The New Leave it to Beaver was a reboot of the original Leave it to Beaver series which aired from 1957 to 1963 on CBS and ABC. Every New Leave it to Beaver expert reading this will tell almost immediately, that I am not in their class when it comes to New Leave it to Beaver knowledge. I will probably get a few details about the show wrong below, not for a lack of trying, but the focus of this article is why the New Leave it to Beaver show has not been on the air in syndication for almost three decades, and I think I’ve got most of these details correct.
The original series starring Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver has never been off the air since it first twinkled onto television sets on the evening of October 4th 1957. It ended its summer reruns in September 1963 on ABC and then went immediately into syndication on various TV stations in the fall of 1963 and has never left the airwaves since. Contrast that with The New Leave it to Beaver which ended its run on TBS in 1989 and then went into syndication in 1990 in various U.S. Cities such as Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Reno, Portland, Miami and Albany among others. It was also syndicated in Scotland, Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. By 1994, the show was syndicated in various U.S. and Canadian cities which carried the Tribune owned superstation KTLA, but few other independent stations ran the show in syndication. By 1995, the show was no longer syndicated anywhere.
Qintex Entertainment
Around the time the The New Leave it to Beaver left the airwaves at the conclusion of their last season in 1989, the rights to syndicate the show were sold to Qintex Entertainment in an 8 year 35 million dollar deal. They had been previously been successful in co-producing the movie Lonesome Dove and even made a bid to purchase MGM Studios. Qintex had previously purchased RHI (Robert Halami Inc.) which had purchased Hal Roach Studios. This purchase also gave Qintex 50% interest in Colorization Inc., a pioneering firm in film colorization.
Qintex came to an agreement in 1989 to purchase the syndication rights to The New Leave it to Beaver and the rights to colorize the original Leave it to Beaver series, The Munsters and McHale’s Navy. However, the company fell on bad economic times and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. In January 1990, the American Qintex operation came to an agreement with MCA/Universal and returned the rights to The New Leave it to Beaver and the rights to colorize Leave it to Beaver, McHale’s Navy and The Munsters.
Where are the reruns?
So, where are the reruns of The New Leave it to Beaver? Why are they not seen on television? Are there any better copies out there other than what is seen on YouTube? The answers vary on why the episodes have not been seen since 1994.
It is possible that the master tapes for the series were burned in the Universal Studios fire in 2008 that destroyed lots of recordings of TV shows, films and musical recordings. While the New York times which has been accused of publishing lots of fake political news, the fake news may have started with an article about the fire which listed over 700 artists who lost recordings. However, this has been proven to be untrue. So, the fire is one possibility why reruns of The New Leave it to Beaver have not been seen. Also, not understanding how these rights were sold and understanding any of the syndication business as it was in the late 1980s, I wonder if the tapes would have been transferred to the company syndicating the series? Would that have been to the parent company in Australia? When they declared bankruptcy, would they have had possession of the master tapes? I doubt that was the case, but it is something I am unclear about.
But, what if the tapes were lost? Whether due to a fire, or they were lost during bankruptcy proceedings, or maybe some intern filed them away in a trash can accidentally, what would prevent copies of the ¾ inch U-Matic recordings that are deposited at the Library of Congress from being copied and then distributed in syndication?
I’ve contacted NBCUniversal and have been given the runaround when asking about syndication of The New Leave it to Beaver. Maybe I should try again. Maybe I should contact the man who was president of Qintex at the time the rights to the show were returned to Universal. Maybe I should call back NBCUniversal. I’ve asked FETV if they would be interested in showing The New Leave it to Beaver, but they said no. There just doesn’t seem to be much interest in broadcasting the show except from some die-hard fans and of course, some stars of the show since they would receive residual checks that they no longer receive from the original Leave it to Beaver episodes.
You can watch The New Leave it to Beaver
While the show is not available for digital downloads, and not available on DVD or on classic TV stations like METV or FETV, anyone who wants to watch The New Leave it to Beaver can do so at GSTV. The recordings are in chronological order, beginning with the Still the Beaver movie. The recordings were made by Scott Hettrick and are also directly available on his youtube channel.
If you want to watch higher quality videos, you can always visit the Library of Congress and watch them in a little room, where you can’t take your phone to record them. No recording is allowed as they are still under copyright.
If I learn more about The New Leave it to Beaver, I’ll make sure to update this article.
