Restoration of I Love Lucy

[Timoth26]

I just got to wondering a little bit ago. When do you think they did the restoration of the I Love Lucy episodes? Was it back in the 90's when they did or was it right when they started releasing the DVDs? I read somewhere that the Hollywood episodes where released on VHS sometime in the mid 90's and they where the unedited versions.

Also, did they ever air the episodes uncut and unedited on TV in the last 20 years or so? I know they did in the original broadcasts in the 1950's but, where they ever aired again unedited exept they had the heart opening instead of the sponser openings?

[Hughsgirl]

I think they may have did the restoration in the 90's when they made the VHS. As for showing them unedited before that on TV, I doubt they showed them completely unedited, but I'm willing to bet that they weren't as butchered as they show it today because let's face it, they supposedly need more commercials because of sponser costs so they didn't cut as much. When TV Land first came out, they were awesome, but now look at them....when they do show a classic show (other then Andy Griffith) then they butcher the heck out it and so many times it won't start on time and therefor it cuts off the ending....JUST AWFUL! That's why I'm so thankful to have my ILL DVD sets and very soon LITB. I haven't tuned into TV Land in awhile now because they show nothing but garbage most of the time and then when they do show our classic shows, they don't show them in the original form so NUTZ TO THEM!

[Benno123]

Originally Posted by Hughsgirl

I think they may have did the restoration in the 90's when they made the VHS. As for showing them unedited before that on TV, I doubt they showed them completely unedited, but I'm willing to bet that they weren't as butchered as they show it today because let's face it, they supposedly need more commercials because of sponser costs so they didn't cut as much. When TV Land first came out, they were awesome, but now look at them....when they do show a classic show (other then Andy Griffith) then they butcher the heck out it and so many times it won't start on time and therefor it cuts off the ending....JUST AWFUL! That's why I'm so thankful to have my ILL DVD sets and very soon LITB. I haven't tuned into TV Land in awhile now because they show nothing but garbage most of the time and then when they do show our classic shows, they don't show them in the original form so NUTZ TO THEM!

At the Memorial Day Weekend festival in Jamestown in 2004, Gregg Oppenheimer showed a video of the restoration done for ILL. It was around the time that the show was starting to be released on DVD, and the process was pretty intense. It involved viewing his father's originial broadcast films, looking for missing lines/scenes from the original broadcasts and the "unedited" versions. I also remember Oppenheimer mentioning how terrible the prints that were to be used looked on DVD. (And to prove this look no further than some of the bonus clips showing the "before restoration" and "after restoration." The video quality before is just terrible.)

A few tidbits that I remember from the presentation included that computer program that was used to remove dirt and scratches from the film elements was too sensitive, and many times would remove the polkadots from Lucy's dresses. They would then have to go back in and correct this. He also mentioned how some of the original film would have a tear in it, and when this occured the program could take pixels from frames before or after which closely matched the missing part of the film and fill the details in. Oppenheimer also stated that once the shows had been restored, they were then transferred and saved to a special HD-grade videotape that is supposed to have a 500 year life span if stored correctly, and the restored shows now are in special film vaults in the salt mines in Kansas. The problem with ILL was that when edits would be made to the show, it was almost always done directly to the negative or the master print of the episode, so that is why the producers needed to go back to the orginial broadcast to locate many missing scenes and lines.

As for the last time the "unedited" shows aired, besides the original broadcast of course. When Nick at Nite first showed ILL in the 1990s, it was advertised to be shown as unedited. And in fact I believe that the shows were shown unedited in that first rerun cycle on N@N. (Well, what was considered unedited before Oppenheimer and team restored the shows.) I know at the time I taped all 180 episodes, but I remember by the second or third rerun cycle edits could be detected.

[Benno123]

And if you want a thought that could make you sick, here's another one:

In Jamestown in 2004 I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Dann Cahn, the original film editor for ILL. (And who I believe could have been the very first film editor for television.) I asked him about the "b roll" footage from ILL - the film from the other cameras that was not used in the episodes, showing different angles of scenes. He said that sometime in the late 1950s or 1960s Desilu needed the storage space, and Desi told Dann to take the film and get rid of it. Not knowing how valuable this film could have been someday, Desilu destroyed that film and threw away some of it in the dumpsters as well

[Hughsgirl]

Originally Posted by Benno123

And if you want a thought that could make you sick, here's another one:

In Jamestown in 2004 I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Dann Cahn, the original film editor for ILL. (And who I believe could have been the very first film editor for television.) I asked him about the "b roll" footage from ILL - the film from the other cameras that was not used in the episodes, showing different angles of scenes. He said that sometime in the late 1950s or 1960s Desilu needed the storage space, and Desi told Dann to take the film and get rid of it. Not knowing how valuable this film could have been someday, Desilu destroyed that film and threw away some of it in the dumpsters as well

OMG!! That is sickening to think they have threw something so valuable away and that we will never be able to see! That's kind of like my grandma throwing my dads baseball cards away...something he still gripes about! he had some goodies too! But anyway, yes that is almost tragic for us fans. How cool was that to meet Dann Cahn though? WOW!! I bet it was really neat to talk to him. Good for you!

