It might be apocryphal but I vaguely remember reading an article from the late-90s or early-00s where television executives were shocked that people wanted TV box sets. The logic was ... Why would people want to watch reruns? Whole swaths of soap opera episodes were totally lost, the masters being taped over, occasionally found in a box in some remote TV station.
I have a small personal project of cataloging all the movies that played on television in the 90s. There are tons of television shows that are not only not available on DVD or VHS but also seemingly no one has it. Double goes for cartoons, tons just totally unavailable. It is sad.