Public to Gain Access to Television Archives

Officials of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the UCLA Film and Television Archive unveiled Wednesday a multi-faceted co-venture for opening the nation’s largest television archive to the general public for the first time.

UCLA maintains a 25,000-program archive in partnership with the academy, but access to it is primarily limited to researchers. That situation is expected to change dramatically by mid-1990, when a study center housed in the academy’s new North Hollywood headquarters will be opened to provide added viewing facilities and related research resources for both serious students and curious TV fans.

The basis for announcing the expansion plans was the signing of a new, long-term agreement between the academy and UCLA, academy president Doug Duitsman said during a morning press conference in Hollywood. The new agreement, which was reached after two years of negotiations, follows an earlier, 24-year-old agreement under which UCLA acted as the repository for TV programs collected by both institutions.

“With this agreement, the Television Academy and UCLA have taken a great step forward,” said Robert Rosen, director of UCLA’s Film and Television Archive. “Both institutions are now ready to develop co-sponsored activities which will enrich the community’s sense of television as an art form.

“There’s more to TV than nostalgia,” Rosen added. “It’s also the window on our culture (that) future generations will look back on.”

The major aspects of the new Academy-UCLA co-venture include:

An attempt to serve industry professionals, TV researchers and the general public. Jerry Weiss, chairman of the academy’s archive committee, said that researchers can make special arrangements to view complete program series at either UCLA or the center while the general public can expect to have immediate viewing access to a collection of programs reproduced for the North Hollywood center.

A regular screening series at the Academy’s 600-seat viewing theater, where the public will have the opportunity to view selected archival programs, beginning with the center’s inaugural screening of recently restored “Mr. Peepers” programs, starring Wally Cox. Other programs slated for regular center screening will include in-depth retrospectives of Television Academy Hall of Famers such as Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar, Steve Allen and Johnny Carson.

Increased preservation efforts to restore programs, which will include the transference of programs on kinescope and, if necessary, constructing equipment for viewing programs presently preserved by antiquated recording techniques.

Weiss said that the academy has set aside an annual budget of $100,000 for preservation purposes, but he added that the amount could be increased by the time the center’s door’s open.

In addition, the academy has donated $150,000 to establish a foundation that will raise money for funding the center and other joint Academy-UCLA Archive preservation and research projects, said James L. Loper, the academy’s executive director.