movies/tv How does a TV show (or a commercial) become "lost forever"?

[FirePuppy 627]

These shows (and commercials) usually comprise of stuff we've seen in the last decade, and they were never seen again for years. Of course, they are still legal to own and exhibit through VCR recordings, which have been very common worldwide.

[Guest]

Usually because the network at the time didn't believe in preservation and thus all the original tapes are lost and few recordings exist. This was common all the way up to the 90s, but has become less common now where everything is archived.

[Longhaul 6,470]

Sometimes things like that get put in storage and are never pulled until someone takes inventory and "discovers" them again.  Especially true for commercials that focus on a specific campaign.  Once the campaign ends, there's no real use for those ads anymore.

[SharpWit 2,472]

The best example of this happening that I know of is with some of the original Doctor Who episodes. I think the idea was that people didn't want to watch the same thing over and over again. I have no idea what the actual show schedule was, but say you played the same things every night for a week, the audience would be pretty sick of it by the end if it weren't mind blowing like Star Wars was when it initially came out. So if everyone's sick of it then no one wants to watch it and if no one wants to watch you might as well stop playing it and make use of the tape by recording something else over it rather than throw it out.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

So many great shows (and even commercials) were wiped out because of the belief they were only meant to be temporary things with no lingering artistic merit. This is a great loss. Even commercials have a nostalgic effect, and shows that were lost to history were records of their times. Film and video are among the most important inventions ever, and to throw any of it away is irresponsible. Happily now there are easy ways of storing vast libraries of film history using very little space. What gets to me is why so many programs were relegated to the vaults by their studios, never to be seen again when there's plenty of demand for them. Studios are always quick to pounce on anyone exhibiting 'copyrighted materials' on Youtube, but have no intention of ever releasing any of it themselves. This is how things get lost; because the studios and networks don't know or care about their own past, even if the public does.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,371]

Lovely explanation for lost media Dreamy  

[Samurai Equine 45,917]

On 2018-05-29 at 4:08 AM, FirePuppy said:

These shows (and commercials) usually comprise of stuff we've seen in the last decade, and they were never seen again for years. Of course, they are still legal to own and exhibit through VCR recordings, which have been very common worldwide.

I don't know if I would call that "legal to own".
It's legal to own the blank VHS you bought. It's legal to own the VCR that can play it. But making a copy of a company's production or intellectual property is illegal. If you are saving it for your own private viewing, that's fine, they won't go after you. Still illegal, but they won't do anything. They only care if you try to make money off it or distribute it without the studio's permission, which is even more illegal. ...And they want their money. 

Even if it was legal, would you really want that? Making a recording like that usually means that you are losing some quality. Movies and TV shows, at least before the dawn of High Def TV, were compressed/optimized (and in many cases, reformatted). Which means, by the time you saw it on TV, there was all ready a loss of quality. Maybe not enough to notice, but still some loss. And making a recording of it on a VHS? You're losing even more quality. I'm not sure if that's true with modern high def television, but if your capture card (or whatever recording method you use) isn't that great, then the recording you make will still lose some quality.

In this regard, media is considered lost because the studios have the master tapes/master recordings. If they wanted, they could release that media on Streaming/DVD/Bluray/Etc. That way, we'd have a perfectly legal way to own or enjoy it, and it would be a crystal clear release with little to no quality lost. If all you have is a homemade recording, you better hope the loss in quality isn't super noticeable or distracting. 

On 2018-05-31 at 5:05 AM, Dreambiscuit said:

So many great shows (and even commercials) were wiped out because of the belief they were only meant to be temporary things with no lingering artistic merit. This is a great loss. Even commercials have a nostalgic effect, and shows that were lost to history were records of their times. Film and video are among the most important inventions ever, and to throw any of it away is irresponsible. Happily now there are easy ways of storing vast libraries of film history using very little space. What gets to me is why so many programs were relegated to the vaults by their studios, never to be seen again when there's plenty of demand for them. Studios are always quick to pounce on anyone exhibiting 'copyrighted materials' on Youtube, but have no intention of ever releasing any of it themselves. This is how things get lost; because the studios and networks don't know or care about their own past, even if the public does.

Very much this.

There are lots of people who put their hard work into shows, movies, commercials, and so on. In some cases, they weren't even paid decently. If it's something like a commercial, the people who made it might have been giving to the wind. It's usually the on-screen stars and the voice-actors that get the big paychecks from commercials.

Want to know something interesting?
The 90's and 2000's were a great era for stuff like this, even though it was short lived. When DVDs were considered this new, fascinating thing, many studios would entice you to buy it or trying it out by putting extras on the disc. Music videos, the commercials made for the movie/TV show, demo footage, bloopers, director's commentary, you name it! And when we still had music and media stores, I remember seeing a few DVD and a few music CDs dedicated to commercials and commercial jingles only. I don't know how big the demand was, but they did exist.

And now, as things become more and more digital-focused, we are losing that. After DVD players became a bit more common place, studios slowly started to put less extras on their DVDs. I am sure Blurays have a similar story to tell. With streaming services, people don't even care about any of that bonus content. They just want the main event. You pretty much have to go fishing for it; maybe it's on YouTube or something, IF you are lucky. Promotional media is becoming more and more lost because studios feel even less motivated than ever to preserve it.

[Pentium100 2,057]

There are multiple ways TV shows can get lost.

In the past, video tapes were expensive and studios did not think people would want to see old episodes again, so the tapes were reused (this happened to early Doctor Who episodes). 

Another reason is the copyright holder actively wanting to bury some episodes because they are no longer politically correct etc. If there were no home video releases, then do not expect to see it ever again. The reason we can see the Star Wars Holiday special is that somebody recorded it on his VCR when it was shown on TV. George Lucas has said that he would like to smash every copy of that special with a hammer. 

In modern times, if the show does not have a home video release (and is only on TV or sites like Netflix), it can be taken down and potentially be lost. Similar with Youtube videos. 

 

So, this means that if you want to watch something later, buy physical media or record it and archive it yourself. Do not count on it staying on Netflix, Youtube or a torrent site forever.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,371]

Simple nightmare in years before VCRs existed  

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

A lot of the early shows (through the 1960s) were shot on videotape which was reused for subsequent episodes to cut costs, so many old shows were recorded-over and gone forever, and all to save a few bucks on videotape. I guess they had no concept of re-runs. Countless movies from earlier generations are lost forever because they were filmed on nitrate film which disintegrated in their film cans in the studio vaults. Studios didn’t make efforts to preserve these films because they didn’t have the foresight to imagine other venues (like TV, home video/dvds) as a possibility for which they should preserve their work. Everything was based on money, and that’s not a good idea when dealing with art because art and history are worth more than money. Studio heads had no respect for their own product. Some old films and shows are being painstakingly preserved by film conservators, but it’s too late for countless titles that will never be seen again.