shows that have been destroyed (1 Viewer)

[Lord Dalek]

Funny how Super Bowl IV (which wasn't lost persay but the color copy only recently turned up) showed up publicly before The 1967 World Championship Game.

 

[Jack P]

The Super Bowl I telecast though is far more significant and far more historically valuable and given how the NFL used to say before the tape was discovered that a copy would be worth a million dollars, they should have been big enough to put their money where their mouths were on that with the people who had kept it preserved all this time. That they didn't and then put out an insulting "rebroadcast" of their own a few years ago using nothing but the same old-NFL Films material synched to the radio broadcast (which has been around for decades) was the ultimate proof of how much they don't give a damn about the significance of the broadcast.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I'm surprised they don't seem to care about Super Bowl II. That one's still MBW.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

Here's another example of a show that has been destroyed/taped over: Wheel of Fortune, pre-Pat Sajak.

According to Randy West, Chuck Woolery didn't exactly get along with Merv Griffin about wanting a salary raise. After Woolery quit or was fired, Griffin erased most of the 1975-81 episodes of Wheel that featured him.

~Ben

 

[Lord Dalek]

^that's a myth. Most of Pat and Vanna's first three years together are believed* junked too.

NBC was bad at saving things in general before RCA sold em.

*not verrified and not syndicated.

 

[Robert13]

The 1986-1990 syndicated series GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling. I believe some, if not all, episodes were either lost or destroyed. No one knows for sure. This is the original series that the Netflix series was based on. The first 2 seasons have been virtually unavailable for decades. A few episodes were released on VHS and DVD but the complete seasons have yet to surface. Many in the industry have asked and no one has been able to find out what happened to the original tapes.

Most episodes from Seasons 2 and 3 were recovered. However, they were acquired by Multicom. Those episodes were somehow edited to overdub the original instrumental electronic music of the show (which is very strange). It's distracting if you've ever seen them.

Another series which seems to have gone lost (whether they have been destroyed is anyone's guess) is the follow-up to GLOW by the name of POWW: Powerful Women Of Wrestling. This was another David McClane produced series.

Anyone growing up the in 80's who regularly tuned into both programs on weekends knows how rare it would be to see these series officially released the right way. Compilation dvds of GLOW were released over the years but they faired poorly in comparison to actual complete episodes. All there seem to be are VHS off-the-air copies that people have uploaded to YouTube.

 

[Neil Brock]

The Super Bowl I telecast though is far more significant and far more historically valuable and given how the NFL used to say before the tape was discovered that a copy would be worth a million dollars, they should have been big enough to put their money where their mouths were on that with the people who had kept it preserved all this time. That they didn't and then put out an insulting "rebroadcast" of their own a few years ago using nothing but the same old-NFL Films material synched to the radio broadcast (which has been around for decades) was the ultimate proof of how much they don't give a damn about the significance of the broadcast.

I was there as well. While historically significant, it wasn't a close or interesting game, as most of the early Super Bowls weren't. It's funny how when it didn't exist it was worth a million dollars and when it did exist, the value dropped by $970,000. I don't blame the owners of the tape for telling the league they could stick it. If that were me, I'd dump it in the east river with the Dumont library before I'd sell it to the NFL for that price.

 

[Jack P]

My impression seeing the telecast unfold was how it showed that the first half was pretty evenly matched and that the Packers only took command in the second half (the key part of the early third quarter was when they pulled away). The Chiefs certainly acquitted themselves better than say, Denver or Buffalo in some of their blowout losses of the 80s-90s.

I only hope the Museum will make it available for regular Library viewing so that way anyone who visits the place can just see it anytime. Not having been to the Museum in 20 years, I was impressed how many programs are now digitized in the Library for "instant" viewing which is a big improvement over the old days of filling out your form and waiting for the tape to be made ready. I watched episodes of three lost game shows that are not in the general trade circulation. "The Moneymaze", "Jackpot!" (the episode the precedes the one out there we're familiar with) and "To Say The Least".

 

[Mike Frezon]

I envy you fellas seeing the tape.

When I was a lad (eight years old inn 1967), I used to love watching the NFL on CBS. For some reason, the CBS football theme is as clear to me today as it was then. So strange to think I can still hum that song today!

Honestly, I hadn't looked for the song until just now on YouTube. But here it is!

 

[LouA]

Does anyone know what survives of the original Phlladelphia years of American Bandstand? Clips keep turning up on you tube all the time.

 

[lj01]

I agree that the owner of the tape should tell the NFL to stick it, but it doesn't appear it was the NFL who ever put a million-dollar value on it - it was Sports Illustrated who came up with that figure. Maybe the owner of the tape should have contacted SI instead. As much as it pains me to agree with the NFL, based on the way the league is marketed (in that it doesn't really market its history older than the year 2000 maybe), it's doubtful they could market/sell this in any way except to people like us older folks and nostalgia buffs, and probably no way they would recoup a $1M investment. At best, they could appease the older fans by making a reasonable (more than 30K but less than 1M) offer to the owner and then show it on NFLN or something. Although, in reading that Swiftie Nation supposedly added $331M to NFL coffers (and this was before SB 58), you'd think $1M is spare change to them (which it most certainly is).

