Lost episode
Encyclopedia
A lost episode of a television series or radio series
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...

 is one which is, or was at one point, not available for rerun
Rerun
A rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...

 or release on home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...

 or DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

. In some cases, the term is something of a misnomer
Misnomer
A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue. Such incorrect terms sometimes derive their names because of the form, action, or origin of the subject becoming named popularly or widely referenced—long before their true natures were known.- Sources of misnomers...

, used to describe an episode that for any number of reasons was not aired in its original chronological place and later publicly released. It can also refer to episodes that, after their original airing, could not be rerun for various reasons, or episodes that were not, strictly speaking, part of the series, or to episodes which were wiped
Wiping
Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...

 and no longer exist in an archive.
Some creepypastas include "lost episodes" typically taped on a VHS tape.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...

, originally scheduled to be the 39th episode in the 1961-62 season of the show, never aired on the NBC Television network. This was because the finale, by 1960s standards, was deemed "too gruesome" by the network and sponsor Revlon
Revlon
Revlon is an American cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company founded in 1932.-History:Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name...

. The episode eventually was released in the program's syndication package to affiliate stations.

Ironically, the episode once denied "broadcastability" is probably now the most seen episode of all those produced. Due to interpretations of the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

 status of the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

 for this piece, it has turned up in numerous VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 releases attached to the Hitchcock name, including the Alfred Hitchcock, The Legend Begins DVD set.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

's
lost episode is "The Stranded
The Stranded
"The Stranded" is the twenty-seventh episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the tenth episode of the show's third season. It first aired on November 27, 1991...

", which was taped during the second season, but as the filmmakers did not like the results, they aired it during the third season. The episode is included on the Seasons 1 & 2 box set.

Get Smart

Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

had lost episodes of a different sort: a dispute over copyright ownership of much of the final season of the series (after it was cancelled by NBC and picked up by CBS) was resolved by restricting the syndication licensing of most of the season, limiting them to no more than three airings per station, and imposing reporting requirements on those airings. With most stations either using up their allotment of airings early, or simply refusing to air the affected episodes, they went unseen for many years. In addition, the black-and-white pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

, which was of odd length, and differed significantly from the format of the actual series, was almost never aired.

Married... with Children

Married... with Children
Married... with Children
Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...

has one episode that was dubbed as "lost," because the Fox network refused to air it. The third season episode, titled "I'll See You in Court
I'll See You in Court
"I'll See You in Court" is the tenth episode of the third season from the TV comedy series Married... with Children. The episode follows the Bundys' attempts to improve their love life by having marital relations in a different setting. While staying at the Hop-On-Inn, the Bundys discover a...

", went unaired by Fox due to reservations over its subject matter. It was aired by FX
FX Networks
FX is the name of a number of related pay television channels owned by News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group...

 cable network in 2002 and included in the show's DVD collection.

Family Guy

Two episodes of Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

 have faced issues with airing over controversy in the episode. One of them, Partial Terms of Endearment
Partial Terms of Endearment
"Partial Terms of Endearment" is the twenty-first episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. Directed by Joseph Lee and written by Danny Smith, the episode originally aired on BBC Three in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2010, and has not been allowed to air in the United...

, was unaired due to its focus on abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

. The other went unaired for a while because of Peter trying to convert his son.

Dollhouse

A recent example of a lost episode is "Epitaph One
Epitaph One
"Epitaph One" is the thirteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Dollhouse. This episode became available on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 28, 2009...

," the thirteenth episode in Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...

's 2009 Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 series Dollhouse
Dollhouse (TV series)
Dollhouse is an American science fiction television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon under Mutant Enemy Productions. It premiered on February 13, 2009, on the Fox network and was officially cancelled on November 11, 2009. The final episode aired on January 29, 2010...

featuring frequent Whedon collaborators Eliza Dushku
Eliza Dushku
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...

 and Felicia Day
Felicia Day
Kathryn Felicia Day is an American actress, known for her work as "Vi" on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and for parts in movies such as Bring It On Again and June, as well as the Internet musical, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog...

