Shout! Factory's April Fool's Day Joke and Guiding Light (1 Viewer)

[Regulus]

If I had been in charge of this Gag, I'd have pictued the set on a Semi Truck, with the caption "Price is for DVD Set only, Tractor-Trailer Rig sold separately".

 

[Carabimero]

I also would have put someone or something in the picture to give it scale. It is not beyond the realm of possibility to have a normal size complete series DVD set in the shape of such container.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Even if this wasn't an April Fools joke, you must know that most of the first decade worth of Guiding Light got thrown in the incinerator so such a title would be a misnomer.

 

[Steve...O]

This was a great gag by Shout Factory. Nice to see their crew has such a wonderful sense of humor. Thanks for the laugh guys!

 

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Carabimero /forum/thread/310263/shout-factory-s-april-fool-s-day-joke-and-guiding-light#post_3797286

 

[ThatDonGuy]

Originally Posted by Lord Dalek

Even if this wasn't an April Fools joke, you must know that most of the first decade worth of Guiding Light got thrown in the incinerator so such a title would be a misnomer.

Besides - wasn't its "first decade" on radio?


Also, how much of the early stuff would be on kinescope and how much on video tape? (I assume that quite a few soaps in the 1960s aired live in the east and were videotaped to air three hours later in the west - I remember some CBS announcer saying every day, something like, "Some or all of today's CBS programs were pre-recorded for broadcast in this time zone.") Quite a few videotaped shows from the 1960s are in some combination of unwatchable condition and a format that would require a lot of time, effort, and money to convert (GSN discovered this when WCBS uncovered the "long-lost" first two seasons of The Joker's Wild).

 

[Lord Dalek]

Originally Posted by ThatDonGuy




Besides - wasn't its "first decade" on radio?


Also, how much of the early stuff would be on kinescope and how much on video tape? (I assume that quite a few soaps in the 1960s aired live in the east and were videotaped to air three hours later in the west - I remember some CBS announcer saying every day, something like, "Some or all of today's CBS programs were pre-recorded for broadcast in this time zone.") Quite a few videotaped shows from the 1960s are in some combination of unwatchable condition and a format that would require a lot of time, effort, and money to convert (GSN discovered this when WCBS uncovered the "long-lost" first two seasons of The Joker's Wild).

Well GL made the shift to pre-tape in 1968 after it expanded to 30 minutes so if anything exists on VT prior to August 1970 it would be from that year. The years 1967-1970 are a gray area in general due to little to no representation online. At the very least the final week of black and white GL in March 1967 exists but after that is a pile of question marks.

 

[Jack Cleveland]

Originally Posted by Lord Dalek




Well GL made the shift to pre-tape in 1968 after it expanded to 30 minutes so if anything exists on VT prior to August 1970 it would be from that year. The years 1967-1970 are a gray area in general due to little to no representation online. At the very least the final week of black and white GL in March 1967 exists but after that is a pile of question marks.

Intersting information- Interesting that Dark Shadows was videotaped as early as 1966, yet so many other soaps were not. So would it be correct to assume that episodes from the 1970s onward still exist?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Originally Posted by Jack Cleveland





Intersting information- Interesting that Dark Shadows was videotaped as early as 1966, yet so many other soaps were not. So would it be correct to assume that episodes from the 1970s onward still exist?

No.


Videotape was expensive, and it was easier and cheaper to wipe tapes of old, seemingly unreusable shows to record a new broadcast. Soap Operas and Game Shows were hit hardest. The networks didn't quit wiping tapes until the late 70s to early 80s. Procter and Gamble didn't start saving tapes until 1978. So, the existence of anything before 1978 is iffy, at best.


I'm not saying shows from the late 60s to 1978 don't exist, just that no one made a point to save them, so if they did survive it was through sheer luck. Kind of like how most of the surviving episodes from the first 6 years of Doctor Who survived. Pure luck.


However, from when P&G began saving tapes of the episodes in 1978 to the end of the show, yeah, it's a safe bet that they all exist.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Well the thing is CBS was the best of the three networks at the time for preserving their tapes (which explains why Price is Right and Young and the Restless are intact when contemporary series such as $10,000 Pyramid and Another World are not) which explains the "grey area" I mentioned. Its possible that these shows don't exist anymore, however nobody's bothered to look.

 

[DeWilson]

ABC has the best survival rate of any 1960's series going out live or VT


DARK SHADOWS has one of the best survival rate of any 1960's show that went out on VT - It's only missing one show from the final year (1970-1971) and that exists as an audio-tape! (That episode was reconstructed with stills and narration) ABC stopped kinescope recording around late 1970. The bulk of the series exists on VT while a handful (30 or so) episodes exist only as kinescopes.


SHINDIG! exists completely on Kinescopes,as does WHERE THE ACTION IS!, HAPPENING , and MALIBU U

 

[Lord Dalek]

Originally Posted by DeWilson

ABC has the best survival rate of any 1960's series going out live or VT

No... Dick Clark and Dan Curtis Productions have good survival rates. ABC themselves wiped a lot of stuff and then had a fire in 1978 that destroyed most of their kiniscopes.

 

[ThatDonGuy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Dalek

No... Dick Clark and Dan Curtis Productions have good survival rates. ABC themselves wiped a lot of stuff and then had a fire in 1978 that destroyed most of their kiniscopes.

