, wraparound can also refer to interstitial; the “bits in between” programs (promos, trailers, idents, etc.), that are not diegetic story frames inside a program.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Catherine |title=Ephemeral TV – Special edition |journal=Media, Culture & Society |volume=39 |issue=8 |pages=1210–1216 |year=2017 |publisher=SAGE |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1749602017707442 |access-date=2025-08-28 |quote=“the interstitials (the promos, movie trailers and commercials) that sit alongside and counterpoint the broadcast programmes”}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Ellis |first=John |title=Interstitials: How the 'Bits in Between' Define the Programmes |url=https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/file/40c74c8e-bf13-f8b1-6cab-5fa68540e927/10/Interstitials_POST_PUB_how_the_bits_in_between_define_the_programmes.doc |website=Royal Holloway, University of London repository |access-date=2025-08-28}}</ref>
A wraparound can be brief non-narrative hosted or thematic interstitials that surround or bridge longer programming blocks. An example would be ''The Twilight Zone'' series creator Rod Serling’s on-camera introductions and closing narrations that bookend each episode, or sports and news outlets use wraparounds for studio shows that bookend live events.<ref name="MCNSNY">{{cite web |title=SNY Brings In New On-Air Talent |url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/sny-brings-new-air-talent-364959 |website=Multichannel News |date=December 27, 2008 |access-date=August 28, 2025}}</ref><ref name="RatherHDNet">{{cite web |title=Dan Rather to Host HDNet Movies' Political Films Marathon |url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/dan-rather-host-hdnet-movies-political-movie-marathon-408175 |website=Multichannel News |date=October 3, 2016 |access-date=August 28, 2025}}</ref><ref name="BCCourtTV">{{cite web |title=In Brief |url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/brief-92701 |website=Broadcasting & Cable |date=June 3, 2002 |access-date=August 28, 2025}}</ref> Short hosted bridges are also used to repackage films for alternate formats like cable and pay-per-view, with new content recorded by a host to introduce or contextualize the features.<ref name="SFGateElvira">{{cite web |last=Stanley |first=John |title=Speaking of DVDs: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/speaking-of-dvds-elvira-mistress-of-the-dark-2467864.php |website=SFGATE |publisher=San Francisco Chronicle |date=October 22, 2006 |access-date=August 28, 2025}}</ref> Wraparounds can additionally describe discussion blocks around a film or special.<ref name="WaPoWrap">{{cite web |last=Carmody |first=John |title=The TV Column |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/10/08/the-tv-column/87921857-2bd6-417c-ab29-f797fff969a2/ |website=The Washington Post |date=October 8, 1992 |access-date=August 28, 2025}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
Category:Television terminology Category:Film and video terminology