HDTV experiments started in 1979 with MUSE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television#Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_televis

HDTV experiments started in 1979 with MUSE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television#Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television#Jap... In the US, HDTV came out in the mid 1990s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television#Inaugural_HDTV_broadcast_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television#Ina... It's not "deep" that producers at the time anticipated that re-runs would be broadcast on HDTV. In the 1990s, a lot of producers preferred the look of film over video; or even considered it a better overall medium.