Shot on Videotape: Social Issue Dramas Preserved by UCLA

The UCLA Film & Television Archive presents classic film and contemporary cinema in the Hammer's Billy Wilder Theater.

The introduction of videotape in the late 1950s promised television networks and local stations lower production budgets and the ability to recoup costs after shows aired by erasing tape stock for reuse. Sadly, this widely adopted practice resulted in untold number of broadcasts being lost forever, including episodes of such landmark programs as The Tonight Show. For this reason, much of the vintage TV programming that survives today on 2-inch videoreels can be considered something of a miracle.

On the positive side for videotape, lower production costs meant that ambitious, progressive works that might not be funded on film could be brought to the small screen via tape. Presented here are two rare videotape productions from the late 1960s and early 1970s examining social issues facing African American and Chicanx communities. Both programs serve as notable examples of the quality, inclusivity and reach that television is capable of, regardless of budget or medium of production.

—Mark Quigley, John H. Mitchell Television Archivist