United! (lost British soap opera; 1965-1967): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:39, 29 February 2024

A rare still from one of the show's episodes.

Status: Lost

United! was a British soap opera produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967. It followed the life and times of Brentwich United, a fictional second division football team (soccer in America). The series made use of a nearby football field on the grounds of Stoke City in order to achieve as much authenticity for the series as possible. This backfired somewhat when a real-life football team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers, filed complaints that the series was based on their team.

This was the least of United's problems, however, as it was considered too soft for the male demographic despite the football angle, and too male-oriented for the female demographic because of the football angle. As such, United! was cancelled after two seasons. Despite only running for two years, United! managed to produce 147 episodes in the two years it was on the air, a pitiful amount compared to most soap operas, but still a sizable number of episodes. However, The BBC decided to wipe the master tapes for all episodes of the series, presumably around the same time they started wiping Doctor Who episodes, or perhaps a bit earlier.^[1]^[2]

Status

Today, despite a constant effort to find other lost media The BBC has wiped over the years, no episodes of United! have been discovered and the entire 147-episode series is missing. This could perhaps to be attributed to the fact that The BBC seems to have not distributed any of the series to any other country like it did with other shows that have been found over the years, though if this were the case, it is unlikely the public will ever see any of United! again.

References

External Links

[1] ttps://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/bbc-archives--gone-but-not-forgotten-1778128.html

[2] ttps://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/jan/13/sport.comment3

[1]

[2]