. The episode was originally intended to air as the final episode of the show's first season, possibly even the final episode of the series, but eventually went completely unaired by Fox, despite the series getting picked up for a second season later that summer. This was due to different contractual obligations between the television network and 20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...

, the studio that produced the series, as 20th needed a total of 13 episodes of Dollhouse for the DVD release and for licensing purposes in foreign markets. The network, however, had already paid for but scrapped the show's original pilot episode, "Echo," and considered it a part of the show's 13-episode agreement, despite "Echo" being overwritten in the actual series by a new pilot episode. Therefore, Fox only aired the first 12 episodes of Dollhouse and 20th Century Fox instead opted to promote "Epitaph One" as a special incentive for international fans and American fans who purchased the DVD release.

Postcards from Buster

The episode of the PBS children's show Postcards from Buster
Postcards from Buster
Postcards from Buster is a children's television series for children aged 6-12, containing both animation and live-action that originally aired on Public Broadcasting Service . It is a spin-off of the Arthur cartoon series. The show stars Arthur's best friend, 8-year-old rabbit Buster Baxter...

 entitled Sugar Time was banned by some (but not all) affliates because of children with gay parents appearing. This caused the loss of government funding and eventually cancellation of the series.

Dragon Ball GT

The English adaptation of the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

, or Japanese cartoon (show), Dragon Ball GT, made by FUNimation Entertainment
FUNimation Entertainment
Funimation is an American entertainment company. Originally founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, the company became a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005...

, ran on Cartoon Network between 2003 and 2005, but it had a major alteration: the first sixteen episodes of the series, making up the "Black Star Dragon Ball Saga," were cut and replaced by a single, US-only episode, which summarized the saga; this became the new series premiere. This edit was implemented by FUNimation to prevent viewers from possibly being put-off by these differently-toned early episodes, which were more in tone with the first series of the Dragon Ball franchise, Dragon Ball, which featured less fighting and more humor. The missing episodes have since been released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 as the "Lost Episodes."

Pokémon

An episode of the popular anime Pokémon
Pokémon (anime)
, abbreviated from , is a children's TV anime series, which has since been adapted for the North and South American, Australian and European television markets...

, with the episode being titled "Beauty and the Beach", was dubbed "lost" when it aired on Kids' WB
Kids' WB
Kids' WB! was Warner Bros. American childrens programing division brand for The WB Television Network. In September 2006, the block moved to The CW Television Network. The CW is the result of The WB's merger with UPN in 2006...

 in 2000, as the episode was never shown outside either the US or Japan due to its subject matter. When it aired on Kids' WB, the scenes where James shows off his "breasts" were removed from the airing. The episode itself only reran once in the U.S. and has not been shown ever since.

Similary, another episode, titled "Yureru Shima no Tatakai! Dojoach VS Namazun!!", was left unaired in Japan when the plot of the episode became too similar to the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake
2004 Chuetsu earthquake
The occurred at 5:56 p.m. on Saturday, October 23, 2004 . The Japan Meteorological Agency has named it the Heisei 16 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake or The Mid Niigata Prefecture Earthquake of 2004...

. Also, four episodes of Pokémon Advanced were left unaired, as a three month hiatus happened before the next season began before the episodes ever aired.

Other lost episodes of Pokemon include The Legend of Dragtini for its use of guns, Holiday Hijinx for presumed racial sterotypes, and Tentacool and Tentracruel because of similarities between it and 9/11.

Some missing episodes cause a hole in the plot (i.e. Ash gets a Hoenn league badge from nowhere).

Mr. Show

One episode of the 1990s sketch-comedy series Mr. Show
Mr. Show
Mr. Show with Bob and David is an American sketch comedy series featuring former Saturday Night Live writer/actor Bob Odenkirk and stand up comedian/actor David Cross...

, "Oh, You Men", parodied the concept of a lost episode by working on the pretense that the episode would be aired and then intentionally lost in order to foster future nostalgia.

