Lost Episodes of "Colonel Bleep": A Bittersweet Discovery (Patreon)

In August 2023, a remarkable discovery was made when a user known as Ziggy on X.com acquired a 16mm film reel containing four episodes of the cartoon "Colonel Bleep."

This series holds a special place in television/animation history as the first animated show produced in color, running from 1957 to 1960 before entering syndication. Many of the original negatives were unfortunately lost in a theft, making any surviving footage particularly valuable.As you can see from the pictures, the reel was in horrible shape. The reel's provenance was fascinating, however - it came from a neighbor of the show's creator and had been stored in their attic for decades before being discovered by their children.Upon seeing Ziggy's post about the discovery, I immediately offered to fund the restoration process, hoping to salvage whatever footage might be preserved within the severely deteriorated reel. The process took several weeks of treatment with Vitafilm to stabilize it. ...When Ziggy began carefully unrolling the film, the initial inspection showed some promise......the leader section revealed some intact images, though heavily damaged. The animated introduction sequence appeared to be the best-preserved portion.However, our hopes were tempered when the reel was sent to Quazza at Kineko for professional inspection and potential scanning.The final assessment was disappointing: beyond the leader and introduction sequence, virtually nothing was salvageable. In an almost poetic turn, the only other discernible image was the end card, with "The End" barely visible through the degradation. The actual content of these four episodes remains a mystery, lost to time and deterioration.What made this find even more intriguing was a personal connection: the reel contained a dedication to "Debbie and Kurt," the children of Jack Schleh's (the co-creator) best friend from high school. It was essentially a personalized gift that had been lost to time.This discovery serves as an example of the ongoing challenge of preserving early television (theatrical) content.

*Images provided by Ziggy, scan completed by Quazza.