The makers of the series no longer have permission for the archival footage they previously used of such key events as the historic protest marches or the confrontations with Southern police. Given Eyes on the Prize's tight budget, typical of any documentary, its filmmakers could barely afford the minimum five-year rights for use of the clips. That permission has long since expired, and the $250,000 to $500,000 needed to clear the numerous copyrights involved is proving too expensive.This is particularly dire now, because VHS copies of the series used in countless school curriculums are deteriorating beyond rehabilitation. With no new copies allowed to go on sale, "the whole thing, for all practical purposes, no longer exists," says Jon Else, a California-based filmmaker who helped produce and shoot the series and who also teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism of the University of California, Berkeley.
Meanwhile, (as has always been the case with late running popular shows) TV networks in the US are deliberately altering their schedules so that they over-run to prevent people successfully taping them. But any moron can set their timer to half an hour before and after the scheduled time. I've always done it. Since the 80s!
They're going right out of their way to stop people watching TV. It's obvious they don't want us to.
Soon we'll just buy/hire our TV shows on little portable discs and play our shows at any time we like on a special disc player. And these little discs will be excellent quality and we won't have to worry about reception or advertising or the shows being cut for time. Oh wait...
breath....