All 14 seasons of original Dallas were shot on 35mm film. Seasons 10-13 were edited electronically on to a video master which reduced the cinematic look of the picture. It's possible to remaster the entire seasons on to High Definition but very time consuming for seasons 10-13 as they need to be edited together from the original film elements.
I've heard the original film pieces were discarded in that process, with no film master or film negative left behind. They can work with the video copies, though, and may have (the S10 DVD, though flawed, looks 300% better than when it originally aired) they've got so many digital tricks available today.
IMDB can, just look up any show there and then click on the full technical specs
Normally those shows were all shot on film, just some comedy shows like The Cosbys or Married with children were shot directly on video.
But i don't recall any 1 hour show to be shot on video instead of film.
You probably know this already, but I'll repeat: the networks had a rule that all night time dramas had to be shot on 35mm film, because of its superior look. But by the late-'80s, many shows -- like Lorimar's programs -- got around the traditional lab costs by using the cheapie video post-production technique
@garry describes above, with the film pieces dubbed down to low grade video
prior to editing, leaving a blurry low-resolution look that might as well have been shot in old style video. And that was the only version left in existence when all was said and done.
Ghastly. According to old soapchat alum @al paige , the old timers in the lab were shocked to see the episodes go out over the airwaves looking like that (as were the viewers) but the exec felt the devolution in visual quality was worth the expense saved.
