Lost TV Sanctuary: Women in Prison (FOX 1987)

This was one of the sitcoms that aired during FOX’s first year.  It was paired up with Matthew Perry’s Second Chance.

I loved those early FOX sitcoms & comedies, even though most didn’t last long.  This one is no exception as it only ran for 13 episodes.

Despite all the episodes airing, this is a tough show to run across.  Here’s the random episodes that are available online…

Episode 1:  Internet Archive

Episode 4:  YouTube

Episodes 9 - 12:  YouTube

Episode 13:  YouTube

It’s a fun watch.  Wendy Jo Sperber (best known from Bosom Buddies) is always funny and CCH Pounder is giving off some early Mrs. Irene Frederic vibes.  And wow did they know how to make elaborate and cool show intros in the 80’s.

I hope to see the remaining 6 episodes someday.  In the meantime, here’s episode 1 - “Vickie Does Prison” (originally aired October 11, 1987) from the Internet Archive…

DISCLAIMER:  I only upload episodes of TV series that are completely unavailable in any format (not currently broadcast, streaming or available to purchase in any way) for archival purposes.  If the show suddenly becomes available, all files will be deleted.

Lost TV Sanctuary: Wish You Were Here (CBS 1990)

This was really unique when it debuted.  It's a cross between a scripted comedy and a travel documentary.  And parts of it was recorded on a handheld video camera.

The show was a summer series in 1990 and sadly only lasted 6 episodes.  I always connect it to Northern Exposure.  Not only does it have a similar feel, but for 6 weeks it was promoted during Northern Exposure's first season.

I transferred all 6 episodes years ago, but just now saw the first 5 episodes have been uploaded to YouTube here.  There's also incredible commentary on the making of the show.

Here's the missing 6th episode "The Balkans" from the Internet Archive.  This is from the original CBS airing - the commercials have all been edited out though (sorry, but this was one of the earlier shows I transferred from VHS and that's how I did it at first).

DISCLAIMER:  I only upload episodes of TV series that are completely unavailable in any format (not currently broadcast, streaming or available to purchase in any way) for archival purposes.  If the show suddenly becomes available, all files will be deleted.

Lost TV Sanctuary: Then Came You (ABC 2000)

This sitcom is one of the most requested shows from my library of lost media VHS.  If a streamer is looking for a good short-lived show to pick up, this is one of them - and even for fans of the show, there's 7 episodes most have never seen.

It originally aired on ABC in 2000.  While 13 episodes were produced, only 6 ended up airing (and those were aired totally out of order).

I only have the 6 aired episodes and the quality is pretty bad (all 6 are on the Internet Archive).  I had originally recorded them on EP speed, which as it turns out was a terrible idea.  Unfortunately, quite a few shows that went longer than 13 episodes were recorded this way.  But at least it's still available to be seen and it is watchable.

Here's episode 1 (the pilot)...

DISCLAIMER:  I only upload episodes of TV series that are completely unavailable in any format (not currently broadcast, streaming or available to purchase in any way) for archival purposes.  If the show suddenly becomes available, all files will be deleted.

Lost TV Sanctuary: Normal Life (CBS 1990)

Supposedly, this TV show was partially based on the real life of the Zappa family.  It starred Dweezil & Moon Unit Zappa.  Plus Cindy Williams played the Mom on the show (pretty much anything she was in was good).

The show aired for 13 episodes in 1990 on CBS.  The first 6 episodes aren’t the best, but starting with episode 7, it becomes awesome and remains that way until the end.

I uploaded the first two episodes to the Internet Archive.  Both are exactly as they originally aired on CBS (complete with commercials).  The quality is just ok as it was recorded on EP speed.  But even with that (and the tape being over 30 years old), it doesn’t look that bad!

Episodes 3 - 13 can be found on YouTube. But for now, here's episode 1 (The Big Game).  Enjoy...

 

DISCLAIMER:  I only upload episodes of TV series that are completely unavailable in any format (not currently broadcast, streaming or available to purchase in any way) for archival purposes.  If the show suddenly becomes available, all files will be deleted.

Lost TV Sanctuary: Lost (NBC 2001 - US reality show)

The US version of the reality show Lost debuted on NBC in September 2001.  The series lasted 6 episodes with two full races (each takes up 3 episodes).

