The Great Space Coaster

[Hayley B]

I so remember this show.

 

[fuzzygobo]

No pun intended, but Pam Arciero had a hand in there too!

 

[D'Snowth]

No pun intended, but Pam Arciero had a hand in there too!

Jim Martin, Kermit Love, Pam Arciero, Kevin Clash, Jim Kroupa, John Lovelady, and Noel MacNeal are among the pre or post Henson people involved with this show.

 

[D'Snowth]

I was checking in on the updates, and according to Jim (Martin), they were able to surpass their $2,000 goal, and raised roughly $3,500.

So, to do the math (which I know I suck at, but I'm curious), he said it cost about $250 just to digitally convert and store one half-hour episode from the original video tape, and that it would cost anywhere between $35,000 to $40,000 to try to preserve all 250 episodes of the show...

So, since they brought in $3,500, and at $250 an episode, that would mean out of 250 episodes, they would only be able to preserve 14... I know they were really hoping they would be able to preserve all of them, but they did say they'd be happy as long as they could preserve at least one... so, I guess when you look at it that way, it's better than nothing.

 

[D'Snowth]

I miscalculated.

It's not $250 per episode, it's $350 per hour's worth of footage, which would be about maybe two and a half episodes per hour (assuming that the episodes were less than twenty-five minutes without commercials, since most half-hour shows by then were around 23 or 24 minutes).

So, with the $3,500 they raised, that would mean that they can convert about ten hours worth of footage, which would mean they could possibly be able to preserve about 25 episodes, give or take an episode or two.

That's not too bad... by standards back then, that'd be a full season's worth of episodes (or two seasons by today's standards).

 

[D'Snowth]

I still miscalculated; I was looking on their Facebook page, and as it turns out, the money they raised was enough to digitally convert/preserve only 20 episodes, which I suppose is better than nothing.

Matter of fact, here's a great pic from their FB page of Gary Gnu hanging out in their tape vault.

 

[D'Snowth]

I just learned on their Facebook page that they had finished preserving 20 episodes of the show, and that they're planning on another fundraiser to see if they can preserve even more episodes.

 

[minor muppetz]

I recall reading an FAQ, which had one question that was basically asking if they'd save a certain episode, and the response was that they only have episode numbers (and I think dates), meaning they don't know what episode each master tape is without watching them. So does that mean they don't have documents on each episode, say regarding who gets what residual for each episode? I could be wrong, but I'd like to think that production companies have documents listing info on each episode for production purposes (and in fact I think I've read of a few shows that do have such reference tools... in fact I read that the head writer of Scooby Doo would look through guides when a plot was pitched to make sure the plot hadn't already been done).

I wonder if they have chosen to convert the episodes that are in most need of being preserved. Part of me feels like it'd be more important to preserve each episode chronologically, but it also seems like it'd be better to try to preserve every single episode, which means the master tapes in the worst condition should be considered for preservation sooner rather than later.

 

[D'Snowth]

Do they even do residuals for syndicated kiddy shows? Did they even do residuals back then?

 

[minor muppetz]

Do they even do residuals for syndicated kiddy shows? Did they even do residuals back then?

It has been said that music rights are one of the main factors in keeping the show from getting a DVD release.