Missing Misterio

blank line

The Mystery of the Missing Misterios

There is something amiss with the sales of Doctor Who / Dr Misterio to Central American and South American countries.

The big mystery is, did the series actually screen in all the countries purported to have purchased the series? And did it screen in countries not recorded in BBC files?

In an interview with Tom Baker from early December 1979, published in Starlog magazine issue 34 (cover dated May 1980), he says "Dr Who sells in every country in South America except two…". He doesn't state which those two are, but at a guess it would be French Guiana and Surinam, where English, Portuguese and Spanish are not the principal languages.

Of course, we have to assume that Baker knows what he is talking about, and is not merely making up figures and exaggerating, as Baker is well-known for doing (especially in more recent years). But based on other comments he makes in the same interview (such as that the series has been sold to the Middle East and Far East (e.g. Hong Kong and Brunei), Australia and New Zealand, and 65 places in America)) we certainly feel there is a high degree of truth in what he claims, as he would certainly have had conversations with his bosses as to how successful sales of his stories had been by that point.

The timing of this interview, late 1979, certainly ties in with when the bulk of the known sales to South America and Latin America took place, as this article demonstrates.

Latin America – green = Spanish; orange = Portuguese

The following Central and South American countries are named in a series of memos (going up to December 1979) advising the BBC's music copyright department of the countries to which the series had been sold, to clear the rights to use incidental music featured in the first 23 Tom Baker stories, Robot to The Invasion of Time:

Ecuador	by 27 November & 1 or 7 December 1978
Venezuela	by 16 February 1979
Mexico	by 16 February 1979
Chile	by 16 February 1979
Brazil	by 23 March 1979
Guatemala	by 23 March 1979

For Ecuador, three stories from season 14 are dated 1 December, one with 7 December 1978, with the rest 27 November 1978. Underworld from season 15 is also dated 7 December. (It's not clear why three different dates are given.)

The actual clearances payment memos do actually group the countries together on the same page: so Venezuela, Mexico and Chile (in that order) are on the same series of memos, all dated 16 February 1979, and Brazil and Guatemala (in that order) are both on the same notices dated 23 March 1979; this indicates that the notice of sale to each group of countries was advised to copyright at the same time.

The February 1987 memo mentioned in The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records sales to the following Latin American countries:

Chile	23 stories
Costa Rica	1 story
Dominican Republic	7 stories
Guatemala	24 stories *
Honduras	24 stories *
Nicaragua	24 stories *

[* We feel sure that 24 should be 23, as that was how many Baker stories were in the package.]

BUT

Is there any significance in the fact that Costa Rica's "1" plus Chile's "23" equals "24"? (Both countries start with the letter "C". Coincidence?) Could it be that for those other three countries allocated with "24", there is yet another country (not named) being the extra "1" in the total?

(Of course, without our seeing the actual memo itself, it's impossible to judge the accuracy of the data (i.e. were the countries bracketed in any way?; were the countries listed down or across the page?; are there any ditto marks?; is the "1" noted for Costa Rica in fact an "11", or a misread 'ditto mark'?)

There is also the fact that three further Latin American countries screened the series, which are not named in either of those two documents:

Colombia

Peru

Puerto Rico

Airdates for Colombia (from 1980, and later 1987) have been found; Puerto Rico aired episodes in the "late 1970s / early 1980s", while those for Peru have yet to be fully researched...

Of note, only Chile and Guatemala appear in both lists, when in fact they all should. Why are the other sales of Dr Misterio missing? Mexico and Colombia should definitely be in the 1987 memo but are both conspicuous by their absence...

Costa Rica is recorded as buying only one story – and yet we have found over 330 airdates for that country. (It's doubtful one serial was repeated over 80 times!)

Airdates have been located for Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia and Nicaragua only – all started in 1979 or 1980. Newspapers have been checked from 1978 to the mid-1980s for the other countries (with the exception of Honduras, for which only 1984 onwards have been accessed). But "El Dr Misterio" is missing from the published television listings for Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Dominican Republic. And for Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language, no listings have been found for "Doutor Who". Sure, it's possible that the series aired outside the date ranges we've searched, but with 98 episodes to find, even if they were stripped five days a week, it is hard to believe that we couldn't find at least one listing even when viewing one week in every third month at random.

