8mm Forum: Were all TV Episodes pritned on 16mm?

This is topic Were all TV Episodes pritned on 16mm? in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on March 26, 2009, 10:08 PM:

Hi all,

I am not really into collecting 16mm, but the question is triggered after seeing a lot of TV Episodes auctioned on Ebay, eg MASH, Mission Impossible, etc

I was then thinking that before the digital era, it was indeed the only way to make a movie by using celluloid apart for a few TV shows shot with electronic camera (with tapes). That can be seen that in every end credit title there will be a notation to Technicolor (Lab) or Panavision (Camera) or Kodak (film stock).

Some TV Episodes were sold for quite cheap, and some were also on LPP (I love he quality).

So my questions are:

1. Were all TV episodes (pre 1980s) printed on 16mm? If yes, so there will be a big chance for me to have a particular Lucy shows episodes, The Six Million Dollar Man or A Little House on the Prairie.

2. What about for the TV Episodes after 1980s, like Dynasty, Dallas, A Team or the latter recent like Mad About You, Friends, ?

3. If they were printed on 16mm, how many copies were made? It is only one or two and then transferred to tape for distribution?

4. I saw that particular series are quite abundant, like MASH but why not the other series that easy?

cheers,

Posted by Steven Sigel (Member # 21) on March 26, 2009, 11:10 PM:

1) Not all TV shows were printed on film, some were videotaped. However kinescopes exists for some videotaped shows.
The shows you mention - Lucy, Six Million $ Man, and Little House on the Prairie were all syndicated on 16mm film, so prints exist of all of those

2) The latest TV shows I've run across were from the late 80s - about 88 is the latest I've ever seen... Some shows ended earlier. Nothing after 88 is on film for distribution (even if it was shot on film)

3) If a show was syndicated on film then there would be lots of prints. If a show was syndicated on VT, then there are probably no prints - in general they took the raw film and edited it (for the most part) on video. There are also network prints of TV episodes as they were originally aired on the network - these are far more rare and only a handful of copies were made. (One exception to this - some shows that were distributed on VT were printed on film for international use - so there may be prints around - shows like "Battlestar Galactica", "V" or "Hardy Boys/ Nancy Drew" come to mind - these were all on film in Austrailia, but not the USA.

4) Some shows are more common because of two reasons - 1) some shows were syndicated a lot more than others, and 2) in the late 80s/ early 90s the bonded film warehouses were bought out and liquidated to collectors - shows that they had are therefore very common. I was told, for instance, that there were 9000 prints of MASH episodes....

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on March 26, 2009, 11:13 PM:

I'm no expert, Winbert, but any show that went into syndication prior to the mid-80s or thereabouts was printed in 16mm in sufficient quantity to cover quite a few TV markets simultaneously. So "Mad About You" and "Friends," no, but all those others should be possible given time to stumble across them.

These films can hold a pretty high value, so I would expect them to cost more than low-budget features.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on March 26, 2009, 11:32 PM:

quote:
The latest TV shows I've run across were from the late 80s - about 88 is the latest

Steven, can you mention what is the latest print for TV shows?

Posted by Steven Sigel (Member # 21) on March 27, 2009, 12:00 AM:

As I said - the latest TV shows I've seen on 16mm film are from 1988.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on March 27, 2009, 02:50 AM:

Yes I mean what is the title of 16mm TV shows from 1988 releases.

cheers,

Posted by Darren Payne (Member # 1517) on March 27, 2009, 02:45 PM:

I have come across a 16mm X-Files 1st season episode with Spanish sub-titles. (Circa 1990?)

Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on April 19, 2009, 04:10 PM:

"friends" was filmed in 16mm and 35mm.

Posted by John Whittle (Member # 22) on May 01, 2009, 03:45 PM:

Actually most network film shows were shot on 35mm (there were a few 16mm shows like ABC Afterschool Specials and shows on some "new networks" back in the 1980-90s.).

Even when shows were just telecined from the negative and cut electronically, the negative was often conformed for foreign syndication since many countries wouldn't accepts NTSC conversions to PAL for example.

In these cases, just as in the past, the 35mm negative was reduction printed to a 16mm negative (first with a 16mm CRI and then later as in the past with a 16mm reduction interpostive and then internegative) and 16mm prints were struck.

The foreign market lastest several years beyond the domestic US market which had gone over to tape and satellite distribution. Some stations even went to Super VHS to cut costs.

John

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