Let’s say that I believe that there is a market for obscure, forgotten TV programs that are just collecting dust and decaying in someone’s vault. The networks don’t seem to have much interest in marketing them, probably because they don’t see a market, and it just wouldn’t be worth the effort.
If I were some deep-pocketed fatcat, and I approached them and said, "I’d like to license [some TV program.], and am willing to split the profits to your liking. Assuming it wasn’t some political hot potato like “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” is there any reason why they would turn you down?
Most likely, the networks don’t actually own the programs you’re thinking of. In fact, for decades, the FCC strictly regulated the amount of programming networks could actually produce themselves (it was supposed to promote diversity and reduce the monopoly the networks enjoyed – how the FCC has changed.)
But let’s assume you’ve tracked down the actual “owner” of the program. Further, let’s assume that the programs still exist, because most of them were thought not to be worth the price of storage, and subsequently destroyed.
You’ll have to check out the music rights, to make sure you aren’t trampling on the composer’s ownership.
You’ll have to negotiate with the Directors’ Guild, the Writers’ Guild and the Screen Actors’ Guild (to name three I can think of) to make sure you have the rebroadcast rights squared away.
And, when you get all that done, you may still run into an owner who doesn’t want to release the program for reasons all his/her own – someone who became a megastar who didn’t like their performance on that program (for example, Jackie Gleason “canceling” his own show, “You’re in the Picture” because, frankly, it stunk); a long-buried legal dispute that’s been conveniently handled by never showing the program again; poor picture or sound quality (look at the early TV shows that were recorded on kinescopes); etc.
Considering the relatively few old TV shows that have actually been released on video vs. the thousands of available episodes, I’m sure there must be many other reasons why some of these “classic TV” marketers haven’t released more of what’s in the vaults.
The only thing I’d add to kunilou’s post is that “production company” and “owner” are not necessarily the same thing. I once sought to get copies of episodes from a now-forgotten television series from the 1960s. The series was co-produced by Warner Bros. Television and the star’s personal production company. As part of the original production agreement, Warner Bros. Television solely held the copyright. But that was all they owned; theatrical and television distribution rights were held in perpetuity by NBC, who also owned the physical film elements. NBC has licensed those distribution rights to different companies over the years, currently to Viacom. So although a film studio could own the copyright to the series, the networks sometimes jumped through a large loophole by requiring distribution rights in their production agreements.
BTW, you may wonder what good the copyright to a television series is without distribution rights. I was told that copyright ownership gives them remake rights to the scripts, and derivative rights such as novelizations.
Yes: people do this all the time.
In addition, a wide variety of old television programs are in the public domain. Sometimes it is an entire series. At other times it is a matter of individual episodes.
At video stores and other retail outlets one sometimes sees video collections for sale of episodes of shows from the 50s and 60s. One sometimes can find, for instance, collections of episodes of The Andy Griffith Show from which the distinctive theme music has been deleted. That is because the theme music (whistled by Glen Glenn of Glen Glenn Sound Systems himself), is under copyright, but the individual episodes included int he collection are not.
Similarly, one used to see old Amos 'n Andy episodes for sale. My local public library system carries a few of them. Not all episodes are available on video. Some years back there was a lawsuit over the copyright status of Amos 'n Andy when Steven Spielberg was involved in an effort to produce a Broadway play about the characters. It was determined he was barred not because of a general protection enjoyed over the characters, but because the play would have been based, in part on some specific radio episodes which were under copyright. So too some television epsiodes were recycled from radio programs and are, presumably, still under protection.
One can do a quick search of the web under “public domain” and “television episodes” and find various distributors who sell such tapes. Some of these distributors contract with copyright holders and market tapes of their old shows. Some manage to scavenge old copies of shows which have lapsed into the public domain. Some do both.
From time to time an enterprising distributor finds it to their advantage to package old programs and copyright the package. This is why old shows sometimes have a semi-transparent logo superimposed in the lower right-hand corner of the screen; the distributor is making changes so that they can copyright their particular copy or version of a show. Other distributors add footage. Once in a great while the campus television station at SIU Carbondale can be picked up here in St. Louis, and I used to enjoy watching episodes of Sherlock Holmes with Ronald Howard. At commercial breaks there was a color logo for the show, added by the distributor. Similarly, one can see episodes of The Cisco Kid where the closing credits suddenly break off and new closing credits come on.
Earl-what you suggest did happen w/ Groucho Marx. NBC was going to trash all the the films of “You Bet Your Life.” Some bright guy bought them & put them out on tape. Obvously what you say is easier if shows were filmed- but old kinescopes are floating around too. I mean Sullivan from 1949 & Como from 1951. Usually compulsive collectors find them looking for a specific performer. Buying his films made William Boyd(Hoppy) a fortune & Johnny Carson was bright enough to get all rights to his shows from NBC years ago.