Agnes Nixon kept complete kinescopes of OLTL/AMC

[EricMontreal22]

I'd never heard this before--though I knew of course that Agnes was always upset that ABC didn't save their video tapes, and the main reason she finally gave in and agree to expand AMC to an hour was if they'd start saving them. Anyway, till I read this (on wikipedia of course...)

"Agnes Nixon initially produced her series One Life to Live and All My Children through her own production company, Creative Horizons, Inc, and kept a complete archive of black-and-white kinescopes until ABC bought the shows from her in 1975. When the network wanted to expand Children from thirty minutes to a full hour in the late 1970s, Nixon agreed on the condition that the network would begin saving the episodes. ABC complied, and full hour broadcasts began on April 22, 1977. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the vast majority of the early 70s kinescopes, leaving only a handful of each show"

I always assumed the kinescopes we had were special cases--I know sometimes an actor would ask to have one of their episodes saved, etc... If this is true, even if they were just B&W kinescopes, it's heartbreaking to think of all of that gone in an accident...

[Marco Dane]

If she has them why wont she distribute them for release on DVD?

[EricMontreal22]

Itsays they burned in a fire, so she doesn't :P but obviously the issue of dvd release for soap episodes is more complex...

[LoyaltoAMC]

I guess ABC didn't save any of their shows. Well, except for Dark Shadows. Anyone know the story behind the complete library of episodes (well, almost all the episodes) being saved? Was it Dan Curtis who personally saved them?

[All My Shadows]

Dark Shadows was produced by Dan Curtis Productions, so it was completely up to them if they wanted to erase the episodes or not (thank god they didn't!). Similarly, Ryan's Hope was initially produced by Labine-Mayer Productions, and they chose not to erase RH. When they sold the show to ABC (to produce), ABC had already been saving their in-house-produced soaps.

GH was produced by some other random company in the 60s (I want to say Selmur Productions, or something like that), so most, if not all, of their 60s episodes still exist. I think Selmur and ABC co-produced it for a while before ABC took over completely (and started erasing the episodes).

Whether or not a soap's episodes from that era still exist really depends on who was producing it, I guess. P&G erased all of their soaps up until about 1978, which includes ATWT, GL, AW, Search for Tomorrow, Edge of Night, and Somerset. DAYS was produced by Corday Productions (and Screen Gems/Columbia), so its episodes were saved. Y&R was produced by Bell-Phillip Productions, Corday Productions, and Screen Gems/Columbia, so its episodes were saved as well.

The Doctors was produced by Colgate-Palmolive up until the early 80s, so there's heavy speculation that a lot of its 70s episodes might have been saved.

I've been wondering lately about the soaps that CBS produced themselves (Where the Heart Is, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Love of Life, Secret Storm). CBS stopped erasing most of their game shows (albeit those were produced by other companies) in 1972, so maybe it's possible that they stopped erasing their network-produced soaps at the same time?

[EricMontreal22]

Of course for AMC's first five years and OLTL's first five they wereowned by Creative Horizons (I guess which is why Agnes according to this claim had a complete set of kinescopes for that time...)

[Scotty]

Wouldn't that be the first *7* years for OLTL since it started in '68 and AMC didn't start until '70? I think Nixon sold both shows to ABC at the same time.

[EricMontreal22]

I've heard different things, but I know that the contract with ABC was 5 years for both shows, after that if ABC didn't buy them, then they were allowed to shop them to other networks.

[Scotty]

According to Gerry Waggett in the OLTL 40th anniversary trivia book, Nixon sold Creative Horizons, Inc. (and therefore AMC and OLTL) to ABC in 1974.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah but every other source I have (including All Her Children from 1976) says 1973 for OLTL, 1975 for AMC

[Scotty]

Interesting.

[R Sinclair]

Hey, Eric! What's that?!

Takes that damn book and throws it out the window.

Oh, never mind. It was nothing!

[EricMontreal22]

NooOOoooOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

My copy of All Her Children, out the window! Damn you R Sinclair--how will I ever contribute to discussions on here again, let alone live.

[R Sinclair]

I dunno... be like certain fans of Zendall and just "read it somewhere."

It's just the constant mentioning of that half-baked, unoriginal title every time I try to join an Agnes/AMC discussion makes me want to bang my head against my desk.

Sorry. Rough night.

[Sylph]

No! You should have thrown it in the fire!!! Together with all the Schemerings, Waggetts and whatevers.

Sorry, Eric, continue.