Wiping

Captain Video and His Video Rangers, a DuMont TV program as one of the examples for Wiping.

This article was copied (instead of imported) from the Qualitipedia wikis on Miraheze due to the wikis being deleted.

Wiping is an infamous practice where master copies of old radio and television programs were removed or destroyed.

This practice was common in the days of black and white TV and early color TV, where the tape used would be expensive (often running to $1,000 per tape if inflation is accounted) but reusable because most of them are cheap, unlike film, which is also cheap, but wasn't reusable.

The practice has also occasionally applied to film, though, because film wasn't reusable, it was less common, and the reasons obviously weren't for reusing silver. Whether it be due to deterioration, a vault fire, preservation getting too costly, the creator/studio regretting it or, the most common case these days, tax write-offs (which has become a commonplace practice by Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Discovery in recent years).

Examples

United States

• Most of the DuMont Television Network's programs were either melted down for their silver or (supposedly) disposed of in New York's East River. There has been no effort to recover the missing content in the river, leading some to believe it is an urban legend. All surviving DuMont programs have fallen into the public domain today.
• Most old sporting events were also wiped out.
  • Before 1975, most of the baseball World Series games were missing a few innings or have been completely lost. The 1965, 1968, 1969, and 1970 series are all intact.
  • Despite getting taped over, the first few Super Bowls are still mostly intact, with a few quarters missing.
  • Before 1979, most of the NBA Finals are missing a few games. Only the 1975, 1976, and 1977 finals are still intact.
• In 1970, Metromedia (owners of KTTV 11 in Los Angeles) wiped the masters of The Paul Winchell Show (a children's show hosted by ventriloquist and voice actor Paul Winchell) even though he wanted to buy back the tapes. In 1986, Winchell successfully sued Metromedia for $18 million.
• When Hallmark purchased the Filmation library in 1995, they converted all the tapes from NTSC into a PAL format and threw out the original masters. This meant that the videotapes were sped up by 4%.
• While not a radio or TV program, some older films in the Golden Age of Animation had reissues to preserve the original film quality, with the older versions often discarded. Early animated cartoons of certain animated short film series like Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes were prone to reissuing, with the latter incorporating a "Blue Ribbon" program. While this allowed the color hues to remain unaffected and preserved, most of these cartoons often edit out the intro and ending sequences and plaster newer versions over them, resulting in the loss of original titles.
  • Many original titles and endings for the pre-1948 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons have been lost due to either the Blue Ribbon program stated above, or due to the 1995 dubbed versions, which used AAP prints (as the original negatives were stored at Warner Bros.) and attempted to restore the color hues for certain cartoons sold to AAP but replaced the ending cards with a stock one used for all animated cartoons (either 1937-38 orange rings or 1947-48 red rings). While there has been an effort to recover the original titles/endings from the Blue Ribbon releases/dubbed versions, there has been limited success, and some cartoons such as "The Bashful Buzzard" had their original titles recreated for DVD.
  • Likewise, many Famous Studios/Paramount Cartoon Studios cartoons before March 1962 have had their original titles/endings lost due to plastering when they were sold to U.M. & M. TV Corporation and Harvey Comics. Most color Popeye cartoons have also had their original endings lost when they were sold to AAP. Although some of the original titles have been found, most have not been officially restored to DVD or streaming services. While the majority of the 1950-62 cartoons sold to Harvey Comics have been restored, they often contain plastered titles from The Harveytoons Show instead of their original Paramount titles.
  • Columbia had a silent film series based on the Barney Google comic strips; the negatives to all of the cartoons were destroyed due to a contractual obligation with King Features Syndicate. Luckily, the original shorts were spared via duplicate prints, and even then, they currently exist as silent home movie prints.
  • There was also a series from Winkler Pictures based on Krazy Kat. Most of the cartoons were destroyed by Winkler herself in 1948 because the films were made of nitrocellulose, a highly flammable material. Only a few shorts managed to resurface.
• Almost all of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jack Paar and the first ten years hosted by Johnny Carson were taped over by the network and no longer exist. This is why late 1960s broadcasts look muddy. Selected sequences from these years still survive and have been released to the home video. Some audiotapes and still pictures of those years also exist. Some Paar episodes also survive and have also been released to home video.
• Actual clips of Walter Cronkite reading the news in his studio every night for six years (1962-August 2, 1968) are mostly gone. Exceptions are his coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and the November 1963 tragedies in Dallas, Texas: the JFK assassination, the shootings of police officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Oswald, and all three funerals, as well as his introduction of the Beatles and his criticism of the Vietnam War.
• A notable case with movie studios was two of the cartoon-based compilations - The Mickey Mouse Club and The Bugs Bunny Show, in which several episodes of these were taped over for sequel programs - The New Mickey Mouse Club and The Bugs Bunny-Roadrunner Show.