Dexter's Laboratory

An episode of Monkey (Dial M for Monkey: Barbequor) from an early episode of Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Cartoon Network Studios . The show is about a boy named Dexter who has an enormous secret laboratory filled with an endless collection of his inventions...

was banned from the air in the United States, Canada, and temporarily in the UK. In this episode, Krunk from the Justice Friends is seen drinking alcohol, getting intoxicated, and eventually throwing up. It also features a possibly homosexual character named the "Silver Spooner". The later episode "Dexter's Lab: A Story" aired in its place.

Since its banning, it was aired once in the United States on Friday, August 23, 2002 on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (United States)
Cartoon Network is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting which primarily airs animated programming. The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 after Turner purchased the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991...

.

It still airs without a problem in several countries around the world, namely Latin America and the Philippines.

Mystery Science Theater 3000

For years, K00 - The Green Slime
The Green Slime
is a 1968 science-fiction film produced by MGM in the United States and shot in Japan at the studios of Toei Company by director Kinji Fukasaku. The film was spearheaded by the same creative team who produced similar Italian outings including Wild, Wild Planet, Ivan Reiner and Walter...

 was considered a "lost episode", due to unknown existing fan copies. In reality, it was just never shown on television. The pilot was later shown to the public on October 3, 2008 by Joel Hodgson
Joel Hodgson
Joel Gordon Hodgson is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007 MST3K was listed as "one of the top 100 television shows of all time" by Time.com...

 in its entirety at Archon 23. There are still 2 possible different versions of the pilot, however, as some of the clips in the copy of the episode shown at Archon 23 had some slightly different dialogue from the versions of 2 host segments, one being a clip of the 3rd host segment seen at a 1994 convention, the other a brief clip of the 1st host segment from the 20th Anniversary boxset DVD. Episodes K01 - Invaders from the Deep
Stingray (TV series)
Stingray is a children's marionette television show, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment from 1964–65. Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ITV in the UK and in syndication in the USA. The scriptwriters included Gerry and...

, K02 - Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars is a 1981 television film incorporating re-edited footage from the 1967 British Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Created by ITC Entertainment's New York offices, the film is a compilation of the original episodes "Shadow of...

 and K03 - Star Force: Fugetive Alien II
Star Wolf (TV series)
Star Wolf is a Japanese science fiction TV series inspired by the novel series bearing the same name, by American writer Edmond Hamilton...

 have always been considered lost episodes, also due to unknown existing fan copies. The only host segments known to those episodes are 2 host segments from K01 (seen in the intro theme, a flashback in K17 - Time of the Apes, a montage in K15 - Superdome and the genises section of Mst3k.com), 4 host segments from K02 (seen on the Mst3k Scrapbook tape, the genises section, and the montage), and 4 host segments from K03 (seen in the intro theme, the genises section, and the Mst3k Scrapbook tape).

JAG

The first season finale entitled Skelton Crew of naval drama JAG
JAG
JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions...

 was not shown by NBC before the network change
Network change
The term network change refers to the phenomenon in which a television series moves from one network to another. Generally this term only refers to original episodes of a series; repeats of a long-running series will usually be picked up by other channels in syndication, often before the series...

 or CBS after it. The exact reason for it never airing is unknown.

Abuse of the term

Often, some venues such as entertainment news programs like Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...

will misuse the term 'lost episode' or 'lost tapes' in order to bring more attention to a feature story on something such as an older series or film, or an actor in their early years, using archive footage from their library, as if the footage was discarded after its first use. However in most cases tapes and footage used on these programs are properly cataloged and stored as they were created after 1979, a time when program archiving was starting to pick up steam, and are usually found easily within a program's archives. Sometimes the term is used by a program's network to describe an episode which had not cleared standards and practices for many years and is just airing for the first time (like "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein
When You Wish upon a Weinstein
"When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" is an episode of the animated television sitcom Family Guy that would have first aired in 2000, but due to concerns about its content it was not aired until November 9, 2003, when it was broadcast on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. It was later aired on Fox on...

", an episode of Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

).

External links

  • Missing EpisodeTV Tropes
    TV Tropes
    TV Tropes is a wiki which collects and expands on various conventions and devices found within creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has gone from covering only television and film tropes to also covering those in a number of other media such as literature, comics, video-games,...

    page
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