Neil Brock
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2009
- Messages
- 4,325
Here we go again with the Universal "Vault Fire" stuff myth - all masters were stored off-site and the vault in question was a "working vault" - stuff mastered for syndication - syndication copies - no originals were lost. (as for the UMG music holdings, well that is another long story...)
Yes and no. The 35mm negatives and masters of FILMED shows were stored off site. Shows which were produced on 2-inch videotape were burned up and are lost. Luckily, Universal didn't produce a great many shows on tape, but things like Don Adams Screen Test, for instance, is gone. The Jack Benny Show did some shows on film and some on 2-inch tape, and all of those tapes are lost. While Universal didn't produce any regular variety series, to the best of my knowledge, they did do specials and those are destroyed as well.
I haven't heard about some of the little failed sitcoms that they did on tape, such as Sirota's Court and Semi-Tough, but I'm assuming those are burned up too.