Episodes of Classic TV Shows Out Of Syndication (1 Viewer)

[Jim*Tod]

I have noticed that on ME TV and a few other similar channels in the last few years, the MARY TYLER MOORE show eliminates the famous series finale as well as the episode where Mr. Grant, Maury, and Ted imagine what life would be like if they married Mary. There are probably other cuts and deletions.Not sure why these would be missing but they always seem to be and the show is usually shown in chronological order.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Also from The Twilight Zone, Miniature and A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain were caught up in unfounded plagiarism lawsuits so they didn't get into syndication until the mid-80's.

Yes but they ARE in syndication (albeit with some weird colorization effects for Miniature) as is Sounds and Silences which you did not mention so the point is kind of moot.

 

[TheLogoGuy94]

I just checked YouTube and someone has uploaded all of Season 12 of “My Three Sons”. They all were from VHS tapes of recordings of the show when it aired on ‘Odyssey’ (now Hallmark Channel). They're all also from 16mm prints (which are in amazing shape, meaning that the prints the episodes were sourced from were very clean). The prints are syndication prints from Viacom. So, it seems that those episodes have been transferred to tape. Seasons 1-5 and 11-12 haven't been seen in over 15 years. I wonder what's keeping them from airing? Royalty fees? Erased tape transfers (I have no clues as to why they'd, if ever, do that)? The CBS Syndication Bible lists the ‘Season 1-5 & 11-12’ episode as having no “Dubbing Inventory”. Does that mean they don't have any equipment to make new transfers?

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

Now, about the classic western series "Wagon Train", its on H&I now, 170 of 284, that being the 138 episode Ward Bond-Robert Horton package which encompasses all of S1-3 and most of S4 which can be seen weekday mornings M-F and the 32 episode S7 color package w/John McIntire and Robert Fuller on weekend nights. And as for the rest of the series, the remaining 114 episodes can be found in those season DVD sets from Timeless, late S4, S5-6 and 8, so there you have it, a complete 284 episode package would be considered too much for syndication, I think.

 

[Neil Brock]

Sometimes its legal issues and other times just the large number of episodes. Stations don't want packages of episodes that number in the hundreds so many long running shows cut the packages down.


Bonanza - traditional package has 260 episodes and later on the remaining 171 were put in an another package and sold as "the lost episodes".


Wagon Train - Only the 138 Ward Bond hours were ever syndicated to local stations. The one 90-minute season was only sold to cable.


Gunsmoke - 2 packages, the 225 half hours and the hour color episodes. The hour black and white shows are not syndicated and have only aired on cable.


My Three Sons - The syndication package starts in season 6 and I thought went around mid-season 11, but I could be wrong. Not a expert on this show. The 5 black and white seasons plus the remaining color shows have only been available to cable.


The Donna Reed Show - 175 shows syndicated, 100 not. Seasons 4 (except 1 show, 6 and 7 are not available).


Ozzie and Harriet - 200 of the 435 produced were syndicated and I believe only 1 from the color season is in that package. Some of the remaining 235 were aired on Disney Channel in the early 80s but many have never been available, except maybe in PD form.


The Phil Silvers Show - 4 shows are not syndicated but they are included on the DVD box set.


The Man From UNCLE - For years, there were 5 unsydicated episodes, the season 2 premiere 2-parter, The Alexander The Greater Affair, which was turned into the movie, One Spy Too Many, The Double Affair and The Four Steps Affair, edited into The Spy With My Face, and The Pieces of Fate Affair, legal issues.


The Danny Thomas Show - Only seasons 5 thru 9 are available for traditional syndication buys. Seasons 4, 10 and 11 are now airing on COZI, which is the first time any of these seasons have been rebroadcast.


The Joey Bishop Show - Season 1 has never been available for rebroadcast in any form, syndication or otherwise.


Mannix - The syndication package in made up of 130 shows from season thru around a third of the way thru season 7. The remainder of 7 plus 1 and 8 are not in syndication.


The Rogues - One episode (I don't recall which one) is not syndicated.


Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre - Split into 2 packages, Theatre of the Stars is one and Universal Startime the other. There are 80 shows in the two packages leaving approximately 30 plus episodes which are not in either package.


I'm sure there are many more but these are the ones that come readily to mind.

 

[Jack P]

We can also add those shows that were syndicated in an alternate version from their original format.


Night Gallery-Cut to a half hour and packaged with "Sixth Sense" and with totally new intros where needed by Serling.


Love American Style-Cut to a half hour. And apparently the reason why this show is now permanently stalled on DVD is because CBS doesn't have masters of S2 on in the original hour format.


McCloud-The 60 minute episodes from S1 when the show was part of the "Four In One" series were mashed together as 90 minute episodes in order to include them in the syndication package with the later Mystery Movie McClouds. The US release of S1 (with S2) only had the 90 minute versions. Madmen did locate and release the original 60 minute versions of S1 for R4.


Columbo-Syndication package did not include either of the two pilot movies "Prescription Murder" and "Ransom For A Dead Man" (which is why both aired again on ABC in the early 90s when they were doing the new Columbo movies).


