Father Knows Best – “The Promised Playhouse”
This is the most recent recovery of a “missing” episode of a television show that I am aware of, at least having to do with programs originally broadcast in the United States. There have been a whole bunch of recoveries of television shows in the United Kingdom this year (learn more at Missing-Episodes.com).
Shout! Factory announced the release of the first season of Father Knows Best in mid-December of 2007 (here is the official press release courtesy of TVShowsOnDVD.com). Home Media Magazine published an article on December 29th, 2007 about the release that included the following paragraph:
One caveat about the DVD, according to Shapiro, is that Shout! Factory couldn’t locate the original version of the episode “The Promised Playhouse,” and the version on the DVD is culled from a fifth-season episode that used the footage in a flashback.
Less than two weeks later, on January 9th, 2008 Home Media Magazine published a follow-up article with the news that an uncut version of the episode had been discovered:
However, upon reading the article a collector from Dallas realized he had a 16mm print of the original and loaned it to Shout! Factory.
According to Lorrie Shapiro, VP of DVD for Shout! Factory, both the original and abridged version will be offered on the DVD. The original is included in the “Play All” queue.
Just like that, a “missing” episode had been found. Obviously, the episode was never truly missing — it had been in the hands of a Dallas collector the entire time. It just took a little publicity to get get the collector in contact with Shout! Factory.
Related:
July 20th, 2009 at 5:19PM
I wonder WHICH 16mm print that Dallas collector has of “The Promised Playhouse” {January 23, 1955}- the original CBS network version for Lorillard’s Kent cigarettes….or a later repeat for a different sponsor [Scott? Lever Brothers? ABC prime-time/daytime repeat?]. I haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know….