Early Access: Nick at Nite - Nick Knacks Episode #047
Added 2019-12-09 02:51:46 +0000 UTCEarly Access for my Early Access Peeps!
Comments
The bit at the start of the video about how television programs were distributed and preserved has what I think is some misleading information in it. I'm certainly not an expert and if your sources indicate otherwise I'll defer to them, but I do have a slight obsession with the history of television and some of what you said doesn't fit with what I've read/heard before. Firstly, you seem to be implying that the networks were physically shipping films and tapes from the east coast to the west coast, however that's incorrect. There was a nationwide network of coaxial cables and microwave links (run by AT&T IIRC) and leased by all the networks to distribute their programming live to stations (at least in major cities) throughout the continental US. (Stations in Alaska, Hawaii, and the territories *did* have to put up with shipping and would often get programs *weeks* behind the rest of the US.) Where kinescopes and tape recorders came in was in *time shifting* the programming to a suitable time slot for the station. "Prime-time" programming broadcast live at 7 PM on the east coast would have to be broadcast at 4 PM when most of the audience would still be at work or school on the west coast if it were not time-shifted. Another point I don't think is accurate is the distribution of syndicated programs on video tape, at least in the days of open-reel tape formats. I don't think that was very common for a few reasons. First, film was a very standard and well-understood format that could be duplicated easily and broadcast by any station. In contrast, video recorders were not very standardized in the early days and taking a tape from one machine to another, even of the same model, could require recalibration to get it to play correctly. Video recorders were also very expensive and some stations in smaller media markets may not have been able to afford them, not to mention that duplicating tapes would require multiple of these expensive tape machines. This is backed up by the quote at 39:30 which discusses stations showing bad-quality 16mm prints. Finally, tape was probably more of a negative than a positive for the preservation of programming. When you recorded a program on film the film was a permanent record of that program and couldn't be re-used. For this reason the DuMont Network had the best preservation of any of the early TV networks as virtually all of their programming *had* to be syndicated on film due to their lack of primary affiliates (or at least it *was* the best-preserved until NBC bought their archive in the 70s and landfilled it all). In contrast, tapes were expensive but they could be erased and reused over and over. Networks and stations loved this aspect of the medium and as a result programs that were primarily recorded on tape often got erased so the tape could be re-used. Notably this includes nearly the entire run of Tonight Show with Johnny Carson before 1972 and much of Doctor Who before the mid-1970s. Sorry for the essay but I wanted to be sure you saw this before the video went live so you could make corrections if necessary.
Tyler Knott
2019-12-09 05:11:10 +0000 UTCNice touch using the original, instrumental "Unchained Melody". I may have more comments when I'm more than two minutes into it.
Zachary Adams
2019-12-09 03:18:31 +0000 UTC
