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Post by gk on May 22, 2006 10:04:05 GMT
Hello everybody.
I've been lurking here for several months,enjoying the forum but not really being in a position to post about anything in particular.
Briefly,my story is this-I collect old tv shows,mostly old westerns and cop shows from the 50's -80's.I work as part of a small "consortium" world wide,for want of a better word,and we have been quite successful in finding some rare old shows.In particular there are 2 western series which we have manged to dig up,both of which are actually listed in a couple of books on the western genre as being lost-totally destroyed,in one case!!
Anyway,our man across the pond was out walking his dog one day,when he was appoached by a lady who was a neighbour of his.
"you are interested in old tv shows,aren't you?" or words to that effect....to which he replied,"indeed I am".
Come with me,says the lady,and off they go to her house where she opens the garage door to reveal box upon box upon box of video tapes-around 6,500 video tapes,to be exact.Her middle aged son had just died of cancer,and he had been taping tv shows from the year dot,and he had almost the same again in a cousin's garage
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Post by gk on May 22, 2006 10:08:09 GMT
....around 20 miles away.He bought the lot for $25!!! He had to hire a pick up to hold all the stuff!!
The shows the guy liked apparently were westerns,cops,and sci-fi...bit of an eclectic mix I know.
Does anyone know when Dr Who was shown in the states?The guy lived in Montana,close-ish to Canada.I would like to know if there is the merest possibility of something valuable being in there-by valuable I don't mean cash wise-recovery wise!!.It is a big coillection,so it will take time to go through it-and I'm not claiming that there is anything in there.....just asking if it's possible!!
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Post by Scott J. on May 22, 2006 11:53:36 GMT
A few questions: Do you know when he started recording? How did he record them? By just pointing a camera at a TV? Yes, it is possible he recorded episodes that no longer exist in colour - Ambassadors/Mind of Evil. Put of what quality, who knows?
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Post by gk on May 22, 2006 13:23:43 GMT
as far as I know,he had been using video recorders of whatever format from the start.I don't think there is a question of pointing a camera at the tv as such.Judging by the sheer volume alone he must have been taping for literally years,but we'll know better once we get some feedback on what is hidden amongst that lot.
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Post by Steven Sigel on May 22, 2006 14:58:37 GMT
No B&W Dr. Who episodes were shown in the USA until the 1980s -- long after the missing episodes were destroyed...
The only thing of interest that was shown would have been color copies of some Pertwee episodes that currently only exist in B&W. That would have been somewhere around 1976.
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Post by gk on May 22, 2006 15:13:54 GMT
thanks for the info Steven-much appreciated.
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Post by Bobby Clark (synthpopalooza) on May 22, 2006 18:38:10 GMT
Wait a minute ... You said Montana, near Canada? Then yes, B&W Doctor Who could have been shown, if the person taping it had access to Canadian broadcast television! I remember that Marco Polo was shown during the mid 60's in Canada, the film prints being bicycled west across Canada as each region showed them. You might better check those tapes again!
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Post by Steven Sigel on May 22, 2006 18:55:55 GMT
I seriously doubt he was taping anything in the 1960s... Home video equipment (for all intents and purposes) didn't exist at the time... There was some professional gear, but it was VERY expensive and highly unlikely that he would have had it.
The tapes would also have to be Reel-to-Reel (not VHS, Beta, etc) in order to be from that era... VHS and Beta didn't come out until the mid 70s.
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Post by Greg H on May 22, 2006 21:25:48 GMT
Just wanted to point out that this wasnt me that started this thread Well, any genuine leads are welcome!!
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Post by Bobby Clark (synthpopalooza) on May 23, 2006 5:19:44 GMT
I seriously doubt he was taping anything in the 1960s... Home video equipment (for all intents and purposes) didn't exist at the time... There was some professional gear, but it was VERY expensive and highly unlikely that he would have had it. The tapes would also have to be Reel-to-Reel (not VHS, Beta, etc) in order to be from that era... VHS and Beta didn't come out until the mid 70s. Actually, there were some people taping on the old reel-to-reel Shibaden recorders back in the 60's. There was one case where a guy in the UK had taped a 1960's broadcast of The Space Pirates:2 back in 1969 (sadly, an episode which already exists anyway) plus some footage of the moon landing ... the original poster did not mention whether these were all VHS tapes or some other format. If these are reel-to-reel tapes, it's very possible he's been taping TV going back into at least the late 60's. The only drawback of this, of course, is the shelf life of those old reel to reel tapes isn't very good ... in fact, the above mentioned moon landing footage was so poor that only the audio could be salvaged. With about 6,000 tapes, it's well worth having someone check it over to see if there's anything there.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2006 8:26:18 GMT
The moon landing / Space Pirates recordings were made by someone who had basically invented their own video format though (hence the instability of the tapes on replaying). There were "proper" reel to reel videos around in the '60s though and some recordings of missing material have turned up on these. Quality is never wonderful but it's better than nothing. There must be more out there though, as yet unknown.
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Post by Richard Bignell on May 23, 2006 10:22:45 GMT
The moon landing / Space Pirates recordings were made by someone who had basically invented their own video format though (hence the instability of the tapes on replaying). No he hadn't! ;D The person in question had used two standard Sony video recorders, the CV-2000 and the later CV-2100. What he had done however, was create his own tape splitter so that he could save money by using any type of magnetic tape he could find and cut it down to the ½" size used in the Sonys. Richard
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2006 12:07:14 GMT
Ah, I see. I remember reading the story of him slicing videotape in half! I had assumed it was in order to create tape that fitted a customised machine. Thanks for clearing that one up, Richard. We could do with a few more like him..!
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Post by gk on May 23, 2006 15:42:25 GMT
I know one thing-if we ever do turn up a missing Dr Who,it's straight to the RT via Ian levine
I want my full sized Dalek!!! ;D
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Post by Ron Merritt on May 23, 2006 21:08:09 GMT
Just curious gk, but what were the two western series you turned up? Were they American series?
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