In an age where almost anything can be immediately found on the right website or channel, it can be shocking to hear that entire video games, music albums, or episodes of popular tv shows are missing. Known as lost media, these can be anything from an obscure Subway commercial to the original audio of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!. Though these may appear insignificant or trivial at first, lost media hunters devote themselves to finding these rare pieces in the hopes of archiving and properly preserving all history.
One of the most popular sci-fi series of all time, Doctor Who, has nearly 100 episodes that are currently lost in some capacity. This can be traced back to the BBC, as in the late 60’s and early 70’s, it was a common practice to wipe master tapes and record over them to save money on videotape. The BBC Film Library and BBC Enterprises were also confused as to whose job it was to preserve the show, and assuming the other was doing it, both parties continued throwing away their episodes for years. Between the years of 1967 and 1974, 156 episodes of the show were purposely destroyed. According to the Lost Media Wiki, the most popular site to discuss lost media, “They are arguably one of the most famous cases of lost media in modern history.”
While it may have looked hopeless for these episodes, things quickly took a turn for the better. In 2013, nine lost episodes were found in the back of a Nigerian TV station, the biggest find in almost thirty years. Two other episodes were found in the basement of a Mormon church in 1983, proving that, though finding these rare tapes can be difficult, things can appear in unexpected places.
In 1976, children’s television show Sesame Street decided to have Margaret Hamilton, famous for playing the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, guest star in an episode as her popular character. However, according to parents across America, the witch was a little too wicked, causing their young children to be frightened of the episode. After countless angry letters, Sesame Workshop took the episode off the air, never airing it in reruns or releasing it on home media. If anyone wanted to see the
Wicked Witch on Sesame Street, they would have to travel to the Library of Congress to view it. However, the episode was shown at 2019’s “Lost and Found” event, hosted by The Museum of the Moving Image. This was a historic event for the episode, though not many of the general public got to see it. In June of 2022, the full episode was anonymously leaked online, finally letting the world witness the performance that Margaret Hamilton wanted them to see.
As you can see, the lost media community is a diverse, rewarding, sometimes difficult place to be. It can take months, years, or even decades to find what you’re looking for, but when you do, the feeling is like nothing else. Things are constantly being rediscovered, even if they were once thought to be gone for good. So if you have your own memory of a movie, game, or commercial you can’t find anywhere, go ahead and start your search: you might just uncover something great!
If you have feedback or suggestions for future lost media stories, email CK Kirk at ironquillnews@gmail.com
