I'm certain that lots of old TV shows have their tapes just sitting in a warehouse of distributor/studios or storage space somewhere. Probably forgotten and degrading over time. Some shows just fade into obscurity, or their production companies just never anticipated home media. Maybe, it's all about if it's profitable to mass produce the DVD and/or blu-ray collections.

I'm certain that lots of old TV shows have their tapes just sitting in a warehouse of distributor/studios or storage space somewhere. Probably forgotten and degrading over time. Some shows just fade into obscurity, or their production companies just never anticipated home media. Maybe, it's all about if it's profitable to mass produce the DVD and/or blu-ray collections.

A lot of them do end up lying around in warehouses and vaults unforgotten. A lot of the older shows that were filmed on nitrate film have deteriorated over a period of time and cannot be restored or salvaged. I have even heard of some studios throwing out some of their older films/tapes before.

A lot of them do end up lying around in warehouses and vaults unforgotten. A lot of the older shows that were filmed on nitrate film have deteriorated over a period of time and cannot be restored or salvaged. I have even heard of some studios throwing out some of their older films/tapes before.

Why in the hell would a studio throw away film/tapes? That just sounds idiotic of a studio to do.

Why in the hell would a studio throw away film/tapes? That just sounds idiotic of a studio to do.

I agree.

Why in the hell would a studio throw away film/tapes? That just sounds idiotic of a studio to do.

This was in the days before syndication ever existed. The studios simply thought that the shows were a one-off, so saw no point in keeping them.

Many valuable old 35mm film can be converted to 4K quality and 16:9! Older video camera shows are only in SD and cost much more to enhance it to digital and up to 720 by computer processing.

There are so many great shows that I fear we’ll never see again. None of the great variety shows as the music rights would be astronomical in cost to clear (my #1 pet peeve). Also so many great classic black and white shows that I guess just wouldn’t sell to the younger crowd. I’m only 47 but I enjoy a lot of black and white shows from the 1950s. My main ones I’d like to see on dvd are Dragnet, Susie/Private Secretary/The Ann Southern Show, and December Bride. These were all very popular and ran for many seasons but you never see them on any channel any more.

This is a great topic, b/c I have always wondered this as well. It would make sense to put them all on DVD or at least add them to a streaming service or even put them on a retro cable station like Me, or something.