Sale of the Century episode status (UPDATE)

[vnisanian2001]

I have some information about the status of the NBC episodes that I wanna share with you:

A fellow named Jason Cranmer contacted the director of sales from Fremantle, Alexandra Hedgewood, in the hopes of finding out if the daytime episodes were saved or not. According to the director, they have 883 episodes. This figure may or may not include the syndicated run. She further mentioned that no episodes prior to 1985 are in Fremantle's archives.

If you all remember, the late Mitt Dawson, who worked for Reg Grundy Productions, Inc. from 1987 to 1997, said that they only kept the last six months of NBC shows (August 1988 to March 1989). Well, this latest development refutes what he said years before; the surviving NBC shows date back at least two years prior to that. It's still disappointing that they have nothing before 1985, though. Someone, somewhere out there, SHOULD still have those episodes in particular. I can't imagine them being gone forever.

http://gsparadise.proboards.com/thread/762/youtube-finds-warrant-entire-thread?page=31#scrollTo=37821

[someguy23475]

If that is the case, I wonder why USA never aired them way back when?

[vnisanian2001]

I wonder that, too? Maybe they handpicked certain episodes? In Weekly Variety Magazine for August 31, 1992, it said that USA licensed 390 episodes of the show. This included all 270 Syndicated episodes, and 120 select NBC episodes from August 1988 to March 1989.

[vnisanian2001]

I hope SuperMatch93 heard this. It doesn't seem like I can tag members here.

[PatrickRox80]

Never knew that. I thought Wheel of Fortune was the only show where episodes were being wiped up until the mid 1980s.

[someguy23475]

1985’s Time Machine has also been in doubt over the years. Other than that, I can’t think of any other national game shows that were destroyed from that point, at least in the US. Canada is another story.

[pannoni1]

This would incur that if the episodes were different, the daytime run would be intact from around the fall of 1986 onwards, given that those 1985-early 1986 episodes are more than likely from the syndie run, leaving 613 episodes for NBC. The best way to run of course would be to finish out the syndie run, and then pickup with the daytime run from around that. There have also been myths that nearly the first four years of tapes of the show were wiped for Classic Concentration, and that makes sense. That said, most of the daytime episodes from July and August of 1985 do exist via home recordings, and trader Ryan Rinkerman is known to have those. About 30 other daytime episodes pre-fall '86 also circulate via home recordings, in full or in part.

[blozier2006]

There have also been myths that nearly the first four years of tapes of the show were wiped for Classic Concentration

Time out... what? The only person I've ever seen this "myth" from, is you, right now.

[Briguy]

The best way to run of course would be to finish out the syndie run, and then pickup with the daytime run from around that.

Would that include the episode with the infamous "banana" Fame Game question?

(Explanation for those who don't know: None of the contestants so much as made a move for the buzzer as Jim kept reading more obvious clues to an herb -- as it was first described -- that was eaten by monkeys and, after being cut, enjoyed with ice cream, whipped cream and strawberries.)

Brian

[vnisanian2001]

Someone else says maybe the 883 figure includes Temptation: The New Sale of the Century from 2007.

[vnisanian2001]

If, indeed, the Sale tapes before 1985 were wiped for another show, chances are they would have been for Scrabble. The network (NBC) probably wouldn't have allowed Mark Goodson Productions to wipe tapes from Reg Grundy Productions to make room for another series.