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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : USA's version of the BBC's destruction of films....
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9486 |
In the 70's, the BBC PURPOSELY destroyed by incineration, THOUSANDS of cans of BBC shows. Both the positive prints AND the negative masters were destroyed. Many of these episodes are missing to this day, including the likes of Dr. Who, Steptoe & Son and Dad's Army - although recently, the missing Dad's Army episodes were actually remade, complete with new cast and studio audience. USA seems to have done something similar in a fire, although, in America's case, it would SEEM to be an accident. But still.... USA loss of music masters in fire.... A good idea to keep the originals AND the backups.........in the same place. What could POSSIBLY happen?!   Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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SimpleSafeName Guru  Joined: 28/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 348 |
A lot of the old nitrate films (mostly silent films) were lost due to fire and decomposition. But I'm sure that happened everywhere. |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4854 |
In Netherlands, yes we are cheap, many master tapes of series where re-used. Volhout . PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4251 |
I'm not sure how accurate that statement is. I imagine some were purposely destroyed, however my understanding with regards the BBC of that era was that most of the studio filming was on videotape (and I suspect that the location/exterior work on film was transferred to videotape for transmission). These videotapes were both expensive and reusable and given there were no consumer video players (and thus market for tapes) there was no perceived reason not to erase and reuse them after their original transmission (and usually one repeat). Episodes are occasionally recovered due to duplicates that were sent overseas ... Australia being a big source of these recoveries but now largely tapped out. Best wishes, Tom Edited 2025-05-09 18:55 by thwill MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3998 |
+1 that in many cases the tapes could be recorded over and were. There were copyright issues, too, and those have dragged on, mainly that no permissions had been gained that the programmes could be broadcast again in the future. In some cases the BBC has been able to get the required permissions. (Or the copyright has actually expired maybe?) All a very sad state of affairs but the tapes were incredibly expensive so reuse was a big cost-saver at the time. Details re Dr Who but they're similar for other programmes decades ago Wikipedia. John |
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Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1193 |
I recently watched a documentary about the reason for the destroyed episodes and the hunt for the remains. Very interesting as a Doctor Who fan "Doctor Who: The Missing Episodes" Documentary - Omnibus Edited 2025-05-09 19:51 by Martin H. 'no comment |
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| Andy-g0poy Regular Member  Joined: 07/03/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 72 |
That is basically correct The videotapes were huge Umatic cartridges about 18 inches square by 3 inches thick. Big and expensive and resuable. For distribution especially to overseas locations the video was filmed and put onto b/w film I think 16mm but it might have been 35mm Also some colour film was used. This was a lot cheaper to send and also to store. By a happy accident it was discovered that on some of the b/w film were recorded by pointing a camera at a high quality monitor the colour burst information could be seen (remember the herringbone distortion you saw on some presenters clothing?) Thgere was supposed to be a filter in the monitor to cut that out. There was/is a BBC engineering group that took on the task of using this information to reconstruct a colour programme from the b&w film. The first that was done was an episode of Dad's Army which was eventually broadcast a few Christmases ago. The process is fairly well documented http://www.techmind.org/colrec/ There are many other references to this online. Andy |
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| SimpleSafeName Guru Joined: 28/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 348 |
Oh, and there were the Apollo 11 SSTV tapes that were erased and reused. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes Talk about stupid. |
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