 

[Jack P]

Regardless of who coined the million dollar phrase, it is a fact that the NFL has always had a low regard for the telecast history of the game. I can remember how stubborn they were about not wanting to do ANY kind of replays that when Buffalo had that miracle playoff comeback against Houston in the early 90s, local fans were pleading for a rebroadcast but all the NFL would do is give them 'extra NFL Films highlights'. Then when all the other sports leagues were allowing replays of classic games on Classic Sports Network and ESPN Classic, guess who was the lone holdout? When they finally did make some telecasts available in DVD releases it was so obvious how they were dragged kicking and screaming into doing it just because everyone else was. I think they truly have a hang-up that NFL Films should be the sole source of documenting the history of the league which is why they will never regard the telecast of Super Bowl I as anything special. By contrast, when Game 7 of the 1960 WS surfaced in Bing Crosby's cellar, MLB cut a deal in practically record time to get it aired on MLB Network and then released on DVD.

 

[bmasters9]

By contrast, when Game 7 of the 1960 WS surfaced in Bing Crosby's cellar, MLB cut a deal in practically record time to get it aired on MLB Network and then released on DVD.

And I have that release, and it looks great for the time-- haven't seen all the bonuses yet, but the game is what truly makes it shine.

 

[Neil Brock]

Regardless of who coined the million dollar phrase, it is a fact that the NFL has always had a low regard for the telecast history of the game. I can remember how stubborn they were about not wanting to do ANY kind of replays that when Buffalo had that miracle playoff comeback against Houston in the early 90s, local fans were pleading for a rebroadcast but all the NFL would do is give them 'extra NFL Films highlights'. Then when all the other sports leagues were allowing replays of classic games on Classic Sports Network and ESPN Classic, guess who was the lone holdout? When they finally did make some telecasts available in DVD releases it was so obvious how they were dragged kicking and screaming into doing it just because everyone else was. I think they truly have a hang-up that NFL Films should be the sole source of documenting the history of the league which is why they will never regard the telecast of Super Bowl I as anything special. By contrast, when Game 7 of the 1960 WS surfaced in Bing Crosby's cellar, MLB cut a deal in practically record time to get it aired on MLB Network and then released on DVD.

The other sports don't have nearly the history with their films that the NFL does and they've always wanted their films being the sole source of any kind of looks back at any game. What's ironic is that they have their own network and a treasure trove of great shows that were produced by NFL Films that they could be airing. The weekly This Week in Pro Football one hour shows (cut to a half hour in 1976), NFL Game of the Weeks going back to the mid-60s (although they didn't really get good until 1968 with Sam Spence's music) plus team highlight films which were produced for every team going back to the 60s, maybe earlier. Who knows what they have from the Tel Ra produced AFL shows, pre-1968.
Other leagues did championship films but other that This Week in Baseball, which started in the late 70s, there was a weekly NHL show for a few years in the early 70s which highlighted a couple of games a week and an NBA show around the same time. I don't think the leagues even have copies of those things, as they were outside productions.

 

[lj01]

I suppose that my point was that the NFL (as much as I begrudgingly defend the NFL) never put a million dollar price on it, that was the work of some sportswriter. The NFL never reneged on a bounty of $1M, they hadn't (to my knowledge) put it out there to begin with. Did MLB pay Der Bingle's estate a million dollars for the WS game? I doubt they paid anything (again, I could be wrong, I haven't found any indication of whether they paid or how much).

I completely understand the guy who found it expecting a king's ransom under the circumstances, I would probably hope for that too if it were me, but it's really not worth $1M, even if that's spare change to the NFL. Why not just turn it over to them and let the masses see it and be done with it?

 

[Jack P]

There's no question the NFL left the other leagues in the dust when it came to their own in-house production stuff. The MLB World Series highlight films produced by Lew Fonseca look frankly amateurish with their poor narration tracks, bad scores and worst of all, their obsessive use of phony cracks of the bat and no natural sound. This last thing even carried over into the 80s. When TWIB started in 1977, MLB *never* used authentic PBP calls with the highlights. Only phony cracks of the bat and canned crowd noise. They didn't end this stupid practice until the mid-80s and it wasn't until 1987 when the World Series highlight video finally started using authentic PBP calls from the telecasts.

 

[Mike Frezon]

By contrast, when Game 7 of the 1960 WS surfaced in Bing Crosby's cellar, MLB cut a deal in practically record time to get it aired on MLB Network and then released on DVD.

Thanks, Jack! I had completely forgotten about that release. It's on its way to me.