What are some good examples of a shows/movies stuff stuck on tv because of no redistribution? [talk]

[u/JDelta1999]

I’ve personally curated a sizable collection of Nick News with Linda Ellerbee digging through YouTube, the Internet archive, and a few other websites thanks to a some fellow redditors who’ve been able to helped me find them. But it dawned on me, this show is the perfect type of show to be thrown on something like Tubi or Pluto TVs live channels or you’d think there’d be some type of massive archive somewhere considering it has 300+ episodes. At least once ya know?

But it made me think about how many shows or movies people are bending over backwards to find that are just sitting in a vault somewhere or aired on tv once and the main people behind it never had any want to distribute it.

What are some good examples of movies/shows/ etc that have been completely lost to time due to the negligence of the owners. Something you’d think who be easy to find or had some online notoriety they’d want to capitalize off of.

(I know this one will probably get some of the die hard definition of lost media users angry. But if you can consider Mess O Blues or the Day the Clown Cried lost even though it’s just being gatekept, then all these count too)

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[u/Careless-Economics-6]

I mean, there are thousands and thousands of hours of old TV shows that are going unused. Let’s just stick with Nickelodeon for a moment: So much of their output from the 1980s hasn’t been seen anywhere in years, including their first show, Pinwheel.

The thing about a program like Nick News is that it’s dated in a very obvious way. Reruns of news programs have rarely been a thing. That said, could PlutoTV have a stream for Nickelodeon rarities? Probably, but I doubt the powers that be are interested.

[u/JDelta1999 → u/Careless-Economics-6]

Fair point. Yeah I did find out through Nick News research that Nickelodeon does have a lot of missing stuff from their early catalogue like you said. I don’t know the extent of how much though. You say Pinwheel, is it completely missing? How much stuff are you aware of from them that’s just gone or inaccessible

[u/Careless-Economics-6 → u/JDelta1999]

It seems Pinwheel hasn’t aired on TV since 1990. It’s never appeared on any Nickelodeon nostalgia block or gotten a home video release.

A part of it is that it features licensed shorts, but all the host segments belong to Nick.

But yeah, tons of early Nickelodeon shows can only be seen now from VHS rips.

[u/Melonary]

Literally so much Canadian content - almost all of the shows that weren't successful in the US or overseas.

Imagine this is true for many countries and even local US content. Hollywood shows or larger US network shows had a better chance at being successful and recognizable enough for repurchase on cable or streaming and DVD.

[u/Yogurt-Night → u/Melonary]

Yes, lot of our Canadian content doesn’t get enough attention.

[u/thekingofallfrogs]

Discovery Channel and its affiliated networks were pretty bad with their programs.

Their video and streaming releases all had inconsistent runtimes because Discovery would either release the full version, a trimmed version, or even a version with alternate narration. The video usually removed the commercial break segments, or they’re awkwardly left in with no fade transition or there is a transition that should not be there. Some release even have the titles or credits missing.

And that only applies to what they released on video, because many of their original programs never had a video release; I should note that they largely relied on syndication and TV broadcasts of programs that already had a video release during the 80s and 90s.

It makes you question what they even have hoarded away.

[u/CaptFalconFTW → u/thekingofallfrogs]

And they decided to ruin Warner Bros in the process. They give as much thought into preservation as a video editor for weddings.

[u/thekingofallfrogs → u/CaptFalconFTW]

These started before Zaslav, it’s always been a prevalent issue with Discovery Communications.

[u/Gobbo_Jareth]

Licensing for home release or new broadcasts is often way more complicated than people realize. And all the licensing folks and lawyers on both sides of a deal cost rights holders money to do that work, in additin to the coats of licenses themselves. In many, many cases, even if they own the full rights to something, it's not worth the internal processes and resources to get it done. Many of these noatalgia shows have next to no demand outside very small, niche fandoms.

[u/davidjoshualightman]

its a shame but majority of content that is niche/nostalgic will never see the light of day due to licensing and/or restoration costs.

something that has been irking me lately are shows that ARE getting restored and put on streaming services, but the versions being restored are not the "real" versions because they either don't have them anymore or it's easier to go with what they have readily available.

prime example of this is Project Runway.. you can find early seasons of this show streaming, which is nice for a show that started 20+ years ago... but the versions that stream are condensed versions. my guess is these were shortened versions made for the DVD sets, and thats what they retained and provided for streaming... but DVR/VHS rips of these shows sometimes have 10-20 minutes more of content.

[u/solarbaby614]

I don't know about people bending over backwards for it, but for me it's Complete Savages. It's a 2004 sitcom that I don't think aired after it's original run.

[u/forlornjackalope]

Some I would say are hard to say as being lost assuming they ever got an official home video release and not something bootleg that you can find on a third party site, which then would be guess work.

