Alas, Where?

July 28, 2010 8:55 AM

Where is Alas, Babylon? (1960, Playhouse 90)

My husband likes post-apocalyptic fiction; we both like Alas, Babylon. I've read that the 1960 Playhouse 90 version was *awful*, but he still wants to see it.

His google-fu is better than mine, and he can't find it, but I tried anyway. I came upon a couple of sites that claimed to have it for instant view online, but none of them have working links/flash/video. I did find a forum discussion that says that it should have been taped.

Is it out there somewhere?

posted by galadriel to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

No idea where you might find a copy of your own but try the Paley Center (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio) in New York and Los Angeles. This might be impractical but if you or your husband is absolutely desperate to see it, this would be my best guess as to how you could do that. They have copies of tons and tons of old television programmes that were never sold commercially -- it's all just their own archives. I've been to both locations and I'm sure I've seen one or two Playhouse 90 episodes. I went to the New York location to do some research and ended up watching several old anthology shows from the 1950s and 1960s.

You can email them with a request and they'll look and see if they have it in their library. Then you go to the center, pay for special admission (I paid as a student researcher and I think it was $12--several years ago), choose your programmes and put them in a queue, and watch them on your own viewing screen.

I see you're in Florida so this might be impractical for you, but I'm guessing if a tape has ever existed of this, they own it.

It's truly a great resource and they have many, many, many programmes that are completely unavailable elsewhere.
posted by Put the kettle on at 10:23 AM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

I took a look at WorldCat (which includes most, but not all, library catalogs), and it looks like some Playhouse 90 episodes have been collected into this Criterion Golden Age of Television set, but I didn't see Alas, Babylon listed there. At least one Playhouse 90 episode was in this Golden Age of TV Drama set, but no Alas.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive has some taped Playhouse 90 episodes, but again -- not the one you want.

Those were my best guesses -- good luck!
posted by lillygog at 5:37 AM on July 29, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, folks.

Yeah, as much as he wants to see it, I am certain that he does not want to see it enough to travel to NY or LA, if they even have it (it doesn't come up in a search of their collection).

Rats.
posted by galadriel at 7:34 AM on July 29, 2010