WIPED: The Destruction of Australia's Television History

They were the TV shows Australia loved. Countdown, Bellbird, Number 96, The Graham Kennedy Show, among many, many others. But due to budget constraints and a lack of foresight, thousands of episodes of these series were destroyed; their tapes wiped. Many Australians would be horrified to learn that thousands of episodes of their favourite series do not exist in the archives. But they may also be surprised to learn these same lost programs may exist in the unlikeliest of places; their own homes.

This is the story of Australia's lost cultural history. A new documentary on a dark period when Australian television networks thought the value of the videotape was more than what was recorded on it.

This is not a documentary about blame, nor is it a witch hunt. This is a story about hope. Hope that the entirety of Bon Scott and AC/DC's first performance on Australian TV will be found one day, instead of the agonizingly short two second clip that only exists of it. Or the lost episodes of Number 96. Or the footage of Mary Hardy becoming the first person on Australian TV to say fuck. Maybe someone taped it. Or saved some reels from the tip. It might be sitting in a garage. Or in a shed. Or under the stairs...

These broadcasts are important. They have worth. They are ours. Lets get them back.

Currently in production. For more information please contact Larry Boxshall at boxfilms@hotmail.com

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• WIPED
• The
• Destruction
• of
• Australia's
• Television
• History

[aussietv2]

I'm not part of this but I think it's an important story that has to be told. Just Think it's a shame they wiped it. But alot of schools recorded alot of shows on u-matic recorders for educational purposes and are still floating around out there.

One guy is Todd Emslie at this website: hxxp://home.iprimus.com.au/tod­demslie/archive-TV.html

Check it out.

[aussietv2]

It was liked burning money destroying those tapes. Imagine how much they could make on DVDs of tv shows .

[AccordionManiac]

seems like a fascinating story, looking forward to seeing the documentary on television. apparently networks around the world have made the same mistake. sometimes for political reasons (in some less democratic countries), but i never thought just because lack of foresight. hope the documentary comes out sooner than later

[luvpuppypt]

@aussietv2 ..I'm still shocked that my parents allowed me to watch Number96 and I was just a small brat LOL... such a shame that this has happened and so much has been lost. I'd love to watch it all again but they are gone. Great to see you involved in all this Troy! :-)

[nzoz1983]

The whole thing hurts... but it is encouraging to know that, in spit of a large proportion of Countdowns were wiped; there is, however, a lot of surviving Countdown performances.... ie; Teenage Radio Stars doing 'I Wanna Be Your Baby' on Countdown.

[nzoz1983]

lol, I was meant to be interviewed for this show... I guess I was supposed to rant and rave about getting hold of old Donnie Sutherland shows from Donnie himself and making a youtube channel about him... buuuuuuuuuuttttttttttt........­......... i missed the boat! On ya Troy!!! Good to see you're a part of this!

[RetroToledo]

@punji73 Usually filmed productions in the US were kept if they were popular enough to go into syndication later on.

[punji73]

so we might have been making shows like 96 when the yanks were still making Brady Bunch, but least the yanks kept their copies of the Brady Bunch shows? what were we thinking!

[GitarStu]

I've never understood the mentality of the TV stations to do this sort of thing. They must have followed the BBC's lead when they decided it would be a good idea to 'purge the archives' in the 70s. Over 105 episodes of Dr Who are still missing for example. It would be a lot more if it wasn't for fans of the who who recorded episodes and made them available again.

We have to stop this from ever happening again. Allowing it to happen is almost criminal!