Does anyone know where the mastercopies of the show are kept. I keep getting bits and snippets of some I Love Lucy shows being destroyed at the Universal Studios Fire in Los Angeles. There was a quote from someone saying everything lost has a copy and can be replaced but there is only one Master of the show......right???

My guess is that the masters which are probably on 35mm film are safely tucked away inside the CBS vaults.

Those are just copies of the show. They have several copies of everything they had in those vaults. They don't keep all the copies in one place because of the probability of fires and such. Everything is ok as far as what Universal Studios and the film reels that were damaged or destroyed.

I guess I don't understand why Universal would have the I Love Lucy films, especially since Desilu was bought by Paramont. Was Paramont bought by Universal?

Forgot to add that when I saw Gregg Oppenheimer in Jamestown back in 2004 he did state that all the remasters that were created from the original negatives were being stored in a salt mine vault in Kansas on Hi-Def videotape that should last 500 years. I don't think Lucy is going anywhere in the next 500 years!

I guess I don't understand why Universal would have the I Love Lucy films, especially since Desilu was bought by Paramont. Was Paramont bought by Universal?
They have an I Love Lucy museum there and they show clips of the show on the monitors in there. I visited Universal Studios last year and enjoyed that part of the whole experience. I live 40 mins. from Universal Studios. Because of that museum I am sure for that reason as well as other reasons they have the reels.

In our paper today they talked abt the film reels and mentioned the ILL reels they have on hand in the vaults but also stated what I said above. So, there is no need to worry abt any loss of ILL master reels.

I knew the master reels weren't in danger, it has been stated elsewhere that what was lost was just the 35mm and video back-up masters and prints of films and movies, and that nothing lost was ever within danger of not being able to be replaced. I just questioned why Universal would have ILL in its vaults, especially since I thought the Lucy museum in California's Universal park was shut down.

I wasn't worried about Lucy being destroyed, when I heard a film vault burned up I was worried about the chance of any films being lost forever. It's happened before when a film vault caught fire and I hate to think of it happening now. (I've read conflicting accounts that all footage from The Wizard of Oz from the first two weeks with Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man had survived until a fire in the MGM film vault in the 1960s or 1970s while others have stated the film was destroyed after he had to quit and the film went into its major overhaul. It's just sad that irreplacable film such as that wasn't backed up before something like a fire happened.)

its too bad studios didn't have the foresight back then to think of all the technological possibilities of the future and have the sensibility to keep back up copies as well as better preservation techniques. i always get mad when i think about all the lost footage from the wizard of oz and gone with the wind. i guess they could have never imagined how beloved those films would become or they would have made provisions. also reminds me of nbc destroying their tapes in the early days of tv by re-recording over them again and again. much of the early years of the tonight show with johnny carson were lost because of this habit. i read once in tv guide the 2 biggest historical tv moments that have been lost are the first super bowl and the first tonight show. nowadays they save every little blooper and deleted scene because these bits are valuable to dvd releases.

I've heard that the first pilot for All In The Family taped for ABC in black and white is lost and that no known copies are known to exist. Audio from the first Tonight Show has been found (I read that somewhere not too long ago) but I don't think even a kinescope exists. Maybe someday ....

Forgot to add that when I saw Gregg Oppenheimer in Jamestown back in 2004 he did state that all the remasters that were created from the original negatives were being stored in a salt mine vault in Kansas on Hi-Def videotape that should last 500 years. I don't think Lucy is going anywhere in the next 500 years!

You are right about this information as I have heard this being said many times on internet radio during interviews. There are many copies made of the remasters and other critical film footage and stored in different locations throughout the USA.