The fact that all the dated music payments are from November 1978 to March 1979, shortly after the grand launch of the series in the United States, suggests that Time Life wanted to exploit the new series to as many countries as possible, and all at the same time. Time Life handled sales to Latin America as well as North America, so did its deal include some sort of "bulk" sale / offer that encompassed not only the USA but also Latin America and South America? (Strictly speaking, Brazil is not Latin America, but since it is part of continental South America, it would still be part of Time Life's catchment area; and indeed, Time Life was financially involved in helping set up Brazil's first television network in the 1960s.) There is no certainty that in all cases an actual sale ever took place. Some of these may have been prospective sales, but with a payment in advance.

In the 1960s / early 1970s, some of the television stations in Latin America were supported financially by the major networks in the United States: for instance the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) had investment interests in stations operating from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Uruguay, and Venezuela, although it's not known whether those financial interests continued into the late 1970s when Doctor Who was on offer, or whether this interest went as far as influencing the types of programmes that those stations aired. Time Life's interests in Brazil's Globo TV had already ended by 1978.

Did Time Life perhaps operate a "pool" system, whereby they bought in advance the rights for "X" number of Latin American countries (they "guaranteed" the BBC that they could sell the series to the minimum number of countries needed to make the endeavour worthwhile), and then opened those rights for tender on a "first come, first served" basis? And then, once all the advance sales had been reached, those countries got first 'dibs' on the number of episodes they wanted. (And based on the level of interest, Time Life then undertook the long process of dubbing the episodes into Spanish.)

With the recorded "sales" to Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Guatemala all being within a very short space of time of each other (a five month period), it's possible the series was offered and "sold" to all of them "sight unseen". After the dubbed tapes had been received, all but Chile and Mexico decided to "pass" on the science-fiction series.

Any 'unsold' stories would then go back into the pool, to become available to a second batch of tenders? (Is this why Colombia only got nine serials?) Are the countries named in the music rights registers therefore only those from the first advance offer (even if they subsequently declined to buy the series)? And are those named in the 1987 list those from a much later (partial?) offer? (Is this why Dominican Republic has only "(7)" sales recorded?) Are the countries from the 'second' (and 'third'?) offer (made after 1980) the ones missing (omitted in error?) from the 1987 memo?

And how do the music payments actually work? Could each music clearance fee actually cover more than one country? For instance, did the clearances for the February sale to Venezuela automatically include its neighbour, Colombia, even if the named country didn't subsequently purchase the series for itself? If a fee had been paid in advance – and thus recorded in the music payments register – did it get refunded if a sale of the series did not proceed? If so, why was the register not updated? Or was the cancellation / refund recorded somewhere else?

Is there any significance to the fact that Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica all lie in very close proximity to one another? These countries could have been able to receive television transmissions from their neighbours. Guatemala and Honduras lie between Mexico and Nicaragua; two countries for which airdates have not been found lying slap-bang between two countries for which airdates have been identified. Would that mean a country which did not buy the series still had to pay a small fee because they could pick up cross-border transmissions?

Of the countries under examination, Chile is the only one that appears in the music clearances records, has the correct number of stories in the 1987 memo (23), and has its airdates confirmed. All three components are present and there are no conflicts; all the facts fit. So why is it not the same for any of the others?

Let's combine all the tables:

Country	Music Paid (to Dec 79)	Airdates	1987
Ecuador	by 27 Nov & 1 / 7 Dec 1978	--	--
Venezuela	by 16 February 1979	--	--
Mexico	by 16 February 1979	4 May 1979	--
Chile	by 16 February 1979	9 May 1979	23
Brazil	by 23 March 1979	--	--
Guatemala	by 23 March 1979	--	24
Puerto Rico	--	late 1970s	--
Costa Rica	--	4 Feb 1980	1
Colombia	--	13 Feb 1980	--
Nicaragua	--	6 Aug 1980	24
Dominican Republic	--	--	7
Honduras	--	--	24
Peru	--	--	--

- Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil appear only in the music reports, and nowhere else. Did the series actually ever screen in those three countries? Are these merely potential sales that Time Life offered but which ultimately did not go ahead – hence their absence from the other two columns? Is it possible that Venezuela on-sold their unused rights to neighbouring Colombia? Was it the fact that Brazil broadcast in the PAL format, and would have to create their own Portuguese dubs (whereas all other countries in South America had distribution by Time Life, and broadcast in NTSC and Spanish) the reason why the series didn't air?

