Thanks to the Internet and YouTube, I’ve been reading up on lost media.
Lost media refers to film, television broadcasts, radio broadcasts, animation, video games and so on that are completely or partially lost; copies of any kind are very hard to find if not impossible. Some have taken on legendary status on the Internet, some turned out to be hoaxes and the search continues for other lost media.
So what lost media fascinates you? What do you wish would be found? What do you think should be lost forever?
I’ll start with one - CBS Storybreak was a series that ran on CBS from 1985-1989 hosted by Robert Keeshan and again in 1993-1994 by Malcolm Jamal-Warner. This anthology series featured animated adaptations of contemporary children’s books such as Chocolate Fever, the Great Ringtail Garbage Caper, Harry the Fat Bear Spy and many more.
Sadly, one episode is missing and that’s the adaptation of What Happened in Hamelin from 1987. A good number of episodes can be found online but this episode has yet to be found.
Ninty-eight episodes of Doctor Who are still missing.
There are rumors constantly floating around that this or that episode/story has been found. One of the most popular is the story that someone has all seven missing episodes of the William Harnell story Marco Polo, but is holding them hostage.
Shrug.
With the show’s 60th anniversary coming up later this year, fans are really hoping for some good news on the episode recovery front. Which isn’t unheard of. Only a few years ago that missing episode count stood at 108.
MST3K’s holy grail lost media is the “Mylar: What’s It To You” short slated for the CD-ROM project they also did Assignment: Venezuela for. The story has been that the tape has long since been misplaced and is considered lost, but is this true? Was it ever filmed? Did they write it? Does a riff script still exist for it? What else would have been on the CD-ROM? Was any work for that completed?
Oh, and how can I forget K03, the KTMA version of Star Force: Fugitive Alien 2! That master was not found when the assets of BBI were acquired by Alternaversal and Shout.
I remember that one - I was interested in it, then… nope. Another from Brando that was never released was Big Bug Man, an animated film he did voicework for, before his death.
The old divorce episode from Sesame Street with Snuffy’s an infamous example.
Back then, the producers weren’t too sure about teaching the kiddies about divorce. But as of a decade ago, they made a new divorce episode… I guess, but with Abby.
All I know for certain is that this imagery of the short (sans silhouettes) appeared during Turkey Day '95, with Trace Beaulieu talking about what would be the ill-fated MST3K CD-ROM.
How far they actually got, I have no idea, but with the short being from the Jam Handy people, you know it was gonna be -awesome.-