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Least Likely to Ever See the Light of Day Again (1 Viewer)

Ian K McLachlan

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As someone living in the UK I think that you are fortunate that most of the drama and comedy series made in the US still survive. Sadly the same is not the case here. If Dr. Who for example had been made in America then no doubt all the episodes would survive. I do collect lots of old American series especially from the 1960s and just wish that more of our equivalent series were available for purchase in Britain. Some of the series mentioned above are not known to me as I daresay we did not get them in Britain. Well known and remembered US series that have yet to be on DVD include - The Defenders, My World and Welcome to It, and The Fantastic Journey, Not so many when you consider all the well known British equivalents which are not available here on DVD.
 

LouA

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Ian K McLachlan said:
As someone living in the UK I think that you are fortunate that most of the drama and comedy series made in the US still survive. Sadly the same is not the case here. If Dr. Who for example had been made in America then no doubt all the episodes would survive. I do collect lots of old American series especially from the 1960s and just wish that more of our equivalent series were available for purchase in Britain. Some of the series mentioned above are not known to me as I daresay we did not get them in Britain. Well known and remembered US series that have yet to be on DVD include - The Defenders, My World and Welcome to It, and The Fantastic Journey, Not so many when you consider all the well known British equivalents which are not available here on DVD.
Why is that? Are the tapes lost , or were they discarded? Or did they originally air live ?
 

BobO'Link

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LouA said:
Why is that? Are the tapes lost , or were they discarded? Or did they originally air live ?
Due to the expense of blank video tape the BBC regularly wiped the tapes for reuse in a money saving effort. Because of this much of the early British TV history is lost forever.
 

LouA

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BobO'Link said:
Due to the expense of blank video tape the BBC regularly wiped the tapes for reuse in a money saving effort. Because of this much of the early British TV history is lost forever.
I'm sorry to hear that. The same thing happened here in the US to many local shows , and even some national shows like Johnny Carson's Tonight Show .
 

Silverking

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Not just BBC. A huge amount of ITV series were wiped/destroyed as well. Hundreds of episodes of 50's, 60's drama series such as 'No Hiding Place', 'Crime Sheet' 'Shadow Squad' 'Knight Errant' as well as many comedies have all gone. Appreciate these titles don't mean anything to US fans but these were big, rating topping shows in the UK in their time.
 

Brian McP

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It was hoped that many of these same tv series might have survived here in Australia as many were huge hits down here too -- sadly, not a chance: the ABC junked many of their prints and most videotapes were reused because of the expense of these early videotape reels/cassettes.


Three more shows to add to your list, from the late 60s "The Queen and I" with Larry Storch and Billy DeWolfe ("McHale's Navy" on an oceanliner), "The Good Guys" with Bob Denver and Herb Edelman (Gilligan runs a takeaway diner) and "The Tim Conway Show" with Tim Conway and Joe Flynn -- two of these series only lasted a season at the most, "The Good Guys" two seasons -- only scraps of these shows exist on YouTube these days, probably more than those early BBC/ITV shows -- all that work and great performances....gone....
 

AndyMcKinney

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Ian K McLachlan said:
As someone living in the UK I think that you are fortunate that most of the drama and comedy series made in the US still survive. Sadly the same is not the case here. If Dr. Who for example had been made in America then no doubt all the episodes would survive.

Unless it was done low-budget on videotape as a children's programme (like in the UK), because a large portion of videotaped shows produced for daytime (such as soaps, game shows) and late-night (talk shows), as well as news and sporting events were also routinely wiped-reused by the American networks at the time. Heck, the first Super Bowl, even though it was broadcast on two networks, ended up being wiped by both of them!


If a US version of Doctor Who has been produced in the same way as the BBC version (network owned/made, shot on tape rather than film, shot for Saturday children's programming), there there's a decent chance it could have also gotten wiped, unless it was decided it had syndicated rerun potential.


While is it true that junkings/wiping of prime-time network programming didn't hit the US like it did the UK and Australia, it seems that a lot of people still don't realise that the US networks were just as guilty of showing utter disregard for a not-insignificant portion of their output.
 

Ron1973

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AndyMcKinney said:
Unless it was done low-budget on videotape as a children's programme (like in the UK), because a large portion of videotaped shows produced for daytime (such as soaps, game shows) and late-night (talk shows), as well as news and sporting events were also routinely wiped-reused by the American networks at the time. Heck, the first Super Bowl, even though it was broadcast on two networks, ended up being wiped by both of them!

If a US version of Doctor Who has been produced in the same way as the BBC version (network owned/made, shot on tape rather than film, shot for Saturday children's programming), there there's a decent chance it could have also gotten wiped, unless it was decided it had syndicated rerun potential.

While is it true that junkings/wiping of prime-time network programming didn't hit the US like it did the UK and Australia, it seems that a lot of people still don't realise that the US networks were just as guilty of showing utter disregard for a not-insignificant portion of their output.
While not as significant as other shows talked about, Memphis Wrestling was on videotape for years but it was wiped frequently due to the cost of tape. I know not everyone is a wrestling fan but to think of the names that came through Memphis and realize that most of what exists of that golden age is homemade VHS copies.
 

