May-December marriage: Old TV programs, the Internet

By Mike Trask

Friday, April 20, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

When Tony Soprano's sister whacked her boyfriend, the deranged Richie Aprile was watching boxing on television.

Tom Ficara of Henderson has nothing to with "The Sopranos." But he may be a wise guy after all - at least when it comes to making money off obscure video - because he licensed the boxing match to the makers of the hit HBO series.

"It was not a name fight," he said. "It was not anyone you ever heard of. It was some local bout or something."

The bout is one of about 3,000 sporting events in Ficara's collection. He also owns the masters to about 4,000 vintage television shows, including episodes of "The Lone Ranger," "The Green Hornet" and "Bonanza."

Now he is putting it all on the Internet at TV4U.com, hoping to make a buck online.

Ficara started buying old shows in 1970 and has done nothing since, making his living off forgotten television programs from yesteryear. He rode the wave of the introduction of cable for years, selling the rights to programming through his business, Margate Entertainment Co .

That's in addition to selling small clips to various outlets such as "The Sopranos" or, less memorably, "Bio-Dome," starring Pauly Shore.

Ficara's office on Green Valley Parkway features shelves of tapes, mostly football and basketball games from the 1980s. There's the 1986 Independence Bowl - Texas Tech vs. Mississippi - and some Arena Football League games from 1989, during the infancy of the league.

Ficara hopes people want to see those events.

Perhaps they will.

"If I could watch old Broncos games, my wife would shoot me," said Mark Dyreson, who grew up in Denver before becoming a sports history expert at Pennsylvania State University. "But I would watch. It's not something you'd watch to see the score. But I think people watch out of nostalgia."

Ficara, 56, knows people love vintage sports moments. He knew it 35 years ago when he started buying the rights to shows for as little as $100.

"I was known as the guy who would buy up all these shows," he said. "They thought I was goofy. They thought it was free money."

Now the tapes fill 15 warehouses.

A game from the '80s is on at least four three-quarter-inch tapes. Older shows are on two-inch spools, similar to those used in old movie theaters.

The Internet appears to be the next venue in the history of television. Popular sites such as YouTube are a treasure trove of old programming. Dozens of fan sites also feature clips of just about any television show a viewer might want to see, or see again.

"It's like oldies stations," Ficara said. "Plus there's a lot of people who have never seen them when they come out. But they want to because it's good stuff."

While it's debatable whether "The Long Ranger" was an epic drama, there's no doubt people have an appetite for reruns. Shows such as "I Love Lucy" and "Dragnet" remain staples of late-night programming and ESPN has a station dedicated to reliving the glory days in sports.

"TV producers in the country between 1950 and the cable era produced some of the most brilliant, albeit kind of stupid, moronic and silly, shows," said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for Popular Television at Syracuse University. "My guess is we are still going to be watching 'I Love Lucy' long after we stop watching 'The Sopranos.' "

Ficara, who last year led an aborted effort to start an indoor soccer league, is not the only one hoping the pop culture gurus are right.

The Henderson Economic Development Center and the Nevada Small Business Development Center picked TV4U as one of nine businesses in its $40,000 Business Star program, aimed at helping new projects grow.

"Everybody has the martinis and the showgirls to get business into town," said Elaina Bhattacharyya of the small-business center. "But we need something to help the existing businesses with a high-growth potential."

Bob Cooper, Henderson's economic development director, said Ficara's dot-com could prosper in the valley. He pointed to the success of VEGAS.com and Zappos.com, which share an office park with TV4U.

Only time will tell whether enough viewers consider Randall Cunningham leading UNLV in the 1984 California Bowl or Tonto helping The Lone Ranger timeless entertainment.

"There's a certain kind of nostalgia that old people get a kick out of," said Lawrence Mintz, professor emeritus of American studies at the University of Maryland. "For younger people it's as much escapism as you can possibly get. There's nothing real in an old show."