Also some 80s shows that did two-part crossovers with another series would sometimes have a separate stand-alone ending for syndication. This happened with a "Magnum P.I./Murder She Wrote" two-parter in which the "Magnum" has a separate ending for syndication that just wraps it up there.


In a similar vein an "Ironside" episode that continued on "The Bold Ones" syndicated the "Bold Ones" episode in the "Ironside" package (too bad the "Adam-12 package didn't include the episode of "The D.A." that concluded one story!)


The final episode of "MASH" was also not included in the basic syndication package and did not air again on TV for quite a few years.

 

[TheLogoGuy94]

Sometimes its legal issues and other times just the large number of episodes. Stations don't want packages of episodes that number in the hundreds so many long running shows cut the packages down.

Bonanza - traditional package has 260 episodes and later on the remaining 171 were put in an another package and sold as "the lost episodes".

Wagon Train - Only the 138 Ward Bond hours were ever syndicated to local stations. The one 90-minute season was only sold to cable.

Gunsmoke - 2 packages, the 225 half hours and the hour color episodes. The hour black and white shows are not syndicated and have only aired on cable.

My Three Sons - The syndication package starts in season 6 and I thought went around mid-season 11, but I could be wrong. Not a expert on this show. The 5 black and white seasons plus the remaining color shows have only been available to cable.

The Donna Reed Show - 175 shows syndicated, 100 not. Seasons 4 (except 1 show, 6 and 7 are not available).

Ozzie and Harriet - 200 of the 435 produced were syndicated and I believe only 1 from the color season is in that package. Some of the remaining 235 were aired on Disney Channel in the early 80s but many have never been available, except maybe in PD form.

The Phil Silvers Show - 4 shows are not syndicated but they are included on the DVD box set.

The Man From UNCLE - For years, there were 5 unsydicated episodes, the season 2 premiere 2-parter, The Alexander The Greater Affair, which was turned into the movie, One Spy Too Many, The Double Affair and The Four Steps Affair, edited into The Spy With My Face, and The Pieces of Fate Affair, legal issues.

The Danny Thomas Show - Only seasons 5 thru 9 are available for traditional syndication buys. Seasons 4, 10 and 11 are now airing on COZI, which is the first time any of these seasons have been rebroadcast.

The Joey Bishop Show - Season 1 has never been available for rebroadcast in any form, syndication or otherwise.

Mannix - The syndication package in made up of 130 shows from season thru around a third of the way thru season 7. The remainder of 7 plus 1 and 8 are not in syndication.

The Rogues - One episode (I don't recall which one) is not syndicated.

Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre - Split into 2 packages, Theatre of the Stars is one and Universal Startime the other. There are 80 shows in the two packages leaving approximately 30 plus episodes which are not in either package.

I'm sure there are many more but these are the ones that come readily to mind.

In the case of “My Three Sons”, the syndication package ends with Season 10. Though when Nick@Nite aired the show back in the 1980's, they aired Seasons 1-5 & Season 12 together (possibly Season 11 as well). So those 7 seasons (Seasons 1-5 & 11-12) must be one package while the other 5 seasons (Seasons 6-10) are another package.

 

[phenri]

We can also add those shows that were syndicated in an alternate version from their original format.


Night Gallery-Cut to a half hour and packaged with "Sixth Sense" and with totally new intros where needed by Serling.


Love American Style-Cut to a half hour. And apparently the reason why this show is now permanently stalled on DVD is because CBS doesn't have masters of S2 on in the original hour format.


McCloud-The 60 minute episodes from S1 when the show was part of the "Four In One" series were mashed together as 90 minute episodes in order to include them in the syndication package with the later Mystery Movie McClouds. The US release of S1 (with S2) only had the 90 minute versions. Madmen did locate and release the original 60 minute versions of S1 for R4.


Columbo-Syndication package did not include either of the two pilot movies "Prescription Murder" and "Ransom For A Dead Man" (which is why both aired again on ABC in the early 90s when they were doing the new Columbo movies).


Also some 80s shows that did two-part crossovers with another series would sometimes have a separate stand-alone ending for syndication. This happened with a "Magnum P.I./Murder She Wrote" two-parter in which the "Magnum" has a separate ending for syndication that just wraps it up there.


In a similar vein an "Ironside" episode that continued on "The Bold Ones" syndicated the "Bold Ones" episode in the "Ironside" package (too bad the "Adam-12 package didn't include the episode of "The D.A." that concluded one story!)


The final episode of "MASH" was also not included in the basic syndication package and did not air again on TV for quite a few years.

Love American Style was packaged with Barefoot in the Park in syndication, similar to how the syndicated Night Gallery was handled.

 

[John Karras]

As I recall, Viacom's traditional syndication package for Rawhide had episodes missing.

 

[LeoA]

My Three Sons - The syndication package starts in season 6 and I thought went around mid-season 11, but I could be wrong. Not a expert on this show. The 5 black and white seasons plus the remaining color shows have only been available to cable.

