ALL: Industry episode archives

[daysgoby]

I am curious to know which soaps have all or most of their episodes saved somewhere in a vault?

I know I have read in the past that most shows throughout the 50's and 60's were taped over instead of being saved by surely from the 70's onwards most shows should have all episodes? Does anyone know how far each show started to actually save and archive their shows?

[YRBB]

I know that Y&R and B&B have every episode saved from the beginning.

Speaking of which, those idiots in charge should start posting all the archived episodes they have on YouTube or something (that goes for all soaps, from the oldest ep they have saved). For God's sake, put a commercial in the beginning, one in the end, and you make money without having to go through the expense of releasing DVDs.

[Paul Raven]

I'm pretty sure that Days has kept all of it's episodes.

The P&G shows and ABC began keeping eps around 79.Why at that time,I don't know.

P&G

Another World

Edge of Night

Guiding Light

Texas

Search for Tomorrow

As The World Turns

ABC post 78/79

All My Children

One Live To Life

General Hospital

Entire eps

Loving/The City

Ryan's Hope

Port Charles

Capitol

Generations

Sunset Beach

Santa Barbara

Other shows have various eps available thru collectors or on the net.TV museums have several eps in their archives for private viewing only.

I'm sure performers and backstage personnel have episodes of their own.

For example,Ann William's family posted eps on You Tube of her in Search from 76 that have never been seen before.

Shows that don't seem to have any eps available include

Return To Peyton Place

How To Survive A Marriage

Lovers and Friends

For Richer For Poorer

Where The Heart Is

[ian]

would the networks really keep archives of the shows that arent still on the air?

[DRW50]

Are those Ann Williams videos still on Youtube?

[All My Shadows]

UCLA has episodes of Where the Heart Is and Return to Peyton Place. At least *part* of an episode of How to Survive a Marriage exists because it's on YouTube. I'm pretty sure For Richer For Poorer has some episodes around.

"Texas" and all soaps that premiered after it exist in their entirety. Of soaps that came before that time, DAYS, Dark Shadows, Y&R, and RH have either most or all (I think DS is missing one episode). All of GH from April 1963 to August 1970 exists at UCLA. AMC and OLTL have a few episodes that exist from the 1969-1971 time period, including at least one episode of OLTL in color. The long-running soaps that began in the early 50s (Search, Love of Life, GL, Secret Storm, and even shorter lived ones like Valiant Lady, Portia Faces Life, The Bennetts, and Hawkins Falls) all have a decent little chunk of their early episodes around, and I think that Search's first episode still exists. There are scattered episodes of most soaps from the 60s and 70s that still exist.

ABC started saving around 1976-1977. P&G started about a year later. The only non-ABC-owned and non-P&G-owned soaps in the late 70s were Love of Life, The Doctors, DAYS, Y&R, and RH. DAYS, Y&R, and RH were already saving their episodes by then, CBS owned Love of Life and idk when they started saving it (probably when P&G started saving), and it's rumored that Colgate-Palmolive might have started saving The Doctors in around 1073-1974, but idk how true that is.

Mhm. Search "Search for Tomorrow Ann Williams." I think it's three clips featuring her work with Morgan Fairchild.

[P.J.]

Wasn't there some old story that some fire destroyed tape of ATWT from the '70's?

[ljacks13]

Actually, it was AMC & OLTL tapes that got destroyed in fire at a building in NYC from what I remember. I think they reported at the time, the tapes were episodes during '70's,

[daysgoby]

Thanks for all your replies!

[SFK]

*Slightly* OT, but thought I'd share this classic promo clip I stumbled upon the other day, perhaps some of you have already seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrxtAWDvt8Q&feature=channel_page

Donna Mills as beautiful as ever, and look how stunning Marla Adams (sporting a chignon that weighs no less than eight pounds) is as Belle in Secret Storm.

"...expands to a half-hour!"

[quartermainefan]

I believe the Paley Center (once known as the Museum of Television and Broadcasting) has various episodes of soaps long gone archived.

[Chris B]

I'd love to one day see SOMETHING from Return To Peyton Place. There isn't a single episode out there! Nothing.

[SFK]

Yes, they certainly do. Unfortunately I don't remember what exactly, but that's where I watched a 1968 episode of OLTL with Gillian Spencer as Viki and some "Golden Age" Another World.

[All My Shadows]

LOVE that commercial. LOVE IT!! So crystal clear, so smooth, so clean, so pretty. Love it. I wish there were episodes of all of those soaps around from that time with just as good picture quality.

There's a short promo for it on YouTube on saynotoursoap's channel. Very, very brief, and kinda strange, but it's there.

The OLTL was in color, wasn't it? I've always wondered where that came from.

Is it not correct that Agnes kept all of the masters of AMC and OLTL saved, but then that terrible, terrible, unfortunate fire destroyed most of what was archived up until that point?

[daysgoby]

I just had a thought. When soaps are sold to international stations do they not keep copies of the show? Surely if any of these older soaps from the 60's and 70's were sold overseas there are copies lying in warehouses somewhere?