I'm a member of MTR, and I have searched for episodes of "The Secret Storm", but no luck. I can't believe that CBS was so stupid not to preserve those historic episodes featuring Joan Crawford! But then again, ALL of the networks were notorious for reusing the videotapes their soaps were recorded on after a period of time, with the rationale of "Tape's expensive, and besides, who the hell wants to see a soap opera rerun?" This was the practice (even with Proctor & Gamble!) until about 1979, when the networks and P&G finally began preserving its tapes with the new outlet of foreign syndication in mind. Of course, the success of the DS reruns in the 1970s was also a deciding factor. We should ALL be lucky that as an independent producer Dan Curtis was able to save his tapes!! This was also the case with "Strange Paradise" and both "Days Of Our Lives" and "The Young & The Restless", which are partly owned by Columbia Pictures Television. At MTR, you can see several color 1970s episodes of DOOL and Y&R, as their archives are complete- with DOOL, this goes back to show#1 in November 1965!! The "Days" folks have been able to use clips from the 60's & 70s in special episodes,, and all in color!! Back to the Crawford episodes- I do have a suspicion that there MAY be a color tape out there. Here's why: until 1969, "The Secret Storm" was owned & produced by its sponsor, American Home Products. There's every chance there may be some pre-'69 episodes in some tape vault.
Recently there was a big noise over the discovery of several hundred vintage "Hollywood Squares" shows from the 60s & 70s with Paul Lynde, Peter Marshall, Cliff "Charley Weaver" Arquette, Wally Cox & Rose Marie. You can thank -SUPRISE!- Jim Pierson for this. Apparently, he and some people were searching some LA tape vaults for any possible missing DS video masters before the DVD releases began, and came across the long- missing "Hollywood Squares" material. Since Joan Crawford made her appearances on "TSS" prior to the show's 1969 sale to CBS, there may be a slim chance that someone may have archived these episodes SOMEHERE. Believe me- stranger things have happened. Personally, I'm still holding out hope that there are color tapes of "General Hospital" from 1967-77 out there in a vault in either NY or LA. Let's not forget the miraculous recovery of the lost NODS footage......
