The Broadcast American Radio and Television Script Library™

[Dan Dassow]

http://www.broadcastartslibrary.com/about.html

The Broadcast American Radio and Television Script Library™ is certainly the definitive library of American radio and television scripts and related material. Our mission statement is simple yet lofty: To have an original script (or rundown, including all revisions) from every written episode of every television and radio production from the beginnings of broadcasting in the 1920's through to our current popular shows of today – basically, to accumulate a comprehensive history of the two media for the first eighty-five years of their existence.

Unfortunately, historians have often considered broadcasting a by-product of the film industry, and we are aware of no institution that has endeavored to do what it is that we are doing. There are some fine libraries with film script inventories (most notably at USC and UCLA) and even other libraries that have selected television and radio scripts. Yet, there is no focused effort anywhere to accumulate a complete television and radio script archive. Even the Museum of Television and Radio is more concerned with preserving video and recorded copies of shows rather than the source material that we seek. It is our desire to archive the paper treasures that were part of the creation of our shared television and radio memories and to celebrate the important achievements of broadcasting's pioneers. As a national library, The Broadcast ARTS Library™ stands alone in its commitment and resources to do just that.

Over 3000 series totaling more than 100,000 scripts are represented in the archive - literally millions of pages of television and radio writing. We have obtained scripts from artists working in every field of the industry including Producers, Directors, Writers, Actors, Special Effects men…even past Presidents of the Writer's Guild. Featured are such diverse highlights as creator Buddy Arnold's scripts from "The Texaco Star Theatre" (aka "The Milton Berle Show"); Johnny Carson's scripts from "The Tonight Show"; Robert Keeshan's scripts from "Captain Kangaroo"; and head-writer Al Schwartz's incredible World War II era radio scripts from "The Bob Hope Show". It is our intention that this library be the most important place where the serious study of television and radio will occur. What an amazing resource it is!

You may well ask, how does this relate to jmsnews?

Babylon 5 is among the scripts mentioned in the Broadcast ARTS Library Script Collection.

This is the list of scripts in the collection:
http://www.broadcastartslibrary.com/...pt_library.pdf

[Jan]

Oooooohhhh....I wanna go there! Too bad they list how many episodes were produced but not how many they have.

Maybe this would be a good place for my collection some day.

Thanks, Dan!

Jan

[glindros]

I wonder which version of the scripts they actually have, and who donated them?

[Dan Dassow]

Originally Posted by glindros

I wonder which version of the scripts they actually have, and who donated them?

If you really want to know, you could contact them. I've already contacted them concerning Marblehead Manor. It would probably be impolite for me to press for details about Babylon 5.

[Dan Dassow]

Originally Posted by Dan Dassow

If you really want to know, you could contact them. I've already contacted them concerning Marblehead Manor. It would probably be impolite for me to press for details about Babylon 5.

Here is there response:

Dear Mr. Dassow,
Unfortunately we are unable to provide copies of our scripts. As firm believers in protecting the copyright, we have a strict "NO COPY" policy in the Library. However, if you find yourself in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, you are more than welcome to come by and look at them. In regards to who you should contact, it is entirely possible that the writers still have copies of their scripts and could give you some (or copy them should they so desire).

Thank you for your interest in the Library,

Sincerely,

[Name redacted]