There are 6 episodes of Flashez existing in the ABC archives - 4 were donated by Ray Burgess and the other 2 were donated by one of its producers, they are:

02/08/1976 - first episode

1977 - undated

23/03/1977

23/05/1977

22/08/1977

8/11/1977

2/12/1977 - final episode no. 425

Every other episode has unfortunately been wiped forever - although there are dozens of filmed segments still existing, such as the 'Pool Safety' one Rage showed on Saturday.

But if anyone has any ancient video cassettes from the 70's then you never know, some old eps may be on them with any luck........

According to the 1970scountdown site there are 500 Flashez clips in the archives Couldn't believe my eyes when I read that as I thought there were maybe 30 or so clips remaining so needless to say I'm ecstatic.

These 500 Flashez clips are film segments - a few of which have been seen on Rage so far last Summer and this one. It is unbelievable that they have 500 of them though - it virtually means they have them all from every broadcast show!! Unfortunately, all the music clips and performances and the remaining complete shows, bar the 6 listed, are gone forever.

Out of the 6 surviving shows, 2 have already been re-screened on Rage, strong odds that the remaining 4 will also get an airing by this Summer or next.

The episode of Flashez shown last Saturday was in excellent condition. Was this one of the ones recorded by or for Ray Burgess?

The episode shown last year was watchable but not in the same excellent condition.

It does give Doctor Who fans hope as well. We were behind the UK it appears with broadcasting (for instance the opening COuntdown episode for 1979 indicates that they were only about to show season 15 here and they were making season 18 or about to that year. While no now missing material appears to have been shown on the ABC here in Oz after 1972, I wonder if any of the Pertwees which now only exist in black and white were shown in colour after 1976? Some could have even been recorded on domestic video machines.

While it is probably unlikely it is not improbable that more countdowns or flashez or any number of missing shows could turn up in the future. There's probably a window of shelf life but from the looks of this Flashez material we are still within that window of opportunity.

I AGREE!


When watching Flashez on Saturday night I was commenting to a friend on how very clear and amazing the condition of the Flashez episode was!

I can remember during mid 1977 doing video production at secondary college in Canberra we had a Sony u-Matic machine. I stayed after school & came in on the weekend & taped several editions of Flashez and Countdown on two tapes I set aside on top of a filing cabinet in the control room out of sight of everybody. I always intended to snaffle the tapes but never did. I left school that year & entered the workforce. Years later when I heard about the great ABC purge of 1982 I remembered those tapes on top of the filing cabinet and a lost opportunity

You actually went into school on the weekend and taped Countdown at 6pm Sunday! How did you get away with that? Was your Dad the janitor or something? Do you still reside in Canberra? and what school was it?

I had an arrangement with the janitor and the media teacher. I was let in to use the equipment by the janitor at around 5PM (his flat was part of the school building, I just knocked on his door n he let me in). It was Phillip College in Canberra. Of course it would be unthinkable for something like that to happen nowadays with the hysteria about pedophilia and teacher-student sex (not that anything like that happened, of course).

rightio then - I will be going to Phillip College to see what I can find!

If anyone is interested in seeing a SONY U-MATIC video recording system then try this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Dw68m4QHo

I'd never seen one before. Brilliant stuff.

Hi Mark,

Just to answer this question, I have added a few links to articles that have been published online about Flashez discoveries & recoveries...

http://wipednews.com/features/john-williams-on-finding-flashez/

&...

http://wipednews.com/2009/07/27/wiped-website-assists-in-recovery-of-missing-material/

All surviving Flashez film sourced stories (& that's most of them), inserts, as well as a smattering of music clips (in great condition I might add) were transferred from film to digital-betacam, so there are quite a number of goodies there for future broadcast (thanks to the efforts of Simon Kain).

Aside from Ray Burgess' very kind & very much welcome donations, I traced x2 formerly missing Flashez episodes, plus have been in receipt of some further segment donations from former Flashez producers Virginia Lumsden (who also donated a swag of formerly missing Mr Squiggles to us...but that's another story), & Ralph Montague. I am presently checking with a few former Flashez staff to see what they might have of the show. We also received a donation of an improved quality episode of the final program early last year.

Generally (though not exclusively), a few of the previous Flashez clips re-broadcast in the 90s/2000s were drawn from material that was, in some instances, used in various docos & were not always exclusive (as a fair whack of Flashez material existed only on untransferred film for some time), so I was thrilled when Rage added a full, not seen since its original b'cast, Flashez episode for Retro month in '09, & then another two this year (plus some great surviving film segs).

ps if any Flashez material turns up in the nation's capital please let us know