Difference between revisions of "Missing Misterio"

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- [[Ecuador]], [[Venezuela]] and [[Brazil]] appear only in the music report, and nowhere else, so we could '''probably''' consider those as being potential sales that Time Life offered but which ultimately did not go ahead – hence their absence from the other two columns.  
 
- [[Ecuador]], [[Venezuela]] and [[Brazil]] appear only in the music report, and nowhere else, so we could '''probably''' consider those as being potential sales that Time Life offered but which ultimately did not go ahead – hence their absence from the other two columns.  
  
- 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 1979, why delay broadcast?  
+
- 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 1979, why hold off screening the series for more than two years?  
  
 
- 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.  
 
- 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.  

Revision as of 01:16, 15 January 2011

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MISTERIOS

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

The big mystery is, did Dr Misterio actually screen in all the countries purported to have purchased the series?


BBC Records list the following Central and South American countries in a report (going up to December 1979) for which a payment had been made for the rights to use incidental music featured in the first 23 Tom Baker stories, Robot to The Invasion of Time:

Ecuador by December 1978
Chile by February 1979
Mexico by February 1979
Venezuela by February 1979
Brazil by March 1979
Guatemala by March 1979

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

Costa Rica 1 story
Chile 23 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.]


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? Nicaragua and Costa Rica should certainly be listed in the music payments register – or is it simply that their payments hadn't been recovered at the time these records were compiled? And Mexico should definitely be in the 1987 memo.


Airdates have been located for Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Nicaragua only. 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 Dr Misterio is missing from the television listings for Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras and Dominican Republic.


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 every third month at random.


The BBC records might be wrong. We don't necessarily know what the "by Month/year" data was recording. Given that Time Life handled sales to Latin America as well as North America, it is possible that they bulk-sold the series to all countries that they handled distribution for. There is no certainty that in all cases an actual sale ever took place. These may have all been prospective customers.


And how do the music payments actually work? A fee may have been paid in advance – and thus recorded in the music payments register. But the sale of the series might not have been completed and gone ahead. The fee would have been refunded. But was the register updated to record this? Or was this recorded somewhere else?


Is there any significance in the fact that Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica all lie in very close proximity to one another? These countries would 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. Does this mean that 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 nine countries under examination, Chile is the only one that appears in both the music records, has the correct number of stories in the 1987 memo (23), and has had 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 the two tables:

Country music paid 1987 memo airdates
Chile by February 1979 23 9 May 1979
Mexico by February 1979 -- 4 May 1979
Costa Rica -- 1 4 Feb 1980
Nicaragua -- 24 6 Aug 1980
Guatemala by March 1979 24 --
Honduras -- 24 --
Ecuador by December 1978 -- --
Venezuela by February 1979 -- --
Brazil by March 1979 -- --

- Costa Rica and Nicaragua are missing from the "music paid" list – but that's perfectly understandable, since their broadcasts did not commence until 1980, which is after the music memo was compiled (it stopped at December 1979).

- Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil appear only in the music report, and nowhere else, so we could probably consider those as being potential sales that Time Life offered but which ultimately did not go ahead – hence their absence from the other two columns.

- 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 1979, why hold off screening the series for more than two years?

- 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.


CONCLUSION

We may be completely overlooking something obvious here! But there is still a mystery...

  • 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 the money later refunded?
  • Did some countries have to pay a "proximity payment" to cover transmissions from their close neighbours?
  • 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 all the facts?


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


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