I'm surprised Goodson-Todman didn't do a better job of saving their early ABC shows - there are hardly any ABC episodes of The Price is Right or Password in existence. (There is a rumor that the Password tapes were reused for Family Feud.) Shame, too - I never did get to see any of the ABC Password Tournaments of Champions (I saw a "quarterly" tournament every now and then, but never the "annual" ones).

 

[DeWilson]

Originally Posted by Lord Dalek




No... Dick Clark and Dan Curtis Productions have good survival rates. ABC themselves wiped a lot of stuff and then had a fire in 1978 that destroyed most of their kiniscopes.

Point taken.


I think the fact so many Philadelphia era American Bandstand Shows (and Saturday Night Beachnut) shows were gone,, is why Dick Clark Productions made sure the California AB shows,and later series were saved.


Dick Clark Production,as far as I know, has never make public a list of the AB Shows that they are still missing.

I did not know about the 1978 ABC Fire - explains a lot about the survival rate of network produced shows.


I think of live ABC shows, the best surviving one is "Space Patrol" - All 209 episode of the NETWORK version still exists - but then that was owned by the production company and not ABC. Those were kinescoped in 35mm as well.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Originally Posted by ThatDonGuy

Quote:


I'm surprised Goodson-Todman didn't do a better job of saving their early ABC shows - there are hardly any ABC episodes of The Price is Right or Password in existence. (There is a rumor that the Password tapes were reused for Family Feud.) Shame, too - I never did get to see any of the ABC Password Tournaments of Champions (I saw a "quarterly" tournament every now and then, but never the "annual" ones).

1971 Password is got to be one of if not the greatest tragedies of the wiping era. Until about 4 years ago, when the studio masters of the Martin Milner/Shiela MacRae and Jack Klugman/Brett Summers episodes turned up, it was believed that absolutely NOTHING of that show existed in a format transmittable (UCLA has five episodes but they're off airs and black and white). Two random shows is better than nothing I guess.

 

[WaveCrest]

Originally Posted by DeWilson

Someone else will have to answer that one. I have considered getting the 60's Box set to get a feel for the series, but I already have so much to watch- It would be an interesting way, however to market soaps like Guiding Light. Story highlights and bacground info would make for fascinating watching!




Last December, ITV1 showed again the very first episode of Coronation Street, as part of the soap's 50th anniversary. Interesting seeing William Roache back then (he's the only surviving castmember from the first episode).

 

[Jack Cleveland]

Did anybody else here the news? ABC cancelled All My Children and One Life to Live. Two more historic soaps that will soon be dead and gone...


Is there really no market for DVD releases of these cherished soaps? No one is interested in revisiting a story line from the past? Somehow, I find it hard to believe-


We really are living through the "end of an era". First Guiding Light, then As the World Turns, and now these-


Though not a viewer of these two shows, I feel that the soap opera is dying before our eyes- Undoubtedly, a talk show or cheap game show will take their place!


RIP!!!

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Originally Posted by Jack Cleveland ...


Is there really no market for DVD releases of these cherished soaps? No one is interested in revisiting a story line from the past? Somehow, I find it hard to believe-


We really are living through the "end of an era". First Guiding Light, then As the World Turns, and now these-


Though not a viewer of these two shows, I feel that the soap opera is dying before our eyes- Undoubtedly, a talk show or cheap game show will take their place!


RIP!!!

No, it was already announced that two "Lifestyle programs" (read: more crappy talk shows with a panel of idiots telling you how you should live) will replace the soaps.


I would have much rather seen a new Pyramid, or Password, or something decent take the spot of the soaps.


Besides ratings and all that, you want to know another reason daytime soaps are dying? The serialized nature and outlandish content have moved to primetime dramas. I mean, how many primetime dramas are left that aren't dominated by an ongoing continuing storyline?

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by The Obsolete Man

No, it was already announced that two "Lifestyle programs" (read: more crappy talk shows with a panel of idiots telling you how you should live) will replace the soaps.


I would have much rather seen a new Pyramid, or Password, or something decent take the spot of the soaps.


Besides ratings and all that, you want to know another reason daytime soaps are dying? The serialized nature and outlandish content have moved to primetime dramas. I mean, how many primetime dramas are left that aren't dominated by an ongoing continuing storyline?

I'll take a morning game show over yet another stupid lifestyle or cooking show. I lost interest in soaps a few years ago. I'd stopped watching DOOL and GH and then kept up only with Passions because I knew it'd be over soon anyway. I just burnt out on the format after having been watching at least one soap at a time since the early 80s. If they're going to do daytime serials, they need to reinvent them, and they should routinely cancel the old shows when they get shopworn and introduce new ones. If there had always been more turnover in daytime titles, they'd probably be thriving still today. But nowadays new fans don't want to start watching a show that's been on the air for 50 years and I don't blame them. It was bad enough when I started watching GH somewhere around its 17th year.


I don't expect we'll see the like again. I don't think the networks are suddenly going to invest all that money in new format serials when it's it probably costs about 1/4th the money to put on another stupid cooking program. "Cheap" is in, for the Big 3. And soaps, new or old, ain't cheap--

 

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Ethan Riley /forum/thread/310263/shout-factory-s-april-fool-s-day-joke-and-guiding-light/30#post_3801484