The concept is amazing, but getting past episode 1 is difficult.  The editing is what’s bad as the first episode focuses way too much on two contestants.  Luckily, things get better in the second episode where one of the two becomes much less annoying.

This might be one of the toughest (and most dangerous) reality shows ever, with next to no help from producers.  And the 3 camera people per race (one per team) are truly the stars as every aspect of what we see came from them.  They participated in the race as well, suffering along with the contestants.

One of my favorite moments happens 32 minutes into episode 2 when a random guy they encountered was fascinated by the entire concept of what’s happening and the fact that people like this even exist in the world.

This copy of the show aired on the sorely missed FOX Reality Channel and features tons of interviews with most of the show’s contestants.  Unfortunately, I recorded it on a cheap videotape - and to make it worse, it was recorded on EP speed (the lowest quality speed).  The tape didn’t age well at all - the video jumps constantly and is difficult to watch.  Normally I’d just get rid of such a poor quality tape, but a few people requested I transfer it anyways.  It would be awesome if a streamer ran a better copy of this with up-to-date interviews.

 

The full series has been uploaded to the Internet Archive.  Here's episode 1...

 

DISCLAIMER:  I only upload episodes of TV series that are completely unavailable in any format (not currently broadcast, streaming or available to purchase in any way) for archival purposes.  If the show suddenly becomes available, all files will be deleted.

Lost TV Sanctuary: The Weakest Link (NBC 2001) - Episode 3

I recently ran across a post on the gameshow subbreddit detailing the locations of all episodes of the original US NBC 2001 series of the show.  Quite a few of the 83 episodes are currently lost.

When I was transferring tapes of a sitcom called DAG, I ran across some random stuff at the end of the tape.  And one of those things was the "lost" 3rd episode of NBC's 2001 The Weakest Link.

The quality of this - not the best (DAG was in far better shape - I'll upload a couple episodes of that soon).

Here it is from the Internet Archive...

DISCLAIMER:  I only upload episodes of TV series that are completely unavailable in any format (not currently broadcast, streaming or available to purchase in any way) for archival purposes.  If the show suddenly becomes available, all files will be deleted.

Lost TV Sanctuary: Greed The Series (FOX 1999 - 2000)

I have six full bins of VHS tapes.  They take up space & they’re heavy, so I’m ready to get rid of them.

Almost all of the tapes have TV recordings ranging from the 80’s to the 00’s.  The majority contain failed and short-lived sitcoms.  The rest are game shows, sci-fi series and some extremely strange Saturday morning live-action stuff.

Lost media is suddenly a big thing, so I went through and organized the tapes to determine which ones to transfer.  The main priorities are TV shows that have no easy way of being seen other than transferring these VHS tapes to digital.  Sure, the production companies probably have the episodes in a vault somewhere.  But they’re effectively lost to most of us if the show isn’t broadcast, streaming or currently available to buy.

This is a time consuming process, so not everything will get transferred.  Maybe whoever gets the tapes next will transfer some of the other stuff.  But for the next few months (before my job kicks in to high gear again), I’ll transfer what I can.

I’ll post here on the various shows that get transferred and uploaded to the Internet Archive (the ultimate library for archiving media).

While my collection leans heavily towards sitcoms / comedies, the first thing I decided to upload is lost episodes of Greed: The Series.  I checked the Lost Media Wiki and with the help of this Greed fan page, I found a bunch of episodes that are considered lost.

Greed: The Series originally aired on FOX from 1999 - 2000.  After that, it aired occasionally in reruns on the Game Show Network until about 2008.  There were 44 episodes total.  Out of the 44 eps, 9 are fully lost and 4 partially lost.

I had three tapes labeled “Greed / Winning Lines”.  Ended up finding 2 of the fully lost Greed episodes and 2 of the partially lost ones.  All are from the original FOX airings.  Here's what I found...

Episode 16:  2-4-00  (watchable quality)

Episode 20:  3-1-00  (good quality)

Episode 25:  3-17-00  (good quality)

Episode 31:  4-25-00  (ok quality) (missing 3 min from near the start of the episode)

All 4 are now uploaded to the Internet Archive here.

Here's one of the episodes...

DISCLAIMER:  I only upload episodes of TV series that are completely unavailable in any format (not currently broadcast, streaming or available to purchase in any way) for archival purposes.  If the show suddenly becomes available, all files will be deleted.