On the show Extras by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant - one of my favorite comedy series of all time - there are many references to a British show called Eastenders. Looking up the show, I became curious about actually watching it - from the beginning - which was 1985. Yes, the show has literally been ongoing longer than I have been alive.
Yet when I search for ways to watch the old episodes of it, I come up empty-handed. It doesn’t seem to have been preserved on any kind of online archive, either free or a paid subscription, nor do DVDs of it appear to be for sale.
So what do I do if I want to watch it from the beginning? Was it ever preserved in any form? Or are there simply too many episodes of it for them to have “bovvered” doing so?
This applies to a lot of other shows as well, British and American alike. How does one go about viewing the old episodes of decades-running shows like this?
Typically they are not made available. At the height of U.S. soaps’ popularity in the '80’s and '90’s, some compilations of greatest moments, such as wedding episodes, were made available on VHS, but for the most part unless you can find fans who saved old recordings there is no way to view the old episodes.
The BBC’s archiving policies are a bit of a mystery to me, and the advent of digital TV must have made some difference. They hold an enormous amount, and certainly bring out famous scenes from time to time. My guess is that there are issues about the best way to release archived programmes, given the shift towards commissioned/contracted productions from other companies and the complexities of rights where programmes have been sold overseas and/or to digital archive channels in the UK.
As far as EE is concerned, all I could suggest is that you look out for stray episodes put up on YouTube or DailyMotion by fans, and look for fan messageboards.
If long-running soap operas are your thing, you might want to check out The Archers !
A cousin of a friend was obsessive about videotaping soap operas decades ago. She decided to offer copies for sale on eBay and actually managed to sell some to cast and crew members of the soap operas. Even they couldn’t get copies of old shows they worked on. And, no, she never got in any trouble for it. But it was a long time ago.
I just checked eBay and can’t find any bootlegs listed for sale. I guess they must have cracked down.
I have nothing to offer specific to your inquiry, I’m afraid.
But I do know that at least as late as the 1970s, videotape was still so expensive that it was common to re-use the tapes, thus destroying whatever was on there before. So a lot of shows, especially local ones, would air once and then be erased rather than archived.
I have no idea, though, whether this still happened in 1985, or in Britain, or with Eastenders. Good luck with your search.
Yes tape was reused so a lot of sports stuff prior to the 70s is gone or maybe they just have highlights from games. The only Super Bowl 1 tape is owned by a guy whose father taped it. The NFL won’t buy it or let him sell it.
Yeah, the NFL are being real assholes about this. They fucked up, not saving it, but they want to get all in the guys face about compensation. It’s not like there are a million other super valuable things that the NFL archives lack, so they should not be afraid of setting a precedent. This is a unique situation. I’m not sure what the guy with the tape wanted but I’d only take cash, not a nebulous promise about tickets to all future Super Bowls or other stuff that the league could reneg on once they got the tape in their hands.