ALL: Industry episode archives

[Paul Raven]

That is an interesting thought.

I know some BBC things from the 60's and 70's thought lost were found in Australia,South Africa etc.

How did these work back in those days?Would local stations return them after use,destroy them or wipe over them?

I know that SFT,AW,RTPP,ATWT and DRS all aired in Australia at one time or another.Search and AW aired for years there in the 70's.

[DRW50]

Is it true that they found a ton of old Ryan's Hope episodes in Ireland?

[SFK]

Yes, the OLTL is in color, and Gillian played a very calm, cool, and collected Viki.. it was all hectic as Meredith was missing in this episode. Ernest Graves' Victor was blustery and not at all creepy as this was light years before those *developments*. I think it was SoapNet (?) that did a little video retrospective upon OLTL's 40th and they used footage from this episode.

Isn't that CBS promo gorgeous? I guess a lot of it has to do with the changing times, because everyone "dressed" back then. The production values certainly aren't as advanced as they are today yet those shows looked classier than any show currently on the air.

[Bright Eyes]

Very jealous right now. I would love to watch some early OLTL.

[SFK]

It's so sad that there isn't more though! Once you've had a taste, you just want more more... It was totally a surprise to me that they even had such an early episode. I really wanted to see GS as Niki which my mom raved about. In Agnes Nixon's Intimate Portrait, they showed an early clip of Carla and Sadie. I remember from Ellen Holly's book that Ellen was so upset about her classic "passing" s/l being lost forever. She somehow hooked up with someone who worked for an ABC affiliate who had found an old promo which was a portion of a scene with her and Lillian Hayman. I am almost positive that's what they use for AN's IP.

If memory serves, after that 1968 episode it skips to the early '80s. I was also happy to see an awesome Mac and Iris meltdown from AW which I have since seen in private collection. Wouldn't it be awesome if someone who had one of those first $2,000 VHS recorders suddenly uploaded hours of soaps from the '70s on YouTube??

ETA: BTW, if you're in New York (or L.A., never been to that one), GO to the Paley Center and watch some classic material! I especially recommend it if you're visiting Manhattan and it rains on one of your days in the city. Haven't been there in a while, but I think it's like nine bucks to gain access to the viewing rooms. You go upstairs, sit in a room full of computers and search for what you want to watch, you can make up to four selections, then you are sent to the viewing rooms where you sit at your own booth with headsets and you can play, stop, rewind, fast-forward your digital selections. You're given a time limit, so you will most likely have to do a little fas- forwarding if you picked all hour-long shows.

[quartermainefan]

I visited the museum more than once, and it was a valuable resource, but these days you can find a more impressive library on youtube. Some things they do well, like if an event happens. I remember watching the Lost episodes of the Honeymooners there eons ago when they were unearthed, but for a casual stroll down memory lane, online is a better bet.

[SFK]

You're right, there's a lot on YouTube these days, but there's really rare stuff at the museum too like the 1968 OLTL and the several symposiums they did with soap actors and creators when they had their big "Worlds Without End" exhibit in 97/98. I attended the AMC symposium (Agnes Nixon, Julia Barr, David Canary, Waly Willey), and on a later visit I watched the taped "Divas" symposium with Robin Strasser, Victoria Wyndham, and Kim Zimmer. But beyond soaps there's tons of cool stuff like the very early days of TV, I've also watched some rare interviews and live Kraft/Philco teleplays.

[dc11786]

I went several times to the Paley Center and saw a lot of stuff that has never popped up online. An episode of First Love, three episodes from Three Steps to Heaven, the sixth episode of Lovers and Friends, the premier of For Richer, For Poorer, the 1981 episode of The Doctors where Jason Aldrich was killed, a 1976 episode of Somerset where Victoria Paisley is jealous of Avis Ryan's interest in Julian Cannell, an episode of Concerning Miss Marlowe, and more common stuff like the final episode of Search for Tomorrow, the episode where Margo reveals she is April's biological mother, and the episode where Mark and Ruby elope on "Texas." There really wasn't much recent stuff, but a good amount of older material.

[SFK]

^^I've got to check out that For Richer, For Poorer. That's one short-lived series that I'd like to see on Hulu, or somewhere similar to the P&G aol network. I really love sites like Hulu and Veoh, I am confident that someday all of this stuff will be online.

[All My Shadows]

Did the Somerset episode feature Ted Danson and JoBeth Williams? Because TVLand, several years ago, had a little series where they interviewed popular TV stars about their earliest acting roles, and they showed clips of a Somerset episode with both of them in it. I was shocked to see that TVLand cared enough to find the clips and show them. They were in pretty pristine condition, too.

The place that I really want to spend some time at is the UCLA Television Archive. Most of their rare soapy material is non-circulating, though. They're the ones who have the first seven years of GH as well as about six or so episodes each of every soap that was on the air in 1971 and 1973, including stuff like Bright Promise, Where the Heart Is, Return to Peyton Place, etc. It's a damn shame that they won't at least put that stuff online for free viewing. Geez.

Speaking of that era, saynotoursoap put up half of a Love of Life episode from 1970 on YouTube a few days ago. I haven't watched it yet, but judging from the descriptions, it has one of LOL's most popular characters from that era, Tess, played by Toni Bull.

Also, speaking of the P&G Classic Soaps blog/channel, WHY have they not found a new home for that yet? Some of the shows that were a part of the whole AOL In2TV thing have been put on other sites (Eight is Enough and CHiPs are on Veoh), so it shouldn't be hard for them to put AW/EON/SFT/TX somewhere else.

[DRW50]

I watched that episode. I'd never seen Tess before so it was interesting to get a glimpse of her. She seemed a bit generic -- perhaps the show was in a rut at the time and she was better than the rest, or perhaps she was better with Bill. I did like her connection with her dead husband's sister. I know Melinda Fee was on all kind of soaps in the 70s and 80s but I enjoyed seeing her with meaty material. She was great in that episode, especially when she threw out her fortune hunter ex. The scenes with her mother and with Tess were so pure and moving, in a way soaps today often aren't, they're usually so synthetic and heartless now, so ashamed of basic soap.