I was going to post to correct you, but looking over an episode guide just now and going off my memories of it being aired, you're right. About the last half of season 11 never was aired on the channels I watched this show on during the 1990's.


Now in the 2000's, even these early season 11 episodes have been eliminated, as demonstrated by Me-TV's airings of the program and the listing for it on the CBS Syndication Bible. Down to just seasons 6-10.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I think Hawaii Five-O has more than one syndication package similar to Bonanza and Gunsmoke. MeTV only airs the first four seasons, part of season five and a smattering of episodes from seasons 6-11.


Also, due to a special deal, the SciFi channel is the only one that can air all 1,225 episodes of Dark Shadows. If the show ever goes back into syndication, the first year and last year are unavailable for repeats.

DS will be among the offerings of the new Decades channel. There will be a 68-hour marathon beginning Wednesday, May 13 at 6 p.m. and concluding Saturday, May 16 at 2 p.m.

 

[Neil Brock]

A few more that I thought of.


The original Hawaii Five-O package had 200 episodes in it, omitting all of the multi-parters with the exception of the Vachon trilogy. They then put together another package with the remaining 80+ shows which left out Bored She Hung Herself and I believe also To Hell With Babe Ruth. Not sure how they sell the show now but probably either the full package or the smaller 200 show one are options.


The SWAT 2-hour pilot from The Rookies wasn't syndicated in either show's package. Also, when The Rookies used to be sold by Viacom, the season 2 episode, Frozen Smoke, with John Travolta wasn't syndicated.


At one point when Fox got ahold of Life of Riley, they chopped the package down from the original 217 to 91 shows.


Already mentioned previously, but for many years there were 5 Twilight Zones that were not available - Sounds and Silences, Short Drink from a Certain Fountain, The Encounter, Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge and Miniature.


Only the first four seasons of 77 Sunset Strip were ever syndicated in the United States. Season 6, the Jack Webb season was available internationally. Season 5 has never been available for syndication anywhere, which was why it was a big deal when Warner streaming had a good chunk of it on their site.

 

[Panavision70]

Does anyone know if it may be possible to somehow continue releasing love american style maybe shout factory could try to with cbs/paramount permission. The show is an iconic piece of tv history.as far as I know the only wildly successful anthology sitcom with no continuing characters.every week it featured a galaxy of tv stars from former 1960s series many of them just coming off them and the writers and directors worked on those 1960s shows too so they were primed for any scenario that could contain these talented performers. The music by charles fox and norman gimbel was great be it in the background or the iconic theme. These talented tunesmiths would work with sid and marty krofft on the pufnstuf movie as well as gary Marshall On happy days,laverne and shirley, Also on lynda Carter's wonder woman, and the waterlogged overbloated rival love boat. I wish shout factory and paramount could have a meeting its too good a series to not get a proper home video release.

 

[Jack P]

The show was stalled because CBS can't find the masters of the original hour long version for S2 onward. Why should they license it out to Shout or any other label just to release compromised half-hour syndicated cut episodes?

 

[Neil Brock]

The show was stalled because CBS can't find the masters of the original hour long version for S2 onward. Why should they license it out to Shout or any other label just to release compromised half-hour syndicated cut episodes?

Season two the show was a half hour.

 

[Jack P]

I was unaware of that in that they went to a half hour and back to an hour for S3-5. That would explain the initial decision to syndicate it as a half hour.


If S2 were only a half hour, then its odd that CBS didn't at least get those episodes released since they would not be related to the problems for S3-4-5.

 

[Panavision70]

Maybe they didn't look hard enough for the love american style original series elements they may exist. I think they could in some form or other finish releasing the seasons. But I didn't care for splitting them into two volumes per Season.It Should be the complete season.Ideally,I would love to see a complete series release.

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

The syndication package for Bachelor Father isn't a complete one, 118 of 157 episodes available, someone said there were music clearance issues in those missing episodes, am I right? I wouldn't say BF was a song-heavy series, but Jimmy Boyd sang quite a bit in those episodes he appeared in as Howard Meechum.

 

[Brian Himes]

The first five seasons of The Carol Burnett Show has never been syndicated as part of the Carol Burnett & Friends syndication package.


Also, the Carol Burnett & Friends syndication package doesn't include any episodes from the final season (77-78).


I'm not 100% positive, but I believe that not every episode from seasons 6-10 of The Carol Burnett Show were edited and are part of the Carol Burnett & Friends package.

 

[Neil Brock]

The syndication package for Bachelor Father isn't a complete one, 118 of 157 episodes available, someone said there were music clearance issues in those missing episodes, am I right? I wouldn't say BF was a song-heavy series, but Jimmy Boyd sang quite a bit in those episodes he appeared in as Howard Meechum.

This is a recent occurence. They were all syndicated for decades but maybe the licensing on some music was for a period of maybe 50 years and after it expired Universal couldn't be bothered re-licensing the songs so they just pulled the episodes out of the package. Also, ME-TV didn't run all of the Dobie Gillis episodes. There were around 30-40 that they wouldn't air. Of course that might also be because they timespeed the episodes and they determined that if there were songs in them it would sound like The Chipmunks singing.