Why Are Episodes Missing?
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In the 1970's a considerable amount of B&W episodes (as well as some
colour ) were junked , apparently to make room for more recent and, as
they saw it, potentially more lucrative productions in the vaults. Although
unthinkable now, not least by the companies who make a considerable amount
of money from the sale of videos and overseas rights, these episodes were
destroyed as they could see no further use for them. It was felt at the
time that repeats of the black and white material would not be of sufficient
interest to the general public, who were now used to full colour episodes,
and that overseas sales of these episodes had met their full potential.And
opportunities for domestic repeats were also limited due to the artists
contracts. Often programs were transferred to film for sale overseas and
it is in this form that they are most often recovered from the vaults of
foreign tv stations or private collections.
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An extract from "A Christmas Carol":
Bob Cratchit approached Scrooge and said:-
"Please sir,I and some of the clerical staff were wondering if we could
have
another piece of coal for the fire,it is so very cold".
Scrooge replied angrily:-
"Certainly not, coal costing what it does, use some more episodes of
Z-Cars Instead"
Mark Brown