? about AMC/OLTL vault fire

[allmc2008]

I have heard many times that most episodes of AMC/OLTL have been lost in a fire that was in a vault. One version is that the episodes where on video tape and another version of the story is that they where all on kienoscope. Anyway I was watching the AMC cast of Phil Donahue and there was a clip of an old episdoe with Erica trying to convince Mona that she was "Just as mature as Tara Martin". That clip was in color. They showed that same clip some years earlier for the shows 20th anniversary and that was in B&W. I also have seen a clip of Erica telling Jeff about the abortion in color on a Oprah special.

So my question is when was the Vault Fire and what where the episodes recorded on??

And where did this person find this episode? Could more of these exist??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rejHXWbLiZc

[EnglishTea]

My understanding is that the shows aired in color, but were saved in black-n-white because it was cheaper.

I think all episodes from 1978 on still exist.

[danfling]

First of all, let me say that I am not sure where the above clip came from! But, how wonderful it is to see Nicholas Pryor as Lincoln (the third actor in the role) and also Deborah Solomon Steinberg as Sidney!!

They were leaving the show just as I really began watching All My Children in earnest (around the same time as the cancellation of A World Apart).

And, there is a clip of the final episode of A World Apart on YouTube that is in color. Maybe this was recorded on the same day. It appears that, maybe, this was taped in Chicago.

Anyway, I have never heard of any fire destroying anything from ABC.

Ruth Warrick, I believe, stated that these episodes prior to 1978 were erased in order to record more episodes. They were not saved due to the space involved in storage.

There WAS a warehouse fire. This was the warehouse that NBC used to store kinescopes. All the episodes of Mr. Peepers were destoyed. So were many game shows and Tonight Show episodes.

The warehouse was in New Jersey, I believe.

It is a shame that all the episodes of Mr. Peepers were destroyed. One of the stars, Patricia Benoit, was on Follow Your Heart, Young Doctor Malone, and As the World Turns. I would have been curious to see her prior to her soap opera days.

Back to ABC, I also heard that Agnes Nixon discovered a number of episodes of All My Children in a closet that she had forgotten existed.

[Errol]

What gets me from that video was the host from that Chicago show smoking while doing a commercial break and that General Mills pop corn thing that no longer exists along with that Jewel brand that I never heard of.

[saynotoursoap]

One Life to Live and All My Children were videotaped in color from their premieres. In the late 60s, videotape was still a fairly new process. Videotapes were expensive, and many smaller local affiiates could not afford the equipment to play them. For that reason, ABC erased the color master tapes for re-use, and they made a kinescope copy of every broadcast. The kinecsopes were black and white 16mm film copies made from positioning a film camera in front of a television monitor. The kinescopes were normally sent to small affiliates without tape machines or larger ones that time shifted their programming. Stations were supposed to send the kinescopes back to the network after airing; however, in some cases, they did not. This is the reason that kinescopes turn up today in the hands of collectors.

ABC ceased producing kinescopes in the fall of 1970. Therefore, the first full two years of One Life to Live and approximately the first ten months of All My Children were saved in their entirety as black and white film copies. According to Agnes Nixon, those kinescopes burned in a fire in the 80s and are now lost. However, random kinescopes remain in existence. You can find one from 1969 on Youtube. A few color masters also escaped "wiping" (taping over for re-use). A 1968 color tape episode can be seen at the Paley Center in Manhattan. If I remember correctly, it features Robert Milli as Jim Craig and James Storm as the original Larry Wolek. Doris Belack (Anna Craig) and Lee Patterson (Joe Riley) are also in it.

Keep in mind that ABC may possess random tapes and clips, too, some in color which could account for the scenes the OP describes. Also, contrary to popular belief, there were home tape machines as far back as the late 60s. They were expensive and rare, but they did exist. Prior to VHS we had Betamax and before Beta there was an even better system called UMatic. This accounts for many of the color tapes in the period after 1970 when kinescopes were discontinued, but before the proliferation of VHS starting in the late 70s. The June 1971 episode of A World Apart and the first act of that day's AMC were on the same UMatic tape, recorded from Chicago's ABC affiliate.

I hope this answers the OP's question and clears up some confusion.

[SFK]

Thank you for this clear and concise explanation, filling in some blanks from the usual response to this question. This should be pinned for whenever this comes up in the future.

As for that OLTL episode you mention, Gillian Spencer as Viki and Ernest Graves as Victor appear in it as well. I watched it a couple of years ago and hope to see it again in the near future to refresh my memories.

[allmc2008]

Thanks!! Now I get it when people say that they remember when AMC/OLTL was in B&W. It is probably due to lack of tape machines.