Tv shows are still being shot on tape, only now in HD. Some 70’s sitcoms shot on tape look really bad now for some reason, especially Norman Lear productions. Maybe the video masters on those need restoration?
On the flip side the first two seasons of Saturday Night Live look great for their age. I’ve only seen one video glitch so far, and I’m not sure it would even have been visible on a CRT. You can tell NBC didn’t allocate their best cameras to the show early on though. It’s a shame they didn’t remaster the film inserts because the telecine they had at the time was pretty awful. (I could get better results shooting a projector aimed at a blank wall.) Whether that footage still exists is anyone’s guess.
It’s a shame a lot of Universal’s 60’s/70’s tv output shot on 35mm hasn’t been remastered. Some of what I see airing on Cozi TV are from really old broadcast video masters.
The company I work for is quoting on a lot of 70s sitcoms at the moment for restoration.
I’ve been looking at a bunch of master tapes of 70s shows over the last few months, and there is a rather awful historical footnote.
The ‘white’ sitcoms were shot on film, and occasionally in the highest tech tape based system of the day, the ‘black’ sitcoms at the same companies were shot on tape, with lower quality gear.
Make of that what you will, but it is why some US 70s tv shows look a lot better than others. Restoring the tape based ones is very hard to get looking good in hidef, but it is being done right now.