Something in a thread about "The Future of GSN" had me thinking: Is there a rule stating that an older game show from the 70's or 80's cannot be converted to digibeta unless GSN acquires it?

No, of course not. Anybody who has an old tape can get it converted. Whether they would want to, whether they could afford it and what they could do or would do with it afterward are all different questions.

What's so special about digibeta anyway? It's one of many tape formats (and is quite frankly beginning to become out of date) and just happens to be the one that GSN uses.

Greg

What do TV stations use for playback these days anyway?

Here's the thing I hate about digibeta so much: When an older show gets converted to digibeta, more often than not does it get damaged beyond repair.

We use Digibeta mainly as a backup for our servers. HD programming is recorded to BluRay, most other programming is stored digitally on the server.

So now DigiBeta is becoming out of date and GSN would do well to switch to another format even though DigiBeta is what they use? And the old tapes become damaged once they're converted???

This is cruel, cruel, cruel. First the tapes of Spin-Off miraculously show up, now I'm told that even though they can be converted and broadcast, they likely won't be. I could have done without this bad news this month. Enough things went bad as it is, starting with the loss of my mother August 8. What next--will someone have discovered that all the color masters of The Good Guys deteriorated beyond use???

I hope and pray you're not saying Spin-Off is anywhere as important as your mother's passing.

I lost my sister on July 13 and there is NOTHING I have experienced in my almost 34 1/2 years on God's green Earth which compares to losing a sibling to cancer not two months from her 30th birthday.

Mike, I'm sorry to hear this. Stay strong.

Hmmm.

Perhaps I should have said that how an older show gets converted to digibeta depends on the condition of the original master tape.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying - is there something about DigiBeta that causes harm to the original videotape? Or are you simply talking about putting an old tape onto a VTR and having it come apart because it's fragile? If so, DigiBeta hardly seems to be at fault.

More than likely, he's referring to what happens to the original tape. Not that I've had to dub old tapes, but I know that those reels of 2" quad [and probably 1" Type C] will leave their magnetic material on the heads and other parts of the VTR if not properly cared for. They'd need to be baked beforehand--yes, baked, in an oven. Just Google "sticky shed syndrome" and you'll learn more.

When GSN was building their library in the mid-90s, DigiBeta was state of the art, so it made sense to convert to that format. I'm would assume now that their newer acquisitions (DonD, Catch 21, etc.) are on DVD. If a snowball fight occurred in hell and GSN announced that Baffle would be joining their lineup soon, I'm quite sure the conversion would be made to DVD and not DigiBeta. DigiBeta is not the issue, the business decision not to acquire any future shows is the issue.


--Mike

My CBS affil cleared "Spin-Off." It was only "OK" in my book. I watched it for a week and then switched back to "Celebrity Sweepstakes."

As far as "The Good Guys" that was done on film, IIRC, so there would be less of a chance than tape for deterioration. IMDB says Paramount is the current rights holder.

"The Good Guys"? The 1960s sitcom starring Bob Denver, Herb Edelman and Joyce Van Patten? What a blast from the past!

You're right. It was done on film. Except for the pilot episode. One of the strangest viewing experiences of my youth.

It began as film, then abruptly and without explanation, switched over to videotape. And it stayed that way until the epilogue, when it switched back to film. I have no idea why they did it that way.

It's not listed as a current syndicated offering here.

Could be either an error by IMDB, or a show that is not in current circulation.

IIRC, Paramount no longer has a TV division; the rights to their catalog belong to CBS TV Studios/Distribution. (BTW, Trifecta Entertainment & Media now distributes Paramount's movies to TV.) The only tie left between Paramount and CBS is the home video division, though who knows how much longer that will last.

Same here. My love for Celebrity Sweepstakes was too strong so I didn't really give Spin-Off a chance, but I did see it a couple of times.

I don't hold out much hope of it ever appearing on GSN, but since I'm a collector I'd love to get my hands on an episode some day! This is one of the '70s shows that we have no representation of in the trade curcuit.

Dear MikeK:

First of all, I am truly sorry about the loss of your sister. Really. Second, I am sorry if my comment offended you in any way, but for the record, my mother was 92 and her health was failing, so we were all glad that her suffering ended. But the fact remains that there were a series of events which occured after the service that I could have done without at this time. Don't want to go into detail about them here, but this whole will-Spin-Off-ever-turn-up-on-GSN-since-the-tapes-are-here-or-won't-it tease is just adding insult to injury...as is the sad fact that "Regis & Kelly" is still M.I.A. in Omaha. Idiotic, KMTV, just idiotic that you thought you HAD to drop it and no other area station is after it yet.

Dude, we already know that the Earth's core is made of magma. You don't actually need to *look* at it.

I would like to send my condolences on your mother's passing. It sounds like she lived a wonderful life.

But that being said, I wouldn't call what GSN did a tease. I remember them coming across the tapes, but I believe it was almost 10 years ago. I'd love to see the show (I sometimes prefer the rare, 1/8-season wonders over the perennials), but I can understand GSN's not wanting to take the effort to convert an obscure game show from nearly 35 years ago. 70s Pyramid episodes, yes. Gambit, absolutely, considering they show a new version of the show every night. Spin-Off, not quite as much.

Classic Hollywood Squares pulled horrible numbers. I'm sure Spin-Off would pull something in the negatives, given it has absolutely no history. Like I said to another poster on the Big Board, might be time to just let it go.

Other than one episode on audio only. It's surprising that at least one episode didn't get out since I've found that if the show is from 75 at least, there tends to always be one episode that's gotten out. It's the period of the early 70s when its too late for kinescopes and too early for home taping that more titles tend to be lost like the original SOTC (which has to be the longest running game show for which there is nothing, nada, zippo not even a pilot!)

For the record, "Spin-Off" was found in the same stash with CBS TJW which as we recall, GSN did convert but only aired the first few months of. I always thought at the time the reason for not doing the same with "Spin-Off" was more of a rights issue.

The tapes that have been found should at the very least be donated to either the UCLA TV Archive or the Museum of TV/Radio.

Where they will also not be converted. There's a ton of 2" they're sitting on. Economics just aren't there.


--Mike

Well, better someplace than no place, I always say. I'm thinking there's less of a chance an archive will end up junking the material, even if it's never converted from quad to a more accessible format. (I said "less of a chance," not "zero.")