Are TV shows (Seinfeld, Frazier, Friends) indexed to later help find funny outtakes?

Cafe Society
1

We’ve all seen those “best of” and “remember when?” TV shows. Question: How does the production team find the best outtakes for a highlight show?

Viewers might see 10 scenes spanning 10 years in which Elaine pushes a “Seinfeld” character. Or perhaps we see Kramer sliding into Jerry’s apartment on 8 different occasions.

I can’t believe that members of the production screen sit and view 100-150 programs, looking for the needed segments. Are these shows somehow indexed as they’re produced? Maybe with notes like “Elaine slapping XXX” or “Kramer doing a weird dance”?

I know. Weird question.

2

Have you ever heard of interns? :slight_smile:

3

Are you sure you mean “outtake”? An outtake is a scene that is filmed but not used. (Outside of blooper shows and such.) Not usually used in “best of” shows.

4

Definitely not outtake. :wink:

Hard to believe networks would tap interns given the huge viewership/revenues at stake.

5

They have crew members called tape loggers on documentaries and reality shows. Their job is log what’s on every bit of footage that they’ve shot.

Doing a season of Seinfeld would be easy in comparison. Only 500 minutes or so.

6

I believe it. When I interned for a magazine show, my main job was logging tapes, which is basically typing up a detailed log of raw footage to which producers and editors can later refer.

It’s tedious and time-consuming, so it’s usually pawned off to someone that doesn’t have a million other things to do, ie, an intern.

7

Why not, it’s just a matter of tagging scenes for the editors to use to assemble the shows? It’s not a particularly difficult job.