CW
I'd say this is different to then though. The 'wiping' policy which has destroyed a lot of 60's TV came about because most TV of the time was produced under terms which allowed only a main airing and a single repeat shortly after - after this a programme could not generally be played again without a lot of legal renegotiation; the repeats market in the sense we have today simply didn't exist. Being also that the then standard 2" quadruplex tape format was very expensive and that there was no perceived cultural loss in wiping the material (think "then is now") it was at the time a quite reasonable decision to wipe and reuse old tapes.
In the 80's however, production had moved onto the cheaper 1" format and by this time it was very clear that there was money to be made (or for the original producer, a cheap filler) by repeating old programmes. There was also a fairly substantial interest in releasing any old programme which was big in it's day on video at what would now seem extortionate rates ("Upstairs, Downstairs" at £40 for a tape with only 2 episodes on is my favourite example - even disregarding 25 years of inflation it doesn't cost much more to have the entire 5 seasons on DVD now). In all likelihood, much of TVS's output hasn't been 'lost' or 'wiped' - it's either never been transferred off of the original 1" format or it's been badly catalogued as the archive has changed hands many times and for that reason isn't available for anyone to purchase. But the actual tapes almost certainly still physically exist and it only takes enough commercial interest to justify cataloguing them properly and/or transferring them onto a modern format to make them available again.
Whether the Fraggle Rock fanbase is sufficient enough to get the remaining episodes available is another matter.
cwathen
Founding member
Quote:
SO we've got a similar situation to what happened with the BBC Archives of Doctor Who, Z-Cars, Dixon Of DOck Green, Hancocks Half Hour, etc.
Except this time with 80's material, thanks Disney/ABC (whatever they're called now).
Except this time with 80's material, thanks Disney/ABC (whatever they're called now).
I'd say this is different to then though. The 'wiping' policy which has destroyed a lot of 60's TV came about because most TV of the time was produced under terms which allowed only a main airing and a single repeat shortly after - after this a programme could not generally be played again without a lot of legal renegotiation; the repeats market in the sense we have today simply didn't exist. Being also that the then standard 2" quadruplex tape format was very expensive and that there was no perceived cultural loss in wiping the material (think "then is now") it was at the time a quite reasonable decision to wipe and reuse old tapes.
In the 80's however, production had moved onto the cheaper 1" format and by this time it was very clear that there was money to be made (or for the original producer, a cheap filler) by repeating old programmes. There was also a fairly substantial interest in releasing any old programme which was big in it's day on video at what would now seem extortionate rates ("Upstairs, Downstairs" at £40 for a tape with only 2 episodes on is my favourite example - even disregarding 25 years of inflation it doesn't cost much more to have the entire 5 seasons on DVD now). In all likelihood, much of TVS's output hasn't been 'lost' or 'wiped' - it's either never been transferred off of the original 1" format or it's been badly catalogued as the archive has changed hands many times and for that reason isn't available for anyone to purchase. But the actual tapes almost certainly still physically exist and it only takes enough commercial interest to justify cataloguing them properly and/or transferring them onto a modern format to make them available again.
Whether the Fraggle Rock fanbase is sufficient enough to get the remaining episodes available is another matter.