Good evening, this is a Channel One news bulletin.
In response to our "Endangered List" report on the original Channel One tapes and subsequent e-mail enquiry two weeks ago, we received this very nice response from Channel One/GROOVE TUBE co-creator Lane Sarasohn:
Hi, Chris --
Thanks for writing and for your interest in Channel One. The original Channel One shows were done on very primitive video equipment in the late sixties. I have some of the original tapes, but the machines to play them haven't worked in many years. Some were copied onto Betamax and from there onto VHS, but most have severe tracking problems. My former partner, Ken Shapiro, has copies of most of the shows, but his copies are no better than mine. GROOVE TUBE was a "best of" Channel One re-done in 35mm for the big screen, so things like Kramp Kitchen and Sex Olympics are much, much better than the grainy black and white originals. But there are a bunch of things done for Channel One that didn't get into the GROOVE TUBE for one reason or another and some are quite good. I've had some success in the past year making transfers of some pieces from VHS to DVD and from there capturing them onto my computer as mpgs. Little by little, I'm hoping to salvage as much as possible of the old shows. I know there are some companies around that maintain obsolete equipment for making transfers of video in obsolete formats.
I hadn't really thought of posting the Channel One material on YouTube, but after receiving your email, I think I might do that. I need to re-do all the videos that I have on my YouTube page now, because the picture quality and audio level is poor on almost all of them. When I get around to it, I'll also include some of the old black and white sketches from Channel One. I'll keep your email and send you a note when I get to that. It could be several months. I'm in the middle of another project.
Thanks for writing and for your interest in Channel One. The original Channel One shows were done on very primitive video equipment in the late sixties. I have some of the original tapes, but the machines to play them haven't worked in many years. Some were copied onto Betamax and from there onto VHS, but most have severe tracking problems. My former partner, Ken Shapiro, has copies of most of the shows, but his copies are no better than mine. GROOVE TUBE was a "best of" Channel One re-done in 35mm for the big screen, so things like Kramp Kitchen and Sex Olympics are much, much better than the grainy black and white originals. But there are a bunch of things done for Channel One that didn't get into the GROOVE TUBE for one reason or another and some are quite good. I've had some success in the past year making transfers of some pieces from VHS to DVD and from there capturing them onto my computer as mpgs. Little by little, I'm hoping to salvage as much as possible of the old shows. I know there are some companies around that maintain obsolete equipment for making transfers of video in obsolete formats.
I hadn't really thought of posting the Channel One material on YouTube, but after receiving your email, I think I might do that. I need to re-do all the videos that I have on my YouTube page now, because the picture quality and audio level is poor on almost all of them. When I get around to it, I'll also include some of the old black and white sketches from Channel One. I'll keep your email and send you a note when I get to that. It could be several months. I'm in the middle of another project.
Thanks again for writing.
Lane
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