BOOTLEG FILES 907: “A Weighty Problem” (1980 educational filmstrip featuring characters from “The Flintstones”).

LAST SEEN: A restored version is on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Educational filmstrips have no perceived commercial reissue value.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely, unless a documentary on the subject is made.

If you were a K-12 student in American schools during the 1960s and 1970s, you probably remember the use of filmstrips in your classes. Filmstrips were a spool of 35mm film that featured still photographs on each frame. The filmstrips were shown via a hand-operated projector, with one frame at a time projected on a screen while a soundtrack recording on either an album or a cassette tape provided narration or character dialogue to match the images. The soundtrack recording would offer a beep or a ding, which was the cue to the projector’s operator to turn the spool to the next image.
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