- In terms of their first airdates, Mexico and Chile are in the same order in which they appear in the music clearance report. Coincidence? (Those two countries plus Venezuela share the same "sold by" date of 23 February.)

- Mexico is missing from the 1987 memo list that's presented in The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS. However it's entirely possible that Mexico was named in the memo itself, but was accidentally omitted from the published list. On that point, have any other countries been omitted? Problem is we cannot verify either way, as the authors of the book no longer have a copy of the memo...

- On that note, what of the accuracy of the music clearances? How many countries were missed due to the BBC records being incomplete, or accidentally omitted during the transfer of the information from BBC documents to the researcher's note-pad?

- Puerto Rico is not named in any of the memos, and yet the series aired in "the late 1970s". (Of course, being a territory of the USA, any recorded sales might be included under those to the United States.)

- Airdates for Brazil have been impossible to find; the country has over 50 private TV stations, which don't all have listings in newspapers.

- Newspapers have been checked for 1978 to 1980 for Guatemala, so it's possible that the series aired much later. But if music payments were made in early 1979, why hold off screening the series for more than two years? Both Chile and Mexico screened the series within a few months of the "payment" date. Costa Rica and Nicaragua also screened the series a very short time after the final entry on the music memo was recorded. If the music payment related to the start of broadcast, then Dr Misterio would have played in Guatemala around June 1979... Did Guatemala sell its rights to Costa Rica?

- Costa Rica, Colombia and Nicaragua are missing from the "music paid" list – but that's perfectly understandable since their broadcasts did not commence until 1980, and the documents examined when the music memo was compiled only went up to December 1979.

- Colombia is absent from the 1987 memo, and yet the series aired in 1980, the same year as Costa Rica and Nicaragua which both are in the memo, and again in mid-1987.

- Airdates for Dominican Republic have not been found despite papers covering 1980 to 1988 being checked...

- Peru is absent from the memo and the music clearances, and we only have anecdotal evidence to go on that the series had screened there. We are still searching...

- The jury is still out on Honduras; until 1979 to 1983 newspapers can be checked, we don't know for sure whether or not the series aired.

- And going back to the December 1979 Tom Baker interview, what of Paraguay, Uruguay, British Guiana, Bolivia, Argentina, Panama and El Salvador? Was the series sold to those "undocumented" countries as well?

CONCLUSION

We may be completely overlooking something obvious here!

• Have we been looking in the wrong newspapers?
• Are the BBC records wrong / inaccurate / incomplete / being taken out of context?
• For those countries where no airdates have been found, were the 'sales' cancelled after the music payments had been made, and any monies paid later refunded or held on credit?
• Did some countries have to pay some sort of "proximity payment" to cover transmissions they received from their close neighbours?
• Did a sale to the first country in each region also cover the clearance costs of the second (and third?) country within that same region, which is why the second (and third?) country is not recorded in the 1987 memo?
• For sales and/or advance payments for screenings that didn't proceed, could the "sale" be transferred to another country that "refunded" the original purchaser instead of the BBC? (e.g. Venezuela "sold" its rights to Colombia, but only the former is recorded in the clearances registers...)
• The "sales" were handled by Time Life, who would have notified the BBC of all sales that had been completed; but how accurate was their communication with the BBC? Did they provide the BBC with details of every sale?
• Did a sale of Doctor Who to one of the non-PBS networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) allow that network to on-sell the programme to those Latin American stations with which they were affiliated?

A number of questions that can't be answered – so for now, the Mystery of the Missing Misterios will have to remain unsolved...

Links

• Central America
• South America
• Spanish