Rainbow (Thames 72 to 92)

[George]

Could someone tell me if all the early episodes of Rainbow survive? I'd heard that theyve been lost and that is why only later episodes are out on DVD but I thought it was because the later ones are more popular. Cheers.

[Michael]

The origanal untransmitted pilot exists and bits have surfaced of micky take shows done by Victor Lewis-Smith and clip shows that remind us of what we watched as a kid.
In the pilot Rod Jane and freddy come into the house and tell Geoffrey and the others that they've "been banging away all night".
They do actually tell us they have been playing music,however.
You could try the Fremantle Media/Talkback Thames website to see if they have an archive search facility.

[Kev]

The last Kal get together had an episode.

Tons are missing, especialy the eaRLY STUFF.

tHE ONE THEY SHOWED WAS, i THINK, THE ONE THAT WON AN AWARD.

[James Phillips]

Michael said:

The origanal untransmitted pilot exists and bits have surfaced of micky take shows done by Victor Lewis-Smith and clip shows that remind us of what we watched as a kid.
In the pilot Rod Jane and freddy come into the house and tell Geoffrey and the others that they've "been banging away all night".
They do actually tell us they have been playing music,however.
You could try the Fremantle Media/Talkback Thames website to see if they have an archive search facility.

WRONG!

That is a spoof edition created for a Thames Television Christmas party tape, it wasn't a pilot episode, it wasn't intended for transmission, and it certainly was never intended to be taken seriously.

I'm staggered that this keeps coming up - I'd have thought everybody knew about this...

Getting back to existing episodes - certainly a good chunk of the first series exists on colour VT, and a number of mid-70s editions exist on colour film.

[Matthew Brannigan]

Yes, you can date that clip quite accurately as it features Roger Walker, who was only on the show for a couple of years in the late 70's. He replaced Matthew Corbett and in turn he was then replaced by Freddy Marks.

I think the reason why the DVD releases only feature later episodes was because people are more familiar with Rod Jane and Freddy as the singers rather than any of their predesesors.

[Deleted]

The Christmas tape spoof episode is from 1979.

Hopefully not TOO much is missing.

I hope Network release some of this in the not-too-distant future (covering the whole of the show's lifespan).