Canada

• The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has upheld a notable practice of not engaging in the wiping of their self-produced programs. Consequently, they boast an extensive archive containing nearly all programming they have ever recorded. However, there are exceptions to this rule. For instance, the science-fiction series Space Command, which aired during 1953–54, has only one surviving episode out of its 150. Despite being Kinescoped for distribution to stations across Canada, the majority of the series has been lost. Additionally, the CBC has acknowledged the absence of the 1984–93 music video series, Video Hits, from their archives. It is speculated that any existing recordings may have been erased due to legal reasons, possibly related to the show's use of licensed content from music companies.

United Kingdom

• Until 1978, the BBC was infamous for wiping many of its old TV series recorded onto videotape. Note that most of these are from the black-and-white era, as when color TV came around in 1967 in the UK, they felt it was not worth it to store black-and-white programs anymore.
  • Doctor Who (classic era; 1963-1989) is the most infamous case, with 97 episodes missing. Luckily, before they were wiped, the BBC sold some episodes to foreign countries, where many have been recovered. There are also rumors about the existence of many episodes, including a claim that late Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe had copies of the entire first series and the infamous hoax of Episode 4 of The Tenth Planet was being found by Roger K. Barrett. Unusually, audio recordings of all the episodes exist, taped by fans at home, making reconstructions possible, and all the 1970s episodes are in full color after restoration (except for Episode 1 of Jon Pertwee's story: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
  • Another example is Dad's Army, in which remarkably only 3 episodes are still missing.
  • The soap opera United! is a big example as all 147 episodes were wiped, meaning the show is now fully missing.
  • The pilot episode for Are You Being Served? survived only in black and white for many years until 2009, when it was restored in color using a technique also used for Dad's Army.
  • Z-Cars also suffered wiping, including the episodes directed by then-unknown director Ridley Scott.
  • Not even non-scripted shows are unaffected. In 1968, the BBC wiped several Top of the Pops episodes, including the only appearance of The Beatles. An 11-second 8mm home recording of The Beatles' performance was discovered in April 2019.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus was almost wiped by the BBC after the first series, but luckily Terry Gilliam managed to make a deal with them in which he would buy them new tapes in exchange for the survival of the master tapes.
• Even ITV got in on this paltry practice, but thankfully they had a policy of keeping as many old recordings as possible, meaning all of Coronation Street survives
  • An example of this is The Adventures of Noddy, a puppet series premiering in 1955 on ITV that had most of its episodes destroyed.
    • Many game shows recorded on videotape in the 1960s, and 1970s would often be wiped (e.g. the daytime version of Wheel of Fortune, the original 1960s version of The Match Game, or The $10,000 Pyramid).
    • Many soap operas from before the 1980s are lost forever because they were broadcast live or had too many episodes, Even pre-1980s telenovelas also suffer from this.

Australia

• Paul Field, the former manager of the globally renowned children's music group (from Australia), The Wiggles, revealed an intriguing anecdote regarding the unaired 1995 pilot of The Wiggles TV Series. In a recent interview, Field disclosed that upon the completion of production for the pilot, he instructed the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to destroy every copy. Field, citing various reasons, including creative differences and quality concerns, believed it was best to forego airing the pilot altogether. However, contrary to Field's directive, it appears that Greg Page, famously known as the original Yellow Wiggle, retained a copy of the pilot. Despite Field's efforts to eradicate all traces of the unaired episode, Greg Page safeguarded the sole remaining copy still in its existence.

