LAST EDITED ON 01-15-03 AT 03:19 PM (EST)I found this on the Stone Stanley sight. It looks like they were able to save all of the tapes.
‘THE MOLE’ MUST GO ON!
Despite Setback From Fire and Flood, “Celebrity Mole Hawaii” Will Definitely Premiere on The ABC Television Network, Wednesday, January 8, 2003 @ 10:00 PM ET/PT
Stone Stanley Entertainment, one of television’s leading independent production companies, determined today that despite suffering serious damage to footage from “Celebrity Mole Hawaii,” they will be able to meet their premiere date on The ABC Television Network of Wednesday, January 8, 2003 at 10:00 PM ET/PT. The announcement was made today by David G. Stanley and Scott A. Stone, Partners, Stone Stanley Entertainment.
“What looked like a total loss three weeks ago was salvaged due to the hard work and dedication of our fabulous staff and crew along with the amazingly quick actions of the Los Angeles Fire Department,” said David G. Stanley “Hundreds of people worked tirelessly, giving up their holidays to save this show.”
“We are incredibly lucky. This is a classic example of ‘The Show Must Go On’ attitude,” added Scott A. Stone “Our entire show was under three feet of cascading water. It was amazing how quickly our producers and post-production staff got down to the studio in the middle of the night to create a ‘bucket brigade,’ shuttling 2500 tapes and hundreds of computer hard drives out of the building.”
The fire took place on Tuesday, December 17th at approximately 1:00 AM PT. Over 100 members of the Los Angeles Fire Department reportedly were needed in order to put out the blaze in an annex building at Hollywood Center Studios, where “Celebrity Mole Hawaii” was being edited. The majority of the footage as well as the show’s numerous hard drives and written logs were completely immersed in the murky water used to douse the fire.
Due to the extensive water damage, Stone Stanley Entertainment was forced to hire outside specialists in the field of tape and hard drive recovery. “This was a situation where only the top experts in the field could have saved this footage due to the extent of the damage,” said Heidi Friedman, Executive Vice President, Production and Finance, Stone Stanley Entertainment “We needed people with the special talents and skill of Marty ‘The Mad Scientist’ Schorr at MSE Media Solutions and Ian Spiszman at Aeroscopic Environmental, Inc. whose companies continue to dry, clean and inspect every second of over 500 hours of footage.”
Hosted by Ahmad Rashad (“NBA’s Inside Stuff”), “Celebrity Mole Hawaii” was filmed in Hawaii earlier this year. The show follows seven celebrities as they try to figure out who among them is The Mole. Players, Stephen Baldwin (“Usual Suspects”), Kim Coles (“Living Single”), Kathy Griffin (“Suddenly Susan”), supermodel Frederique, Corbin Bernsen (“L.A. Law”), Erik Von Detten (“Princess Diaries”) and Michael Boatman (“Spin City”) will use all their guile to uncover the clues that could lead them to a pot of up to $250,000. They must complete a series of challenging physical and mental games to earn money for the pot, which one player will eventually win. Working undercover against the team, however, is The Mole, a double agent planted by the producers to sabotage the players’ efforts. It is the goal of the players to decide who they think The Mole is, then learn as much about him or her as possible. In the final dramatic episode, The Mole is revealed and the one remaining player wins the jackpot.
Stone Stanley Entertainment is a broad-based television, motion picture and home video production company. Founded by partners David G. Stanley and Scott A. Stone in 1990, the company is the home to series such as "Celebrity Mole Hawaii" for ABC; "Oblivious" for The New TNN; Comedy Central's "The Man Show;" “The Dream Team with Annabelle and Michael” for SciFi Channel; "Shop 'til You Drop," for PAX and "Legends of the Hidden Temple" for Nickelodeon's Games and Sports. Other properties in development include “The Real Deal” with Game Show Network and “Jumble” with Tribune.
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