When did you start collecting TV shows? (1 Viewer)

I am very curious as to what the responses are for this and I would really like to get an idea of the posters here. As 2004 comes to a close I end my 25th year of TV show collecting. I'm interested in the makeup of the board because sometimes I'm amazed at the stuff that people get excited about coming out. Shows that are only a couple of years old that you could have on tape. To me, anything after 1984 is "new" (if you're young, trust me, you'll understand when you get older that a year seems like a week). I got my first VCR in 1980 and the first show I recorded was Outer Limits, my favorite show. After a year or two I got into 16mm film collecting (only way to get many shows that will never be shown again). I now buy a lot of DVDs but it doesn't bother me that much when shows from the last 20 years are butchered for their release as I or other collectors I know will have complete, off-air copies. And I'm not talking about amateurs taping in SLP on cheap machines either. I don't want to disparage people and say, "why didn't you record such and such", when I could be talking to someone who was 6 when a show was on. That's why I'd really like to know how many people just started collecting 5 minutes ago and how many veterans are here.

I started like 2-3 years ago when i was 13 or 14. I was at costco with my mom and she was buying me my own DVD player for my room. and I got Buffy season 3 to accompany it.

As soon as I got my first VCR I strted recording Star Trek. TNG was playing and DS9 was just a rumor, but I had seperate tapes for every show. Needless to say those are almost all gone now and replaced with DVD. Back then I was recording everything I could. Clasic movies, SciFi shows, Me and my brother acting stupid (we got a huge camcorder about the same time). The year was 1991 and I was 28 years old.

Now I collect them on DVD. That also started with Star Trek (which I have all of it that have been released). B5 (incl. Crusade), Farscape, Highlander, Sanford & Son, M*A*S*H and now West Wing. Needless to say, my tape collection has been gretly reduced. Thank God for Ric Easton on helping me make more room on my DVD Shelving.

I'm pretty sure the first TV series I bought on DVD was Sex and the City Season 1 back in 2000. It wasn't until early 2002 when I started importing Buffy and Angel box sets that TV shows became a significant chunk of my DVD purchases. Now I'm rapidly losing shelf space thanks to all the shows I'm collecting.

I suspect that for many here they started collecting when shows they wanted started to come out on DVD. That was certainly the case for me, I believe the first season set that I bought was the Simpsons season 1, just a few months after my first DVD player.

I know that the VCR made collecting possible for a long time before DVD was even in the offing, but I wonder outside of serious collector's how many people taped episodes of shows they really wanted? The only times I would tape shows growing up was when I was going to be out and unable to watch the show, or in the case of wrestling if there was a match that I knew I was going to want on tape.

Plus, for me I would've ended up replacing most of those anyway, as shows I liked growing up were shows like Andy Griffith, Sanford and Son, the Jeffersons, and stuff like that which had obviously stopped airing original episodes either before I was born (1981) or not too long after and once I would've learned about sindication cuts I would've ended up with the DVDs anyway.

I bought my first player in 2001. To accompany it, I got Simpsons S1. The TV-DVD collection began there, although for a few years beforehand I'd collected a few shows on VHS.

I first started collecting tv shows from the mini series
that were prominent in the 70's. There was a series called
Great Novels on NBC that had Once an Eagle, Little Women, the Rhineman Exchange which was my first experience with collecting and tapeing. My initial goal with DVD is to collect all of the Masterpiece Theater and Mystery which has led me to countless series that I was unfamiliar with. i believe that would make me a veteran by Mark's defination.
This should prove to be an interesting thread as it develops.
Best
Greg

It started with Star Trek, which originally my dad began to record (the very first episode we taped was the original broadcast of DS9's pilot) and I eventually took over.

For a while, I competed with my dad taping when I taped the original Power Rangers series. Later, as I became interested in weather--I taped the weather channel to practice doing the weather. After a friend introduced me to Pokemon, I taped over that with Pokemon.

Later on, I was introduced to I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show by that same friend and went on a sitcom spree. I've scaled back, and now tape:

* First-Run Cartoons (every Saturday morning gets a seperate tape)
* The Olympics (something I've just started--I managed to get 36 tapes full from Athens--my goal for Torino is even more complete coverage)
* First-Run Star Trek (Enterprise Season 3 and 4, for example)
* Various Classic Shows (that do not have a DVD release in sight)

I plan to transfer these tapes (especially the Olympics and other shows with no DVD plans) to DVDs when I aquire a DVD recorder.

I began with TV-on-DVD with those inexpensive public domain releases for "The Lucy Show" and expanded on to "Pokemon" releases and then onto season sets with "Star Trek: TNG" and "Frasier." I now own a sizable TV-on-DVD collection and an epic TV-on-VHS collection. My goal is to eventually have enough programming so that I could watch just about anything I get in the mood for, since most current television (except Star Trek: Enterprise, cartoons, and the Olympics) is in such bad shape.

I started taping full runs of TV shows a little more than 15 years ago. Mostly reruns of Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents probably from Nick At Nite. Then I started taping The Simpsons back in 1989 and still have taped every episode from that first broadcast onward. Course there's not much point to keeping the tapes anymore (for the first five seasons anyway). The Simpsons was the first show that I had that was in order with the original broadcasts, etc. From then on, I started taping all kinds of stuff like The X-Files, Millennium, CSI, The Sopranos, Alias, 24, Deadwood, Lost, and assorted others.

The first TV DVDs I bought were probably The Treasures Of The Twilight Zone discs (and eventually the rest of the series). And The X-Files, then The Prisoner and The Simpsons. And way too many series after that.

