hi, why is it that certain episodes of a show will be available and other eps of the show aren't available? for example, you might find the episodes from every week in october of 1968 available, but there might be one week missing. i have found this to be very common with alot of older shows. also, you might find every episode of a show available but one or 2. why is this? if you have an idea or opinion, please state it here. just wondering. thanks

I always just assume that whoever was recording them was on holiday, or the tape got garbled, disc was bad, or they forgot to set their recorder, or a power outage shut it down, or whatever.

Those problems definitely explain a lot of gaps in my collection.

Hard drive recorders of today practically eliminate those problems with space for many, many hours of tv and by allowing a large number of timer events to be programmed, but the last vcr I bought only allowed 6 events and tapes only hold, what now, 10 hours at EP?

Another explanation for certain episodes not being available is that they are not included in the syndication packages so they never get shown. This was the case with the last season of Get Smart which was not shown for a long time due to "residual fee" problems with the licensing. That problem has been solved and those eps now get shown. Two current "hang-ups" that I can think of are the episode of Hawaii Five-0 called "Bored, She Hung Herself" which has never been re-run and the last 1 2/3 seasons of Mannix. I suspect that there are many others.