‘Input’ was a local Philadelphia panel discussion program, airing Sunday mornings on WCAU-TV10, at the time the local CBS Network affiliate, that ran from 1968 through early 1971. It was a groundbreaking series, featuring academics, community and religious leaders and artists from the Philadelphia area with a focus on social justice and progressive thinking.

The topics of the show ranged from religion and atheism, violence and war, reform of the prison system, the role of religion on campus, genetic engineering, environmentalism and ecology, Native American rights, reparations for slavery, women's rights, psychiatry, astrology, horticulture, eastern religions, the battle of the sexes, gossip, the generational gap, geriatric rights, and education reform, among others. Notable people who appear as guests on the broadcast include William C. Davidon, John E. Fryer, Pete Seeger, Tony Avirgan, Marjorie and Thomas Melville, Father Paul Washington, Leon Shenandoah, Muhammad Kenyatta, Peter Countryman and David Richardson among many others.

This footage has not been seen by the public for nearly 45 years and may be the only surviving visual materials of many of these people contemporary to the period of their activism. Only airing locally in Philadelphia, and at a time when broadcast tapes were commonly erased and re-used by television studios to save on cost and minimize storage. This also aired before home consumer video cassette recording technology.

This collection exists because of the preservation efforts of Marion Stokes who was a member of Wellsprings Ecumenical Center and a co-producer of the series. She often appeared on the panel discussion along with her future husband, John S. Stokes, Jr. The Internet Archive thanks Michael Metelits, Mrs. Stoke’s son, for making this collection available. It’s Mrs. Stokes’ personal vision that saw the original Ampex 1” tape broadcast reels preserved, then converted to Betamax L-500 tapes at the outset of the technology in the late 1970s. There are many visual and audio glitches and problems that affect the quality of these tapes. Some issues are traced to the original playback and recording devices used in this transfer, as well as age and analog nature of both the original format and the second generation cassettes used to extract these to the digital form presented here.

In addition to all the episodes digitized and available in MPEG-2, h.264 and Ogg Vorbis codecs with metadata, there is an addendum including an episode guide, production notes and biographical information intended for further scholarly study of this broadcast. Additional materials related to this collection are with the attached research materials.

We also welcome you to add to the discovery by leaving comments and corrections in the forum at the bottom of this page.

- curated by Trevor von Stein, Internet Archive volunteer


Marion Stokes' Obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/philly/obituary.aspx?pid=161826563

Press:

Fast Company :
http://www.fastcompany.com/3022022/the-incredible-story-of-marion-stokes-who-single-handedly-taped-35-years-of-tv-news

On the Media TL;DR (Podcast) :
http://www.onthemedia.org/story/9-second-life-marion-stokes/