Any other TOSers give up during the original run?

[The Squire of Gothos]

Re: Any other TOSsers give up during the original run?

An enterprising friend of mine set up his Kodak Super-8 camera on a tripod in front of the TV, and filmed certain episodes on a time-delay setting. He could get an entire episode on 4 reels of film. He only did this for three or four episodes. When watched, they would be in "fast motion" and reminded me of old silent films. But that, along with cassette recordings of the soundtrack (lots of people did this) you sort of had a record of the episode. It was a pretty rudimentary way of recording the episodes but it was the best we could do.

That's the only way we're getting to see a lot of Doctor Who episodes today. If NBC had been as strapped for cash and space as the BBC was at the time, we might be relying on them to be able to see the show today.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

We probably owe the longevity of old TV shows more to Desi Arnaz than to any other individual in the history of television. Because of him the studios that produce American TV shows have a strong vested interest in the product after it's run on the networks.

 

[Hambone]

Re: Any other TOSsers give up during the original run?

That's the only way we're getting to see a lot of Doctor Who episodes today. If NBC had been as strapped for cash and space as the BBC was at the time, we might be relying on them to be able to see the show today.

I know the BBC wanted to re-use the videotape that "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was recorded on. One of the Pythons bought the tapes from the BBC himself and stored them in his attic for years. Was videotape really so expensive?

 

[Saxman1]

My mom, sister and I watched TOS first run until it was canceled and again in syndication. Dad never liked Star Trek.

 

[scotpens]

Re: Any other TOSsers give up during the original run?

An enterprising friend of mine set up his Kodak Super-8 camera on a tripod in front of the TV, and filmed certain episodes on a time-delay setting. He could get an entire episode on 4 reels of film. . . It was a pretty rudimentary way of recording the episodes but it was the best we could do.

Homemade kinescopes! A lot of us did that with our TVs and our 8mm movie cameras back then.

That's the only way we're getting to see a lot of Doctor Who episodes today. If NBC had been as strapped for cash and space as the BBC was at the time, we might be relying on them to be able to see the show today.

A lot of old programs, like Dr. Who, were shot on videotape. Since the studios saw no value in preserving shows they considered cultural ephemera, a lot of the tapes were erased and re-used. The only surviving versions of those shows are murky kinescope recordings.

Star Trek was filmed, not videotaped. It was produced and originally owned by Desilu (later Paramount), not the NBC network. And Paramount began syndicating the show (selling it to individual local TV stations) almost immediately after it was cancelled by NBC. There's not a chance in hell that Paramount would have trashed the original master negatives.