Videotaped Episodes

[Elle]

Something I've always wondered about is the fate of the videotaped episodes and when exactly the tapes were disposed of. After a repeat season of Blackman episodes prior to the Rigg series beginning, the videotaped era of The Avengers vanished from sight completely in the UK. A brief clip from Mandrake (sourced from VT) was included in the ABC Of ABC retrospective programme in 1966 but that was it! The Avengers became massive from this point onwards and was thereafter synonymous with the filmed era of Rigg / Thorson. And while I became a big fan in 1965, I remember asking my parents about the mysterious Blackman era which just ended before I was old enough to be able to watch. I caught one photograph of Steed / Gale in a TV Times special around the mid '60s and having my curiosity aroused. But that was it sadly, as the episodes were completely off the radar and invisible to viewers for many years. It was as if that era never existed in modern age of filmed episode repeats in the '70s and on Channel 4 in 1982/3.

In the early '80s, I eagerly attended a BFI screening of one Blackman episode for the first time and wanted to see more. The wisdom at the time was that many of the series 1 to 3 episodes no longer existed (the BFI held a small selection in their own archive but that seemed to be it for a while). I noted that the BFI episode was a telerecording though and any subsequent access to episodes (eventual C4 repeats and VHS releases) were also from prints. Which brings me back to the main question of my post: when exactly did the VT masters go? There is paperwork existing which shows that the ABC tape archive (or some of it, at least) was kept by Thames until about 1976, well after ABC's loss of franchise (after which it was junked due to taking up valuable space which could store new programmes!) I've no idea exactly what still remained in the collection at that point; presumably episodes of Public Eye, Callan etc etc but the Blackman Avengers are never mentioned with reference to this cache. I'm wondering if the tapes went before ABC did or were still around in 1976? Presumably the Blackman episodes were sold overseas to some degree (which would be from film) after the initial UK screenings, although I've not read very much about the Blackman era afterlife at all. The junking of the VT is a question I've always pondered though.

[Allard]

What I've read about it, is that these videotapes were so expensive that they were reused for the next broadcast. A tape costing more than actually staging and recording an episode made reuse economically inevitable. If this is the case the tapes will have contained the recording for only a limited time before the recording being transferred to film (how and why they survive to this day) and then reused, before finally being discarded when new technology replaced that system.

[Elle]

I don't think they were recycled that fast though, especially as a lot of the ABC archive survived on VT right up to 1976. There were repeats of Blackman episodes from both series in 1964 / 5 though (plus a clip used in 1966), so they were definitely around for at least about three years after initial transmission. We do know that VT was recycled but we also know that much carried on existing after transmission as well. There does seem to be a lot of incorrect information circulating as regards videotape, I think.

[dissolute]

It's an interesting question, as I remember all the Blackman episodes as being considered lost up until the 1990s, was it? And then, suddenly, series 2 and 3 were available and started coming out on VHS.
No announcement or anything that I can remember, but the internet wasn't a thing yet then.

BTW, welcome aboard, Elle, and what a great thread to start with!

[Elle]

Ah, thanks! It's always been a puzzler to me. I remember lapping up Dave Rogers' first Avengers book when it came out around 1983 and reading for the first time of all these legendary Blackman episode titles with synopses and wondering if I'd ever see any of them! I knew around then that a few of them existed at the BFI (Death Of A Great Dane, The Little Wonders and The Trojan Horse were included, two of which I finally managed to see at screenings around the mid '80s) but it did seem that a majority were missing completely, as with other huge parts of the ABC archive. I know Dave Rogers had a hand in locating most of the others at the ABC (then Weintraub) archive but it did take quite a bit of time before they were all accounted for. I expect that some younger fans of the series today are probably not aware of how lucky we are to be able to watch the complete Blackman era now!

It still doesn't answer the question of when the VTs were wiped but still...

[Frankymole]

Although there is some interesting retrospective from Dave Rogers about the finding of the Blackman negatives and other material (not VTs though) in the first volume of the recent Stay Tuned collections, it does really need a detailed book like the Richard McGinlay/Alan Hayes work on Season 1. Sadly the 1962-64 episodes' contents are no longer as "mysterious" as those of the tantalising first series, but their history certainly is! I don't think anyone has the wherewithal or inclination to do such a study, but I'd love to be wrong about that.

[mousemeat]

like many of us, I was introduced to the series, with the Emma Peel era....with those lovely monochrome episodes...it was nothing like I saw on network (U.S.) TV, in 1966...of course, the series progressed..up to the arrival of Tara King, and the NEW AVENGERS....I had read about the Cathy Gale era, but never saw one of her episodes...until A & E, got the rights to put it out in the U.S......and it was on VHS...which I bought as they were made available...and I liked 'em, despite being another 'flavor' from Mrs. Peel and Tara King...Even Steed, was different ..in his dealings...as his character continued to grow and evolve ...

I have many of those episodes on DVD....and they do look much better than the VHS offerings......and I'm anxious to see a re mastered release for the U.S. market, on Blu ray...and I'm a big fan of the Gale era....yrs after her time on the series....that's truly a hallmark of a superb series..

[Andrew Pixley]

Nothing to add... just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying this discussion! :)

All the best

Andrew

[Alan]

Although there is some interesting retrospective from Dave Rogers about the finding of the Blackman negatives and other material (not VTs though) in the first volume of the recent Stay Tuned collections, it does really need a detailed book like the Richard McGinlay/Alan Hayes work on Season 1. Sadly the 1962-64 episodes' contents are no longer as "mysterious" as those of the tantalising first series, but their history certainly is! I don't think anyone has the wherewithal or inclination to do such a study, but I'd love to be wrong about that.

Richard and I did consider writing a Cathy Gale volume. We were going to call it Kinky Boots and Sharp Suits. We made a very small start but our hearts weren't in it as the fascination with Series 1 for us was that you couldn't just pull it from the shelf and watch it for the most part, whereas with Series 2+3 you (thankfully!) can.

[Frankymole]

Yes, that's understandable. I suspect a lot of the story of what happened to the Cathy-era tapes and negatives is obscure and not covered by any existing paperwork any longer. Along with not being covered by the Rodney Marshall-edited essay books, the era is a bit of Dark Age for in-depth coverage in print.