All viewing is by advance appointment. One may wonder why there are so few episodes of certain popular early situation comedies while there is a full run of another. Technology One of the obstacles to acquisition of early television programming was a technological one. Although the image they reveal is fuzzy and distorted, kines preserve not only the production, but also a spontaneity only found in the live productions of early television.
Kinescopes are scarce and desirable.
Many producers of early television programs did not seek to register their programs, seeing little long-term commercial value for their product, or deciding that cumulative costs of registering whole series were too high. But syndication often took place years after the initial broadcast and may have involved many different corporate entities. Most programs such as talk shows, sporting events, news, variety and game shows were only aired once and never syndicated at all, so these technicalities tended to emphasize the registration of prime-time entertainment series, as opposed to programs aired only once. More important, due to syndication agreements, new markets for public sale of copies of programs, and anti-piracy enforcement, an increase in the number of copyright registrations for television materials began in the 1970s, and more television became available to the Library than ever before. So, a complex mix of copyright-related issues, interacting with other factors, account in large part for the sporadic development of the television collection in the Library.