Rivaling the great library at
Alexandria (but not as burned up and crumbly) the Cable 8
Archives Room features over 128 boxes full of local access
videotapes.
The oldest extant tape,
Animal Rights: 'Whales,' was produced at the Bellingham
studio on April 1, 1985, back when the Internet was just a
glimmer in Al Gore's eye, and comedians like Roseanne Barr
and Morton Downey, Jr. were teaching America the true
meaning of the word, "annoying.''
Speaking of annoying, Curator of
the Cable 8 Archives Steve Saraceno had this to say
about his project archiving 21 years worth of local access
programming:
"Must...sleep. Must...cleanse...brain. "
Upon regaining consciousness,
Saraceno added: "Remember that eighteen-and-a-half minute
gap on the Watergate tapes? I found it. Filed under 'P,'
for 'Please don't impeach me.' Oddly enough there was no
mention of Watergate at all -- it's just Nixon and Haldeman
discussing the latest episode of Kojak."
The tape archiving took a month.
Upon completion of the project, Saraceno thought it might be
a nice idea to give the public another look at some of the
tapes in the archives, if only to remind them of how lucky
they were to miss the shows the first time around.
"It's not often in life you get a
second chance," Saraceno says glumly.
The opening installment of The
Cable 8 Archives focusses on the 1985 Animal Rights
'Whales' show produced by Mary de la Valette and Debra
Shuman, whoever they were. Retrospective notes by Saraceno at
the beginning and end of the program add historical
perspective.
"Activist shows like Animal
Rights led to the ban on whale hunting in 1986," Saraceno
observes. "Since then only 25,000 more whales have been
slaughtered and eaten. That's what I call progress."
The Cable 8 Archives
plays on Ch. 8 every Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Each month a different tape from the Archives will be
featured.
