Editing DuMont Television Network (section)

==DuMont programming library==
{{main|List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network|List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts}}
DuMont produced more than 20,000 television episodes from 1946 to 1956. Because they were created prior to the [[Ampex]] electronic [[videotape recorder]] in late 1956, they were broadcast live in black and white and recorded on film [[kinescope]] for West Coast rebroadcast and reruns. By the early 1970s, their vast library of [[35mm movie film|35mm]] and [[16 mm film|16mm]] kinescopes wound up in the hands of "a successor network" (most likely Metromedia) that reportedly disposed of them in New York City's [[East River]] to make warehouse space for videotapes.<ref name="LoC"/>

Although some films submerged for decades have been successfully recovered (see ''[[The Carpet from Bagdad]]'' for example), there have been no [[wreck diving|salvage-diving]] efforts to locate or recover the DuMont archive. If it survived in that environment, the films have likely been damaged. Other kinescopes were put through a reclaiming process to recover the silver from the [[photo emulsion]] on black-and-white film.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.metnews.com/articles/reminiscing052903.htm |title=REMINISCING: ''Day in Court'', ''Winchell-Mahoney Time'' – DuMont Shows: Not to Be Seen Again, ROGER M. GRACE, Metropolitan News-Enterprise, May 29, 2003 |access-date=April 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105231808/http://metnews.com/articles/reminiscing052903.htm |archive-date=January 5, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

It is estimated that about 350 complete DuMont television shows survive, including seven early [[Jackie Gleason]]'s ''[[Honeymooners]]'' comedy sketches from 1951–1952. Most of the existing episodes are believed to have come from the personal archives of DuMont's hosts, such as the Gleason and [[Dennis James]].