Author Topic: Universal Studios Fire Destroys Video Vault (Read 8574 times)

SRIV94 · « **Reply #15 on:** June 04, 2008, 11:38:02 AM »

Apparently some of their music master tapes were also lost. Yet it's a little difficult to really tell what was salvaged and what wasn't.

Story and comments here.

clemon79 · « **Reply #16 on:** June 04, 2008, 11:44:46 AM »

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5426/ba...boblargeet0.gif

"Nothing was lost, everything is fine!"

RMF · « **Reply #17 on:** June 04, 2008, 12:05:31 PM »

[quote name=\'Eric Paddon\' post=\'187490\' date=\'Jun 4 2008, 11:26 AM\']
I have a report of a game show (at least one that is listed in the Encyclopedia) potentially wiped out by the fire.

...

Anything that they had 2-inch masters on, those are gone forever. For instance, the show Don Adams Screen Test, gone.
[/quote]

Fortunately for us, most of the run of this program is held at UCLA

In another example of "what they didn't say", alt.movies.silent (among others) is reporting that the library of prints used for film bookings was also destroyed in the fire. This also has consequences, as it is questionable how many of these films Universal will bother to reprint.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #18 on:** June 04, 2008, 12:11:42 PM »

There probably wasn't a chance DAST would have ever seen the light of day again even if the fire had not occurred, though occassionally clips would turn up on "Foul-Ups, Bleeps and Blunders," which I guess would now be gone as well.

MCA also distributed Hackett's YBYL and the "competition" show "Puttin on the Hits.". The only other game show of the "golden-age" that I can think of which MCA had a hand in was "The Big Showdown," which was a New York show, and presumably was long gone shortly after airing.

EDIT: Just saw RMF's post. DAST is safe for now, though I'm not holding my breath for a DVD set.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 04, 2008, 12:21:10 PM »

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'187494\' date=\'Jun 4 2008, 11:11 AM\']
MCA also distributed the "competition" show "Puttin on the Hits.".[/quote]

Wouldn't Dick Clark have those masters in his library, since his company produced it?

/Not that I really care to see Allen Fawcett again.
//Farrah Fawcett, now you're talkin'.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #20 on:** June 04, 2008, 12:50:38 PM »

One other MCA show I forgot "Pop N Rocker"

clemon79 · « **Reply #21 on:** June 04, 2008, 01:01:17 PM »

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'187494\' date=\'Jun 4 2008, 09:11 AM\']
There probably wasn't a chance DAST would have ever seen the light of day again even if the fire had not occurred, though occassionally clips would turn up on "Foul-Ups, Bleeps and Blunders," which I guess would now be gone as well. [/quote]
See! So this whole thing isn't *all* bad.

Eric Paddon · « **Reply #22 on:** June 04, 2008, 03:22:37 PM »

That's good to know another set existed at UCLA. And it's a reminder of how the need for back-up is so important in preserving film and TV from the most obscure to the most famous.

RMF · « **Reply #23 on:** June 04, 2008, 09:45:11 PM »

As another addendum involving Don Adams' Screen Test, the Paley Center has some material from this program as well, but, from viewing an example, it appears that it is "highlights" from the "screen tests" rather than complete programs.

tvrandywest · « **Reply #24 on:** June 10, 2008, 12:22:04 PM »

More info on what was lost:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-univ...0,5996006.story

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #25 on:** June 10, 2008, 01:30:43 PM »

The thing you have to remember about Don Adams' Screen Test is that it was done in the age before VCRs became commonplace, and the movies became commonplace along with them. Remember children, back then, only a handful of very very good movies (and a lot of very very bad ones) turned up on television. Films were still special then because they weren't as accessible (no one said "I'll wait for the video"), and having ordinary people elaborately recreate classic scenes was a pretty wacky novelty of an idea.

Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.

Tim L · « **Reply #26 on:** June 10, 2008, 02:25:10 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187860\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 01:30 PM\']
The thing you have to remember about Don Adams' Screen Test is that it was done in the age before VCRs became commonplace, and the movies became commonplace along with them. Remember children, back then, only a handful of very very good movies (and a lot of very very bad ones) turned up on television. Films were still special then because they weren't as accessible (no one said "I'll wait for the video"), and having ordinary people elaborately recreate classic scenes was a pretty wacky novelty of an idea.

Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.
[/quote]

Along with that, In writing various places about "classic TV"..It amazes me that from the 1950's-1980's, when most local TV stations aired at least one film in a local movie package per day..(With titles like The Early Show, Movie 5 and the like).The sheer volume of movies there were available then..As Matt said, mostly mediocre to bad ones..I am not young (50)..But it interests me how many movies I've never heard of were on local TV then..

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #27 on:** June 10, 2008, 04:00:59 PM »

One of my hobbies is to try to piece together which films belonged to which syndication packages (so I have a life beyond game shows!) Before MCA bought Universal they had acquired the 700+ title pre-48 Paramount feature library for syndication, since the big studios wanted nothing to do with television syndication for fear of a backlash from theater owners. The 35mm duplicates of those films were most likely to have been affected by the fire If anybody would like me to continue, just reply in the affirmative.

mmb5 · « **Reply #28 on:** June 10, 2008, 05:40:24 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187860\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 01:30 PM\']
The thing you have to remember about Don Adams' Screen Test is that it was done in the age before VCRs became commonplace, and the movies became commonplace along with them. Remember children, back then, only a handful of very very good movies (and a lot of very very bad ones) turned up on television. Films were still special then because they weren't as accessible (no one said "I'll wait for the video"), and having ordinary people elaborately recreate classic scenes was a pretty wacky novelty of an idea.

Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.
[/quote]
Thanks for giving me the image of Scheky Greene's yellow pants again...

--Mike

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #29 on:** June 10, 2008, 06:44:05 PM »

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'187886\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 05:40 PM\'][quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187860\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 01:30 PM\']Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.[/quote]Thanks for giving me the image of Scheky Greene's yellow pants again...[/quote]
But see, I managed to write my post without recalling Shecky Greene's yellow pants, an image I had successfully managed to repress. So whose fault is it really?