[biffbronson]

Thanks for all of the great information. Sadly, losses of incredibly valuable film like that seem to have happened all too often. We can only hope beyond hope that some dumpster divers were able to get in there and retrieve some pieces so many years ago, but that seems very unlikely.

[Benno123]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

Thanks for all of the great information. Sadly, losses of incredibly valuable film like that seem to have happened all too often. We can only hope beyond hope that some dumpster divers were able to get in there and retrieve some pieces so many years ago, but that seems very unlikely.

True, and in defense of Desilu, Desi, Dann, and all involved, who would have guessed that almost 60 years later we would still be watching these shows? I think that the sad part isn't so much the "bloopers" or "b roll" with teh different camera shots being gone is sad, I think the treatment of the original prints and negatives and making the slices right on those is the real crime. Luckily almost all of the original broadcasts survive so these little edits could be restored.

This still isn't as bad as what happened to the DuMont Network's kinescopes. Sometime in the 1970s - believed to be ABC - almost all of the archived kinescope recordings from DuMont Television were dumped into the East River. My understanding is that DuMont had archived and saved most of their broadcasts, and close to 20,000 shows were lost. That is why very few surviving kinescopes from DuMont survive. Now that is sad and enough to make a TV collector/fan/scholar/lover just want to cry.

[lucyandethel]

Columbia House started releasing ILL on VHS in the mid-1980s. I recall quite well making certain I got copies of those tapes. So, the restoration began much earlier than 2004 or even the 1990s. If I am not mistaken, it was the success of ILL on video that sparked the creation of other series on video and now virtually every series is on DVD...even shows that have barely been on a year are now on DVD!

[hch]

Originally Posted by Benno123

True, and in defense of Desilu, Desi, Dann, and all involved, who would have guessed that almost 60 years later we would still be watching these shows? I think that the sad part isn't so much the "bloopers" or "b roll" with teh different camera shots being gone is sad, I think the treatment of the original prints and negatives and making the slices right on those is the real crime. Luckily almost all of the original broadcasts survive so these little edits could be restored.

This still isn't as bad as what happened to the DuMont Network's kinescopes. Sometime in the 1970s - believed to be ABC - almost all of the archived kinescope recordings from DuMont Television were dumped into the East River. My understanding is that DuMont had archived and saved most of their broadcasts, and close to 20,000 shows were lost. That is why very few surviving kinescopes from DuMont survive. Now that is sad and enough to make a TV collector/fan/scholar/lover just want to cry.

Another thing that they did back in the day that made me want to cry is the process of WIPING shows! Excellent examples are Soap Operas back in the day.
They had to wipe shows to make space for other shows and what not, so they were NOT VERY GOOD at preserving archived shows. This is why you nevr see a soap opera from the 1950s or 1960s. No one really thought that people wanted to see these shows again so they either wiped out the tapes or destroyed the shows after the first broadcast!
Thank the Lord they stopped that in the early 70's but the damage was already done. So now there are next to no records of certain shows from the 1950s and 1960s, save for a few kinescope copies.
Very bad job, TV Producers! You all should be ashamed of yourself erasing shows.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...that Lucy herself saved 16mm film copies of original CBS network prints of "I LOVE LUCY", with the original animated titles, transitions, and Philip Morris commercials. Some lucky video collectors were fortunate to receive private video copies of some of those episodes, and those were floated for a while on the "underground" collectors' market. What was "restored" for home video were the CBS daytime/syndicated editions of those episodes (with the famous "heart" credits and transitions, used after 1959)- everybody knows those episodes.

[treky]

Originally Posted by hch

Another thing that they did back in the day that made me want to cry is the process of WIPING shows! Excellent examples are Soap Operas back in the day.
They had to wipe shows to make space for other shows and what not, so they were NOT VERY GOOD at preserving archived shows. This is why you nevr see a soap opera from the 1950s or 1960s. No one really thought that people wanted to see these shows again so they either wiped out the tapes or destroyed the shows after the first broadcast!
Thank the Lord they stopped that in the early 70's but the damage was already done. So now there are next to no records of certain shows from the 1950s and 1960s, save for a few kinescope copies.
Very bad job, TV Producers! You all should be ashamed of yourself erasing shows.

they also did that with some game shows even as recently as the 70s-that's why you never see the episodes of "HOLLYWOOD SQUARES" from the 60s, or episodes of "PASSWORD" from the 70s.