Non-Television Examples

United States

• The most common occurrence in the 21st century is via tax write-offs, and due to the decline of physical masters, often means the deletion of the master file rather than destruction. Coyote v. Acme, Batgirl, and the scrapped Season 3 of The 2021 reboot of Rugrats are notable examples.

Examples of Lost television broadcasts that had been wiped

Australia

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Unaired Pilots

• The Wiggles (1995) (despite Greg Page (Yellow Wiggle) having the keep the only remaining copy of the pilot)

The Interpretaris (1966)

• Golden Boy (October 14, 1966)
• Sir Lance A Little (November 4, 1966)

United Kingdom

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

Doctor Who (Classic series; 1963-1989)

Season 1

• Marco Polo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
• The Reign of Terror (4, 5)

Season 2

• The Crusade (2, 4)

Season 3

• Galaxy Four (1, 2, 4)
• Mission to the Unknown (1)
• The Myth Makers (1, 2, 3, 4)
• The Daleks' Master Plan (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12)
• The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1, 2, 3, 4)
• The Celestial Toymaker (1, 2, 3)
• The Savages (1, 2, 3, 4)

Season 4

• The Smugglers (1, 2, 3, 4)
• The Tenth Planet (4)
• The Power of the Daleks (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• The Highlanders (1, 2, 3, 4)
• The Underwater Menace (1, 4)
• The Moonbase (1, 3)
• The Macra Terror (1, 2, 3, 4)
• The Faceless Ones (2, 4, 5, 6)
• The Evil of the Daleks (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Season 5

• The Abominable Snowmen (1, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• The Ice Warriors (2, 3)
• The Web of Fear (3)
• Fury from the Deep (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• The Wheel in Space (1, 2, 4, 5)

Season 6

• The Invasion (1, 4)
• The Space Pirates (1, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Lance at Large (1964)

• Episode 1 (August 13, 1964)
• Episode 2 (August 20, 1964)
• Episode 3 (August 27, 1964)
• Episode 4 (September 3rd, 1964)
• Episode 6 (September 9th, 1964)

Key

[C] = all episodes existing as a result

[I] = episodes are incomplete rediscovered episodes due either to overseas censorship (in Australia and New Zealand) or to damage to the surviving film print

Examples of rediscovered television

United Kingdom

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

Doctor Who (Classic series; 1963-1989)

Season 1

• The Reign of Terror (1, 2, 3, 6)

Season 2

• The Crusade (1)
• The Time Meddler (1, 3, 4) [C] [I] (A modified duplicate of Episode 2 was discovered among the cache. However, original versions of Episodes 1 and 3 were subsequently restored to the BBC's possession in 1992)

Season 3

• Galaxy Four (3) [I]
• The Daleks' Master Plan (2, 5, 10)
• The Celestial Toymaker (4) [I]
• The War Machines (1, 2, 3, 4) [C] [I] (Among the cache, a modified and repetitive rendition of Episode 2 was uncovered. Solely the unaltered copy of Episode 1 was discovered, while Episodes 3 and 4 were identified as having been edited from FORMER New Zealand prints)

Season 4

• The Underwater Menace (2) [I]
• The Faceless Ones (3) [I]
• The Evil of the Daleks (2)

Season 5

• The Tomb of the Cybermen (1, 2, 3, 4) [C] (All episodes of the serial were successfully recovered from Hong Kong in late 1991/Early 1992)
• The Abominable Snowmen (2)
• The Ice Warriors (1, 4, 5, 6) (Discovered within the confines of a storage closet situated in the premises of the BBC Enterprises building, located at Villiers House in Ealing in 1988)
• The Enemy of the World (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) [C] (All episodes of the serial were successfully recovered in Nigeria, with the discovery also yielding an extra copy of Episode 3, ensuring a complete set of the series)
• The Web of Fear (2, 4, 5, 6) (Episode 3 was initially part of the cache of rediscovered episodes; however, it mysteriously vanished during the interim period between the unearthing of the films and their eventual restoration to the BBC's archives)
• The Wheel in Space (3)

Lance at Large (1964)

• Episode 5: Child's Play (September 10, 1964)

Key

[C] = all episodes existing as a result

[I] = episodes are incomplete rediscovered episodes due either to overseas censorship (lead by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand) or to damage to the surviving film print

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