AndyMcKinney

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Ron1973 said:
While not as significant as other shows talked about, Memphis Wrestling was on videotape for years but it was wiped frequently due to the cost of tape. I know not everyone is a wrestling fan but to think of the names that came through Memphis and realize that most of what exists of that golden age is homemade VHS copies.

Yeah, Ron, what you're talking about goes into yet another sub-genre of wiping: the archives of local stations. I imagine the amount of wiping/junkings at local stations was way more widespread than at the networks, as they would have had much smaller budgets. In my own local market, for instance, WTVQ-TV doesn't even have a single complete episode of their locally-produced Happy's Hour show, which was one of the last of the "local-hosted kids shows" around, and this is a show that ran from 1976 until the early '80s. All that exists are some random clips (probably recorded at-home on a VHS or Beta deck), most of which are in the documentary "When Happy Met Froggie" (though, unfortunately, cropped to 16:9 widescreen).
 

BobO'Link

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Ron1973 said:
While not as significant as other shows talked about, Memphis Wrestling was on videotape for years but it was wiped frequently due to the cost of tape. I know not everyone is a wrestling fan but to think of the names that came through Memphis and realize that most of what exists of that golden age is homemade VHS copies.
That was, and still is, very common for local TV stations. Unless the person(s) paying for the program purchase a archive copy one is rarely kept as the stations typically do not have the budget *nor* storage space (which can be expensive if done properly). In those days, there being no way to play it at home, there was *zero* resale value and no thought was given to re-runs. Much like the first Super Bowl it's a matter of "Who want's to re-watch that kind of stuff?" Even if there had been a syndication market for the programs I'm 100% sure they'd have wiped the tapes after they came back from the other stations airing them. I know the station I worked for did just that with a few locally produced programs they sent to other stations to air. With one, the host (who was also paying for the production and air time) found out copies of the show didn't exist after about 6-8 weeks so he started shelling out for a archive copy he took with him. Another was a kids show and the host/producer didn't care as he felt there was no resale value.
 

Neil Brock

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Brian McP said:
Three more shows to add to your list, from the late 60s "The Queen and I" with Larry Storch and Billy DeWolfe ("McHale's Navy" on an oceanliner), "The Good Guys" with Bob Denver and Herb Edelman (Gilligan runs a takeaway diner) and "The Tim Conway Show" with Tim Conway and Joe Flynn -- two of these series only lasted a season at the most, "The Good Guys" two seasons -- only scraps of these shows exist on YouTube these days, probably more than those early BBC/ITV shows -- all that work and great performances....gone....
None of them are gone, all 3 sit perfectly safely in CBS vaults.
 

MatthewA

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Ian K McLachlan said:
As someone living in the UK I think that you are fortunate that most of the drama and comedy series made in the US still survive. Sadly the same is not the case here. If Dr. Who for example had been made in America then no doubt all the episodes would survive. I do collect lots of old American series especially from the 1960s and just wish that more of our equivalent series were available for purchase in Britain. Some of the series mentioned above are not known to me as I daresay we did not get them in Britain. Well known and remembered US series that have yet to be on DVD include - The Defenders, My World and Welcome to It, and The Fantastic Journey, Not so many when you consider all the well known British equivalents which are not available here on DVD.

We Americans were short-sighted, too. There are countless soap opera, game show, kids' show and talk show episodes that are gone forever because the producers had neither the foresight to think anyone would want to see them again nor the storage fees to keep them preserved.
 

Robert13

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"Grindl" with Imogene Coca was a funny show from the few episodes I have seen. The synopsis of the rest of the episodes sound hilarious and crazy. However, I doubt we will ever see anyone do much with this series. There is one online trader/seller who has the 5 episodes known to exist. Otherwise, I don't know that the rest of the series is still in the vaults.
 

LouA

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Robert13 said:
"Grindl" with Imogene Coca was a funny show from the few episodes I have seen. The synopsis of the rest of the episodes sound hilarious and crazy. However, I doubt we will ever see anyone do much with this series. There is one online trader/seller who has the 5 episodes known to exist. Otherwise, I don't know that the rest of the series is still in the vaults.
I remember this show .It got murdered by the critics back in the mid 60's , but really wasn't bad with Imogene Coca being funny in the role. I may look for those 5 episodes .
 

LouA

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Neil Brock said:
None of them are gone, all 3 sit perfectly safely in CBS vaults.
That's good to hear . I never saw "Queen", but I liked the other 2 shows . I always thought that the 70's Tim Conway Show was a throwback to the crazy sitcoms of the 1950's like I Married Joan. Not that I think we'll ever see them again.
 

AnthonyClarke

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I'd love to see once more the UK series 'The Power Game' with Patrick Wymark but I suspect those tapes were wiped decades ago.

And how sad that most episodes of Not Only but Also (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) were lost. Still, quite a few Hancock's Half Hour survived....
 

Neil Brock

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AnthonyClarke said:
I'd love to see once more the UK series 'The Power Game' with Patrick Wymark but I suspect those tapes were wiped decades ago.
The whole series came out in England quite a few years ago.
 

Ian K McLachlan

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And some episodes of The Plane Makers - the series before The Power Game - have also been released on DVD.
 

wizard55

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I see episodes of Grindl are on YouTube. I just watched Imogene Coca on a 2 part Bewitched episode and so now I'm curious to see these.
 

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