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-The BBC is no stranger to wiping and/or losing their programs. Up until the late 70s, they would wipe the master tapes of their own shows to record new material on, a cost saving measure that continued to be used in the 90s despite it commonly being stopped two decades earlier. Prolific shows missing large chunks of their episodes include comedy series such as ''Dad's Army'' and ''Not Only But Also'', one off specials such as ''The Mad House on Castle Street'' (in which Bob Dylan made his first acting appearence) and perhaps the most prolific example of this, 97 episodes of the classic Sci-Fi series ''Doctor Who''. Oddly enough, many writers on ''Doctor Who'' (such as Gerry Davis and Bryan Hayles) and even a couple of directors (Innes Lloyd and Derek Martinus) worked on a BBC soap opera called '''''United!''''' alongside their work on Doctor Who, and United! is missing far more than Doctor Who ever did.
+'''''United!''''' was a British soap opera produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967. It followed the life and times of Brentwich United, a fictional second division football team (soccer in America). The series made use of a nearby football field on the grounds of Stoke City in order to achieve as much authenticity for the series as possible. This backfired somewhat when a real-life football team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers, filed complaints that the series was based on their team.
-The premise for ''United!'' was fairly unconventional for a typical soap opera-it followed the life and times of Brentwich United, a fictional second division football team (soccer in America). The series made use of a nearby football field on the grounds of Stokes City in order to achieve as much authenticity for the series as possible. This backfired somewhat when a real life football team, the Wolvenhampton Wanderers, filed complaints that the series was based on their team.
+This was the least of ''United's'' problems, however, as it was considered too soft for the male demographic despite the football angle, and too male-oriented for the female demographic because of the football angle. As such, ''United!'' was cancelled after two seasons. Despite only running for two years, ''United!'' managed to produce 147 episodes in the two years it was on the air, a pitiful amount compared to most soap operas, but still a sizable number of episodes. However, The BBC decided to wipe the master tapes for all episodes of the series, presumably around the same time they started wiping ''Doctor Who'' episodes, or perhaps a bit earlier.<ref>https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/bbc-archives--gone-but-not-forgotten-1778128.html</ref><ref>https://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/jan/13/sport.comment3</ref>
-This was the least of ''United!'''s problems however, as it was considered too soft for the male demographic despite the football angle, and too male-oriented for the female demographic because of the football angle. As such, ''United!'' was cancelled after two seasons. Despite only running for two years, ''United!'' managed to produce 147 episodes in the two years it was on air, a pitiful amount compared to most soap operas, but still a sizable amount of episodes. However, The BBC decided to wipe the master tapes for all episodes of the series, presumably around the same time they started wiping ''Doctor Who'' episodes, or perhaps a bit earlier.
+==Status==
+Today, despite a constant effort to find other lost media The BBC has wiped over the years, no episodes of ''United!'' have been discovered and the entire 147-episode series is missing. This could perhaps to be attributed to the fact that The BBC seems to have not distributed any of the series to any other country like it did with other shows that have been found over the years, though if this were the case, it is unlikely the public will ever see any of ''United!'' again.
-Today, despite a constant effort to find other lost media The BBC has wiped over the years, no episodes for ''United!'' have been discovered and the entire 147 episode series is missing. This could perhaps to be attributed to the fact that The BBC seems to have not distributed any of the series to any other country like it did with other shows that have been found over the years, though if this were the case, it is unlikely the public will ever see any of ''United!'' again.
+==See Also==
+===Association Football/Soccer Media===
+*[[1937 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1937)]]
+*[[1938 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1938)]]
+*[[1939 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1939)]]
+*[[1947 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1947)]]
+*[[1955 Scottish Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1955)]]
+*[[1966 FIFA World Cup Final (partially found original colour film of international football match; 1966)]]
+*[[Arsenal 7-1 Hibernian (lost footage of charity football match; 1952)]]
+*[[Arsenal vs Arsenal Reserves (lost footage of early BBC televised football match; 1937)]]
+*[[Barbados 4–2 Grenada (partially found soccer match footage; 1994)]]
+*[[Barnet 3-2 Wealdstone (lost footage of Athenian League football match; 1946)]]
+*[[Brian Clough's Football Fortunes (lost DOS port of football management game; 1987)]]
+*[[Charlton Athletic 1-0 Blackburn Rovers (lost footage of FA Cup match; 1947)]]
+*[[England 0-1 Scotland (partially found footage of international football match; 1938)]]
+*[[England 1-1 Scotland (partially found footage of international football match; 1947)]]
+*[[England 3-0 France (partially found footage of international football match; 1947)]]
+*[[England 3-0 Rest of Europe (partially found footage of international football match; 1938)]]
+*[[Falkirk 3-2 Newcastle United (lost footage of football match; 1953)]]
+*[[Hallo! Bundesliga (lost GolTV series; mid 2000s-mid 2010s)]]
+*[[Juventus 1-7 A.C. Milan (partially found footage of Serie A football match; 1950)]]
+*[[Scottish Universities 1-1 English Universities (lost footage of international football match; 1952)]]
+*[[Serbia vs Albania (found footage of abandoned UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match; 2014)]]
+===Other Soap Operas===
+*[[Beacon Hill (lost television soap opera; 1975)]]
+*[[Coronation Street "Episode 1202" (lost episode of ITV soap opera; 1972)]]
+*[[The Corsairs (lost pilot for ABC soap opera; 2002)]]
+*[[Dark Shadows "1219" (partially found episode of gothic soap opera TV series; 1971)]]
+*[[EastEnders (lost broadcast tapes of BBC soap opera; 1986; 1989)]]
+*[[EastEnders (lost footage of Frances Cuka's scenes and Barbara Windsor's auditions as Peggy Mitchell; 1991-1994)]]
+*[[EastEnders (lost footage of Jean Fennell as Angie Watts; 1984)]]
+*[[El Oasis (partially found Latin American telenovela; 1994-1997)]]
+*[[Emmerdale Farm (lost episodes of ITV soap opera; existence unconfirmed; 1981)]]
+*[[Executive Suite (partially found television soap opera; 1976-1977)]]
+*[[Faraway Hill (lost early soap opera; 1946)]]
+*[[Florizel Street (lost dry runs of Coronation Street; 1960)]]
+*[[Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato (lost Filipino TV soap opera; 1962-1963)]]
+*[[Models Inc. (found primetime soap opera; 1994-1995)]]
+*[[Neighbours "Episode 3896" (partially found episode of Australian soap opera; 2001)]]
+*[[O Direito de Nascer (lost adaptation of a radio play to TV; 1964)]]
+*[[Pardon the Expression (lost pilots of Coronation Street sitcom spin-off; 1965)]]
+*[[Seven, Bessie Street (partially found soap opera script of Coronation Street creator; pre-1957)]]
+*[[Springhill (partially lost second series of British soap opera; 1997)]]
+==References==
+{{reflist}}
+==External Links==
+*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United!
+*https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164301/
 [[Category:Lost TV]]
+[[Category:Completely lost media]]