Intact series with multiple scattered missing episodes

[Ian Wallis]

The run of Break the Bank on Game TV had me thinking.

We all know that from the '50s into the late '70s, many producers didn't save their shows.  This could be because of costs, limited storage space, perceived non-rerun value, etc.  During the '70s, some game show producers made an effort to start archiving their libraries - some were better at it than others.

It's obvious that Break the Bank wasn't exactly the genre's biggest hit, but if a conscious effort was made (by somebody) to save it, how in the world would so many scattered and random episodes be missing?  It's only 74 daytime episodes, so why let 10 "vanish"? It doesn't make sense to me.  If someone needed a tape, did they just look blindly into the existing library and picked whatever they got their hands on to re-use?

When GSN ran the show, the early skips were the same as what Game TV aired - so I think it's probably pretty safe to assume that if GSN had finished the series, they would have aired the same 64 episodes and no more.  (It's too bad because there were a number of interesting games that were cut off and we never saw the conclusion of).  it's a shame nobody thought to save the daytime finale.

I really wonder how many of the Jack Barry episodes still exist.  I hope that Game TV will see fit to pick them up eventually.

[Blanquepage]

The main reason why I'm still hopeful that all ten missing ones aren't actually lost are because of examples of collectibles that aren't part of general circulation, but are from Fremantle & Sony archives. A week or MG '77 with Adam Arkin on the panel, never aired on GSN or Buzzr, with progressively worse video problems and The Dating Game #189, for example. Also, if you watch the very beginning of the Bullseye premiere that's been in collections for decades, the dub opens with some noticeable Digibeta tape glitches which might account for GSN never airing it and just using pieces of it in their launch montage. Plus, it's also possible that when it came time to digitize those tapes, stuff happened that led to them being deemed "not for broadcast" quality.

And I know I keep harping on that WikiLeaks Sony GSN file, but it did show 97 episodes, meaning that only 3 could truly be gone.

[Eric Paddon]

When GSN aired "Go!" in 1997-98 and went through the entire cycle there were six shows skipped.    #46, 63, 70, 71 and 75 (out of 78 total).    Maybe one or of two of the latter ones I just missed when they aired but they got back around to where #46 would have aired a second time during the Dark Period and it was skipped again (second episode of a week with Lynn Redgrave-Richard Gilliland)

GSN also showed clips of but never aired the videotape master of the "Password" episode with Jack Benny and daughter Joan Benny because of tape deterioration in the latter stages.

[Blanquepage]

Not sure I agree about Go skipping 6, I taped and catalogued 74 episodes. Weren't there only 78? I always just assumed I missed taping the other 4 all this time 

Three's a Crowd though would be one with a lot of skipped episodes, GSN only aired around 80 of 195 episodes. Chain Reaction had a whole lot of skips too. Perhaps it was matter of investment in converting all vs. the returns gained by airing them.

[Eric Paddon]

You're probably right on 74 and I missed a couple of those final episodes in the GSN airings so 74 sounds right.   

Chain Reaction did have a lot of skips too.    From the GSN airings these were skipped.

17-20;
25-28;
42
44
47 (But we have an NBC recording)
48-49
63-65
67-68

GSN then jumped all the way to 80 for the last episode they aired. 

[That Don Guy]

Didn't GSN skip over a few weeks when it aired Goodson/Todman Double Dare?

[Matt Ottinger]

Remember that there is a huge difference between "episodes are missing" and "episodes haven't been shown."  I can think of any of numbers of reasons for the latter. prime among them (as has been mentioned) the deteriorating quality of the tape.  In the eighties, we were told that our VHS tapes wouldn't last forever.  Those older tapes were of higher quality, but not dramatically so.  Some fragile tapes may not have survived the transfer process.

In the case of one classic show, Goodson-Todman made kinescopes of all 681 episodes of I've Got A Secret, and today, there are about three dozen that are truly unaccounted for.  There are a LOT more than that which haven't been shown, but thanks to donations to UCLA and the Library of Congress, we know those episodes exist.  We also know in most cases what the reason is.  Those pesky cigarette ads.

And then to bring things back to the BtB decade, the syndicated version of Secret in 72-73 made 39 episodes, and there are three of THOSE that have never been shown.  No idea why.

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[Eric Paddon]

The three missing 72 IGAS ones would be Jo Ann Pflug, Jan Murray and Ruth Buzzi.

[Scrabbleship]

A week or MG '77 with Adam Arkin on the panel, never aired on GSN or Buzzr, with progressively worse video problems

Does this put to bed the longstanding theory that Arkin vetoed reruns of his week, at least GSN-wise?

Might this also be the real reason why GSN or Buzzr never has touched the week of MG '78 with Valerie Bertinelli on the panel, especially since she herself said there never was a veto?

[Blanquepage]

A week or MG '77 with Adam Arkin on the panel, never aired on GSN or Buzzr, with progressively worse video problems

Does this put to bed the longstanding theory that Arkin vetoed reruns of his week, at least GSN-wise?

Might this also be the real reason why GSN or Buzzr never has touched the week of MG '78 with Valerie Bertinelli on the panel, especially since she herself said there never was a veto?

Recalling the nonexistent, yet long perpetuated amongst the hobbyists, "veto" from Chuck Henry on airing his NYSI, I'd feel likely there was no such veto.

[TwoInchQuad]

GSN also showed clips of but never aired the videotape master of the "Password" episode with Jack Benny and daughter Joan Benny because of tape deterioration in the latter stages.

Hmmm.. I actually thought they **had** shown the whole Jack & Joan Benny episode, and that I'd missed it somehow. 

In that particular case, the problem is the audio-- there was a run of two or three primetime eps that were taped in Hollywood during the program's west coast swing that year, and all of them exhibit the same mis-aligned audio problem.   The video is actually fine, but the audio is enough of a distraction that I could see why they wouldn't air it.

Since I happen to love anything Jack Benny, that program has been fixed, and I provided a copy to Joan, some years back.

- Kevin

[Eric Paddon]

The episode before the Benny one from May 22, 1962 with Edie Adams and Dennis Weaver has never aired either presumably for the same reason. 

[MikeK]

Didn't GSN skip over a few weeks when it aired Goodson/Todman Double Dare?

When GSN aired Double Dare 15-16 years ago, the number of missing episodes I recall reading was 30.  There definitely was a jump from about episode 60 to the penultimate week.

[TwoInchQuad]

The episode before the Benny one from May 22, 1962 with Edie Adams and Dennis Weaver has never aired either presumably for the same reason.

It undoubtedly is for the same reason.  I've seen it.

- Kevin

[chrisholland03]

I can speak to GSN and the 1st episode of Bullseye, having seen it on premises in the mid-90s.  The master they received had tracking issues that could not be resolved.  It was converted to DigiBeta, along with eps 2 and 3 on the same master.  The copy of the 1st episode that is floating around is a dub of the DigiBeta conversion from GSN.