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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 21, 2023 22:24:16 GMT -5
We live in a pretty great time for access to various media. We live in a Golden Age for access to comic strip reprints. I certainly think the last twenty years have been the best period of my lifetime. It’s also about as good a time as I can ever recall for access to comic book reprints. Whether you like streaming music or not, you have to admit that it is incredibly easy to find music now…probably easier than it’s ever been.
Movies and TV shows are another matter. In some ways streaming has made it a bit harder to find certain things than during the heyday of home video. Certainly in the case of movies. But still there’s tons of stuff readily available and there’s some really surprising stuff available on YouTube.
It’s certainly easier to find books than it was when I was a kid.
But there are still things I want that just ain’t available. I know at least one I’ve mentioned here. Another I may or may not have. One I just realized tonight.
Austin City Limits - Seriously…so many years of great concerts that need to be available. I know there are rights issues, but I don’t care. There’s so much music history there that should be available for public consumption.
Manhunt - This one flabbergasts me. There isn’t even a damn Wikipedia article for it. Manhunt (for those who don’t know) was pretty much the last gasp of noir-detective pulp fiction. Yeah Ellery Queen would do the odd noirish story but Manhunt was the true successor to Black Mask. And it’s damn near forgotten. Lawrence Block has edited a couple of anthologies, but C’mon.
Toonheads - I just got to thinking about this show earlier tonight. Great little anthology series on Cartoon Network that had classic animated cartoons with commentary. In some ways it feels like it presaged a lot of YouTube content. There are a handful of episodes available here and there online, but this was very interesting and well done and I’d love to watch them again.
So even though we live in a great time with tons of stuff (almost to much, honestly) available, what do you want?
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Post by Cei-U! on Jan 22, 2023 5:21:07 GMT -5
They might be available on DVD (maybe?) but I'd love to see boxed sets of NBC's Midnight Special and ABC's In Concert, both late night series from the early '70s featuring live performances of some of the era's best musical acts.
Cei-U!
I summon the soundtrack of my adolescence!
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 22, 2023 5:33:39 GMT -5
(...) So even though we live in a great time with tons of stuff ( almost to much, honestly) available, what do you want? Can't disagree with the point about there being too much - sometimes I groan audibly when I look at the backlog of books and comics I have to read, to say nothing of the stuff I'd like to watch that's either available online, on the streaming platforms I'm paying for or stored on various external hard-drives. However, I also still find myself wishing that some obscure material would become available. Case in point: the blink-and-you-missed-it TV series called "No Soap, Radio" which briefly aired in the spring of 1982 with a whopping five episodes. It was a sketch comedy show set in an old ramshackle hotel, the Pelican, that was really quirkly (and slightly reminiscent of Monty Python's Flying Circus). Except for a handful of grainy clips in YouTube...
...as far as I've been able to determine, it can't be found anywhere, legally or less so. I'd love to see the entire episodes in a higher video quality.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2023 8:15:46 GMT -5
I could name many examples, but I’d like to revisit 1997’s Police Academy: The Series. It was shown on Channel 5 here around 1998/99 - and I’m not sure it’s been repeated since. There has been no home video release. I noticed that there was one episode on Dailymotion - of poor quality and not even in English.
There’s the fact that some shows only have partial home video releases. Seasons One and Two of The Fall Guy were released on DVD many years ago, but not the later seasons (five were produced).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 22, 2023 8:17:35 GMT -5
They might be available on DVD (maybe?) but I'd love to see boxed sets of NBC's Midnight Special and ABC's In Concert, both late night series from the early '70s featuring live performances of some of the era's best musical acts. Cei-U! I summon the soundtrack of my adolescence! Add Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert to that as well. It looks like The Midnight Special got one of those 11-Disc infomercial releases. No way that could have covered more than highlights. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2023 9:13:46 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley , this is a subject near and dear to my heart. My son and I actually share this pursuit, and actively hunt for lost shows and movies. If something is found we try to grab it before it might go missing again. This is also a very interesting resource on the topic if anyone is interested: lostmediawiki.com/Home70's sports games, complete (or thereabout) broadcasts. I've got a fairly nice library of MLB games I've found over the years (in varying quality), and some hockey though I wish I could find a lot more. A smattering of other sports as well. In particular I'd love to find a lot more tennis from that era. And the real rarity - ABA basketball footage, good luck with that one! 70's rock concerts, anything I can find really, early Van Halen is very high on my list though. I will say last year was a major triumph, a 70's Uli Jon Roth guitar era Scorpions concern pro shot concert was found and I was able to grab it. Probably as close to a grail as there is for me (along with a Thin Lizzy show that actually did get a commercial release), never thought something like that would see the day of light. The 70's era Joker's Wild game show, though some of those episodes started to emerge some years back, I try to grab those. Episodes of the Letter People kids show (70's again, there's a theme here, right?) My son was able to burn off copies of the 70's Spider-Man live action show so I've got that one covered. Probably a ton more I'll continue to think of. Besides just the enjoyment I have finding these to watch, it also makes me feel better somehow knowing I'm in some small way helping preserve media history.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 22, 2023 20:51:54 GMT -5
The problems in all of this are home recordings being available, rights issues and original masters being wiped or damaged. Home video is really more of a phenomena of the 1980s and more the mid-80s, at that, once recorders became more affordable. Prior to that, a home video recording system was the toy of the wealthy or film/video buffs who were willing to invest money into their hobby. TV stations and networks would reuse master tapes, after broadcast, to save money, as they were very expensive. This is why so many classic shows from the 60s, in the UK, have gaps (especially Doctor Who). You didn't always have a viable market for syndication or overseas sales; so, tapes would be wiped, after a certain point, since there was no further use, at the time. This is especially a factor with old sports broadcasts. After a while, broadcasters might keep clip libraries, of highlights; but not whole broadcasts. There was a market for game films, which is how you most often found old sports events. For instance, you can find a lot of old wrestling footage from films, but it is harder to find tv footage of different promotions before about 1980 (or 1984, for some promotions that were still around). Promoters reused their master tapes, as did local tv stations who shot wrestling programs in their studios.