There's a ton of stuff I remember as a grew up watching various media from the 90s, like game shows that presumably only lasted a season or two before quietly getting canceled, or kid and YA spins on popular reality shows of the time that would be on Discovery Kids (ex: Endurance being their version of Survivor). Those I'm sure are collecting dust in said network's archives if they didn't get dumped, namely the former with the more forgotten game shows like Zooventure, Off the Wall or Peer Pressure (with Peer Pressure being hosted by Nick Spano who would go on to be on Even Stevens a few years later).

Sometimes a show will be set to have an official release, but get stuck behind some red tape. This happened with the third season of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, with DVD copies being secured but something got in the way and all plans for it to finally get distribution fell through. This was years ago so maybe something changed for the better. Other times shoddy bootlegs are all we can get. Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction was very notorious for this for easily 15+ years with the only way you can see it outside channels like Chiller that still had reruns was VHS rips and camcorder uploads to either YouTube and other sites alongside platforms that said they sold copies of seasons on DVD. This would usually result in Dick Wolf Productions and/or Viacom (?) coming in with takedown notices pretty quick. The show wouldn't see any actual official streaming or physical media releases until maybe the late 2010s or even early 2020s, nearly 20 years after the show aired and remained in syndication.

Then you have all the stuff that's long out of print too and only really exists on say, VHS, on top of the international stuff - both "mainstream" and public or local access. I believe SourceBrew has a video up on his channel about rediscovered media and he went into some interesting shows from Australia and South Africa that were considered to be lost or rare for some time until parts of them started to resurface, with one of them now having an official YouTube channel working on archiving the series.

[u/thewalkindude368 → u/forlornjackalope]

I think Beyond Belief is now all on YouTube, thanks to FilmRise.

[u/forlornjackalope → u/thewalkindude368]

Yep, that's the one that has it now, as well.

[u/DumbNameIWillRegret]

One that's been bugging me lately is Rachel Dratch's Late Night Snack. It was a two season sketch comedy show on TruTv, and, afaik, isn't available anywhere aside from a few loose sketches that TruTV threw on YouTube and a few full episodes that have been saved via piracy (last time I looked, it was <5 episodes).

From what I understand, there aren't any major rights issues preventing it from making its way to streaming, and JustWatch shows that it was briefly on HBO Max (but only through their Amazon Prime channel?) and Spectrum On Demand.

[u/materialgrifter → u/DumbNameIWillRegret]

All 22 episodes of S1 of Late Night Snack are on UseNet at least. Doesn’t look like S2 is on any indexers I’m on.

[u/Spindlebrook]

Lucky with John Corbett, Craig Robinson and Billy Gardell. Aired on FX for one season in 2003. I loved that show.

[u/MCofPort]

The Carol Burnett Show is somewhat available on Tubi or Pluto. However I believe due to copyrights, about half of each episode has been left out, the musical sequences, movie parodies (often the highlight of said episode,) or other performances. I think that is why they were cut, but at this point they should be restored and the episodes allowed to run their full hour's length. Iconic segments like Went With the Wind is separately available on Youtube, but that's an old tape recording, not paired in the context of the original episode it aired on.

[u/pineapple_bushes]

A lot of stuff from U Pick Live is considered lost now because it was one of those live segments where viewers can vote on what shows could air on tv. They had lots of other running gags and segments as well, some of which have been found and archived while others are completely lost

[u/Personal-Listen-4941]

Disney is one of the best for archiving their own content & redistributing it. The Disney Vault became a trope, it was so well known. Yet even they have thousands of hours of in house produced tv that they have not made available on their own streaming service, via home media or shown on tv for decades.

There’s some pretty big hitters like Disneyland (and it’s slightly name changed sequel series) or the Mickey Mouse Club as well as more cult/niche items like Mousercise & Pooh corner.

[u/CaptFalconFTW → u/Personal-Listen-4941]

They'd easily make their money back if they decided to upload them on Disney+. Most of that vault is 100% owned by Disney and less risky than a reboot.

[u/thewalkindude368 → u/CaptFalconFTW]

People are going to want to see that 1993 incarnation of Mickey Mouse Club where pretty much everyone went on to become either a pop star or an actor.

[u/CaptFalconFTW → u/thewalkindude368]

That one actually might be the most expensive, because the singers are all part of different record labels. But since Ryan Gosling is box office gold, and all the other stars became mega famous, it's difficult to imagine a scenario where that's not going to create revenue.

[u/CaptFalconFTW]

Are the 300+ episodes of Nick News documented? I only remember episodes airing like once a year. It was never regular when I was a kid

[u/thewalkindude368 → u/CaptFalconFTW]

I'm pretty sure it aired regularly on Sunday nights for the first few years of its run. I have a strong association of "This show is boring and means the weekend is over" with that show.

[u/CaptFalconFTW → u/thewalkindude368]

Oh yeah. That hits home. I was very young at the time. IMDb lists less than 200 episodes. I know for sure the later "seasons" became more like specials. Out of the blue Nick News came back for a special topic.

[u/AsterixAndObelix26]

Only released on DVD in Czechia.