Broadway cassette venture backs revival of dramas from archives
Originally published in Current, June 7, 1999
By Karen Everhart BedfordEfforts to bring back public TV's program gems of yesteryear have gained a much-needed benefactor. The Broadway Theater Archive, an upstart company with plans to bring Broadway to the masses via new technologies, recently announced a partnership with WNET to restore and distribute notable dramas from the station's extensive library.
The deal finances preservation of some 100 theatrical works produced by WNET since the mid-1960s, and provides for an as-yet-undetermined number to be rebroadcast on public TV. The Broadway Theater Archive, which is backed by former HBO Chairman Michael Fuchs, aims to recoup its investment through Internet sales of home videos and sales to overseas broadcasters.
WNET had helped PBS's archive project, which former CPB Television Program Fund Director Ron Hull completed last December. Hull identified drama programs as having the best come-back potential, and drafted a proposal requesting funding from foundations and corporations to aid rights acquisition. PBS has not acted on it.
"At the end of the day, we also knew we had to find partners with some money," said Susan Marchand, WNET's executive director of program marketing and distribution. "We were nervous because the programs were housed here, at PBS or the Library of Congress on these old two-inch quad tapes, which in some instances were starting to deteriorate. We were trying to figure out how to financially take care of these."
Enter Basil Hero and Andrew Greenspan, former television investigative reporters and cofounders of the Broadway Theater Archive. They are former boarding school roommates who had always wanted to start a business and, over hamburgers one day, hatched the idea of adapting Broadway productions for television using digital technology.
In researching their concept at the Museum of Television and Radio, they discovered that Time-Life and WNET held the largest libraries of TV specials adapted from Broadway plays. Time-Life's library held the commercial network dramas from the early years of television; WNET's featured Broadway and regional theater productions that had been restaged for NET Playhouse, Theater in America and Great Performances, many of these overseen by Jac Venza.
"Theater historians indicated to us that these were really priceless treasures," Hero recalled. Having screened many of dramas himself, he described them as "masterpieces that have withstood the test of time rather nicely."
Among the treasures are "Death of a Salesman," starring Lee J. Cobb from the original Broadway production, and "The Moon and Sixpence," with Laurence Olivier, both of which aired on commercial TV. WNET's gems include "Journey of the Fifth Horse," featuring Dustin Hoffman in his first starring role on television; Meryl Streep in "Secret Service," her TV debut, and in "Uncommon Women and Others," which was also notable as Wendy Wasserstein's first play; and Faye Dunaway, an actress then on the cusp of stardom in "Hogan's Goat."
The networks had "trashed" many of their old masters, and WNET lacked the means to preserve its dramas, Hero recalled.
"It became quite apparent that someone needed to come up with money to preserve these things before they were lost forever," Hero elaborated. "By aggregating them all into one archive under one marketing umbrella, we've created economies of scale that allow us to package these as a brand-name entity." Broadway, he noted is a "powerful brand."
"Essentially, we've had some of the best financial and marketing minds look at this and find a way to make it work," said Hero. The venture employs "cutting-edge marketing," using the Internet to market the archive directly to theater enthusiasts and educators. Middleman retailers who are unlikely to stock such niche products in the first place are cut out of the equation. "If it had not been for the Internet, I don't think this project would have been viable."
"Archaeological dig"
After identifying WNET as the holder of a major drama library, Hero and Greenspan "came running to us," recalled Marchand. After initial discussions, they agreed to fund the requisite archive research. "That allowed us to do something that we had wanted to do but been unable to."
Marchand likened combing the archives to an "archaeological dig": "it requires people to go into the library and spend a lot of time" looking for paperwork, establishing how many program elements require rights clearances, and determining the status of the master tape.
As a test, a couple of old masters were transferred to digital Beta. "The technician said, 'You're lucky you got them when you did. They're disintegrating.'"
The cost of transferring up to 100 dramas to digital could approach $4 million, estimated Marchand. An exact number is hard to set at this point, because the transfers may require color corrections, audio fixes and additional audio tracks, all of which jack up the price.
WNET is handling rights clearances, the cost of which also can range widely: from $20,000 for a "very small program" to $400,000 for a show with "high-end" music costs, according to Marchand. To simplify its task, the researchers are concentrating on programs that WNET already owns. "Ownership and clearance issues are much easier when all roads lead to us."
"Some of the programs, as much as we want to preserve them, they can't physically make it," Marchand added, "or clearing them is too complicated or expensive, we can't take that title out."
WNET's partnership with the Broadway Theater Archive secured the first broadcast window of the restored programs for public TV. WNET is proposing to present the dramas in its new series, <I>Stage on Screen<I>, which Venza is developing for PBS.
There's plenty more in the archives for WNET to rediscover, although classic arts programs, and now drama, are the station's priority. "Historically and culturally, the whole arts and cultural library is very evergreen and holds historical significance."
Elsewhere within WNET, David Wolfe in the new media group is developing a DVD-ROM of Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, which required production of a ninth episode to bring it up to date. Rights also are being cleared for public TV broadcast and homevideo. And WNET is pursuing rights to re-up "Lathe of Heaven," a sci-fi teleplay that Marchand described as "the most requested program of any that have appeared on public TV."
"That is a very special gem that we're working very hard to bring back," she commented. Without being specific, she said the task at hand is getting the "creatives" to agree. "We've made great strides and . . . our hope is it will have a very special airing on public TV."
Web page posted XXXXXXXXXX
Current
The newspaper about public television and radio
in the United States
A service of Current Publishing Committee, Takoma Park, Md.
E-mail: webcurrent.org
301-270-7240
Copyright 2000