Rights issues affect more of the music world, as well as variety show. It has affected certain tv show releases, like the 60s Batman, because of shared rights.
You also have to remember, there needs to be a viable mass market for the owners of such thing to release footage, commercially. A lot of the studios found that after initial interest in a tv series, sales significantly dropped after the first couple of season releases. Shows like Night Court, Bob Newhart Show and the Mary Tyler Moore Show all had strong initial sales, but they declined in subsequent season sets, to the point that the studios stopped releasing them, for a time or turned to manufacture-on-demand, like Warner did, with Night Court. Bob Newhart and MTM both got restarted and also got complete series releases, which sold better to the audience.
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Post by berkley on Jan 22, 2023 21:54:15 GMT -5
Sports are a big one with me and, as Supercat mentioned, hockey in particular: I'd like to be able to watch the entire Montreal Canadiens playoff runs of all their Stanley Cup wins, especially 1971 and 1973, the two I remember from when my excitement as a kid was at its peak, but perhaps even more so the ones before my time, especially the 5 in a row in the 1950s and the 1960s ones when Beliveau was in his prime. CBC didn't make a habit of keeping this stuff, unfortunately.
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Post by berkley on Jan 22, 2023 23:21:07 GMT -5
One I've long wanted to see again is Marty Feldman's tv show that we got on CBC in the early 1970s. I think it was on in the same time slot that was taken over immediately afterwards by Monty Python, if any Canadian viewers can confirm my hazy memories. I haven't seen it since then and have never been able to find much on youtube - though after checking again just now, there is more than there was the last time I looked a few years back, including what seem to be one or two complete episodes. Wikipedia says there was a dvd release planned for 2016 but it hasn't happened yet.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 23, 2023 11:30:13 GMT -5
One I've long wanted to see again is Marty Feldman's tv show that we got on CBC in the early 1970s. I think it was on in the same time slot that was taken over immediately afterwards by Monty Python, if any Canadian viewers can confirm my hazy memories. I haven't seen it since then and have never been able to find much on youtube - though after checking again just now, there is more than there was the last time I looked a few years back, including what seem to be one or two complete episodes. Wikipedia says there was a dvd release planned for 2016 but it hasn't happened yet. There were 12 episodes (6 per series) and some compilation specials (plus one or two original specials). However, the Wikipedia article states that all of the episodes from the first series exist only partially (each episode exists as only segments) and only the second series has the complete elements. That likely put a damper on potential sales, beyond assembling a "best of" compilation release. Given the state of dvd sales, I doubt there would be much of a potential market. The spy thriller Callan, with Edward Woodward, only had the color seasons released in the US, as they were color and intact. The earlier black & white seasons had gaps in the first series and possibly a couple on the second. I bought the official release, then found a bootleg source of the other episodes, the reunion movie (Wet Job) and the feature film version (done in the mid-70s). |
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Post by impulse on Jan 23, 2023 12:11:50 GMT -5
Yes, it's pretty annoying when there is seemingly no good reason something isn't available. I know it tends to come down rights issues, demands, etc. One I know off the top of my head is Kevin Smith's Dogma. I don't know the current status, but I know it was in limbo for a while of print.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 23, 2023 22:33:45 GMT -5
Yes, it's pretty annoying when there is seemingly no good reason something isn't available. I know it tends to come down rights issues, demands, etc. One I know off the top of my head is Kevin Smith's Dogma. I don't know the current status, but I know it was in limbo for a while of print. Too much Affleck. |
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Post by impulse on Jan 23, 2023 22:50:26 GMT -5
Yes, it's pretty annoying when there is seemingly no good reason something isn't available. I know it tends to come down rights issues, demands, etc. One I know off the top of my head is Kevin Smith's Dogma. I don't know the current status, but I know it was in limbo for a while of print. Too much Affleck. Still worth it. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 23, 2023 23:12:28 GMT -5
No, that's why it is unavailable....too much Affleck for the masses! It was a joke, son...a funny, rib tickler, that is. |
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Post by impulse on Jan 23, 2023 23:25:59 GMT -5
OHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Yes, I see.
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