8mm Forum: Question about Super 8 TV Shows

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Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on October 20, 2017, 10:21 AM:

Anyone know who released some or all of the Super 8 Sound A&C shows and Colgates? - Even I don't know this one - Shorty

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 20, 2017, 12:05 PM:

Wow!

... and that's right up you're alley! I'd be curious as well. I wonder if it's the same company that released the "You Bet You're Life" episodes? It might be a company that specialized in just such TV yesteryears.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on October 20, 2017, 02:54 PM:

Someone did a Monty Python too.

Posted by Joseph Randall (Member # 4906) on October 22, 2017, 09:09 PM:

Red Fox released "License for Bingo" and "The Actor's Home". They might have released "Getting a Job" but I'm not sure. Never heard that they released any Colgate Comedy Hours.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on October 23, 2017, 09:42 AM:

"Music Lovers" is another - Red Fox...thanks, the Colgates might have been Ivy or Niles

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on October 23, 2017, 10:54 AM:

Before I do some deeper research,"The Old Actors"Home" and "The Vacuum Cleaner Salesman" come from Red Fox. The Colgates,i.e. "The A. & C. Christmas Party" and "A.& C. in the White House" are from Matinee Memories.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on October 23, 2017, 05:06 PM:

Ah, yes 'Matinee', thanks Pan

Posted by Joseph Randall (Member # 4906) on October 23, 2017, 07:26 PM:

I once had "License for Bingo" but sold it since the focus was soft and I rank this as the worst first-season episode of the A&C Show. Don't know who picked the episodes to release but "Vacuum Cleaner Salesman" is also one of the worst, though it does have the "loan me 50 cents" routine.

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on October 24, 2017, 01:25 AM:

I remember at one time all episodes of the A and C show were issued in super 8.I remember a catalogue,or sales list,offering them at $12,00 per episode.I was tempted but.....I didn't!!!!

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on October 25, 2017, 09:03 AM:

Copyrights for tv show episodes expire at different intervals (based upon each episode’s filing date). Film companies with “friends” on the opposite sides of the studios’ doors would be informed which episodes were currently out of copyright - prints were sold on the sly - no infringements are made in duplicating and selling copies provided it stops as soon as the copyright is renewed. A very ticklish situation, but that’s how many tv episodes were legally sold to the home movie market.

Posted by Ty Reynolds (Member # 5117) on October 25, 2017, 10:35 AM:

It is my understanding that if something falls out of U.S. copyright, the copyright cannot be renewed. Once it is in the public domain, with very rare exception, it remains there forever.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 25, 2017, 11:40 AM:

Sadly, that is not always the case. However, if the original company who held the copyright, or another company registers a new copyright on previously copyrighted material, they cannot legally go after anyone who released previously copyrighted material while it was without copyright. [Smile]

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on October 25, 2017, 02:52 PM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnUGXQwJMSM

Posted by Joseph Randall (Member # 4906) on October 25, 2017, 07:11 PM:

Which company released all the A&C Show episodes? Red Fox only released a handful.

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on October 27, 2017, 07:47 PM:

Joe, sadly only “out of copyright” or “public domain” episodes were released of actual tv shows and not an entire series. WPIX-11 in Manhattan owned the broadcast rights to “The Abbott & Costello Show” for over 25 years which I’m sure was one reason why only certain episodes were made available to the home movie market. A handful of “ Star Trek”, “The Lone Ranger” and “The Lucy Show” had copyrights that expired and film outfits like Canterbury Films made as many prints as possible fearing the window of opportunity was going to be very brief. It was often a stipulation of the affiliates leasing a certain series that under no circumstances were prints to be made available to the home movie / rental markets. This is why one never saw a series like “The Addams Family” ever get released.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 28, 2017, 11:52 AM:

Great info, Brad!

It's one of those problems that comes up when someone, (sometimes I am the very fella), who wants to release something on super 8, but I do an extensive search to see if I can legally do so, even if it's a "loophole" style legal.

(Fell out of copyright for instance, but I don't hold any copyright on the actual film I want to release, or, technically, you really can't be prosecuted for it in a court of law, but no ones going to come after you anyhow for a few super 8 prints. Now, if they see you making lots of money and it's worthwhile financially to do so, then sue).

Posted by Joseph Randall (Member # 4906) on October 28, 2017, 08:16 PM:

Thanks Brad, but Panayotis mentioned that all episodes were released in Super 8, that's why I was asking. [Smile]

My introduction to the A&C Show was on WPIX Channel 11 in New York. By 1975, they estimated that they had rerun each episode 120 times, according to Jim Mulholland in his THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO BOOK. Later, WOR Channel 9 showed them. I have a few in 16mm, but also have the entire series on the Passport DVDs.

[ October 28, 2017, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: Joseph Randall ]

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