Like most people here, the thing that I find most incredible is the amount of stuff that 2 or 3 years ago I swore would never be on DVD that actually has come out. I've never been so happy to be wrong

I taped some shows I liked in the early and late 90's from German TV (Star Trek TNG, All Creatures Great and Small) but to me it was just too much effort plus I preferred the english original versions to the german dubbed ones so TV wasn't an alternative anymore.
That's why I started collecting shows on official UK VHS tapes and have complete tape sets of Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9 (TNG was treated badly here by Paramount Germany they stopped publishing their bilingual tapes mid season 5 or 6, imagine my anger ).
My "obsession" with collecting TV on DVD started with the UK versions of "Friends" I guess which had been available here for quite some time. What REALLY got me hooked on the medium was the 1st season UK release of "24" though. I never heard a word about it before - so imagine my joy discovering that! That experience is also why I'm not shy to do blind buys. I had given up on TV with a few exceptions but DVD's allows me to get my beloved original versions on a lasting medium which is great. By now I import most of my DVD's from Canada and the US, sometimes UK versions as well. German versions I buy rarely only if they offer something special or a great pricing.

DVD wise as soon as they came out. I recorded stuff off tv to vhs , but since they most are on dvd so ive just picked them up

capt

I made my first TV recordings in the 1960s - reel-to-reel recordings of Dark Shadows when I was going to grade school events and would miss an episode. Later I did cassette tape recordings of shows in the early to late 1970s, and started paying people to videotape stuff for me in 1977. Rented my first VCR in 1980, I think, bought my first one in 1981. Have over 5,000 videotapes in my collection, probably as many DVDs at this point (both purchased and home-burned/recorded). I love shows from pretty much all eras. I have a special fondness for certain shows from the late '50s and early '60s, since that's what I grew up with, but I'm also a huge fan of Buffy and Angel and a lot of current series. I see strengths and weaknesses in both old and new shows - they are all products of their respective eras.

My recording starting around 1996. Then kick into obession in 1999 when I got my first duel deck vcr. I tape every day of General Hospital which will probably not see a dvd release but you never know. I tape most of the shows I watch. First in sp then use the duel deck to cut commerials out fitting about 8 hr shows or 16 1/2 shows on one tape. I have dvd releases of things i have on tape but hestiate to get rid of the tapes since most of the dvds have music changes ie WB
network shows which is the bulk of my collection.

My first tv dvd was My So Called Life back in Dec 26 2002 and is now at 33 tv boxsets. It will only get bigger as I get more seasons and new sets I want come out. In March I'll finish Felicity and Popular but start The Pretender. Only 22 so my budget is limited since I need to save for a house.

I used to record shows of TV but never collected them. I would just tape an episode then tape over it when I had watched it. I guess I was never impressed with the quality of VHS even in SP mode.

When DVD came out and they started releasing the X-Files is when I really started collecting. $100 a season was a steep price but I bought anyway. I think I found some of the later seasons used for roughly half price. Then I started getting into Buffy, Angel, Dark Angel, Quantum Leap, Cheers, Married W/ Children, The Family Guy, From Earth To The Moon, Taken, Band Of Brothers - that's about it.

Millenium, Roswell, Alias, STNG, The 4400 are on my wishlist.

Now, the real question is: Have you ever stopped watching a show because you knew it was eventually coming to DVD?

I've fallen victim to that a few times.

I got my first VCR in high school (around 1986) - I taped my favorite shows, but I think the first show I tried to get every episode of was Star Trek : The Next Generation.

I didn't buy a DVD player until 'The Lord of the Rings' extended editions started coming out - Buffy and Alias were my first TV-DVD purchases. I wonder if science fiction/fantasy fans are more likely to be avid collectors - I've noticed that a lot of people on this forum seem to collect SF shows.

I've pretty much stopped watching regular television. I plan on picking up Enterprise, Lost, and the current seasons of Stargate and Stargate:Atlantis when they come out on DVD, but I don't watch them currently. I find that I enjoy a show a lot more on DVD.

I also enjoy picking up shows and miniseries that originally aired on cable. I don't have cable, so it is great to get a chance to see these shows. I am looking forward to the 4400 and the Farscape miniseries.

Started audiotaping TV Show Theme Songs around 1977 and audiotaped Hitchiker's Guide to the Galazy, Police Squad, Soap reruns circa 1980?

Got a VCR in 1987 and started taping Doctor Who until I had the complete run.

Incidentally, if anyone taped Doctor Who in 1980 or before (1977/1978, I think), it would be worth checking of you've got colour versions of several Jon Pertwee episodes whose colour masters have since been destroyed.

The BBC would love to get colour signals to synch. up with their black & white masters for: Ambassadors of Death and The Mind of Evil, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind having a second (possibly more complete) colour source for The Silurians, Terror of the Autons and The Daemons.

I havent stopped watching anything. however i have stopped taping stuff.

capt

I JUST started...That is the sole reason I got a DVD player was the Batman the Animated series I saw out...

The first show I ever recorded and started saving was Seinfeld. I only got parts of each season though on VHS (started taping reruns). It wasn't until I discovered P2P that I was able to get all the episodes from all seasons.

The next show I started to record and save was Roswell (April 2003)when it went into reruns on Sci-fi the second time around. I only recorded S1, half of S2 and the last five eps from S3. That bums me out that I didn't get all the episodes, because I really wanted the original music.

I guess I didn't really start collecting tv on dvd until about a year and a half ago. My collection is small.

ALIAS S1-3
Roswell S1 and 2
Little House on the Prairie S1-3
Jem S1-3
Seinfeld S1-3
Freaks and Geeks
My So Called Life
The Prisoner
Punky Brewster S1
21 Jump Street S1
My Little Pony S1

Started in the late 80's in college. But, didn't really start until 1990 when I graduated and had my own place. At one point I was taping about 14 different shows a year. When dvd came out I switched over. And when a cheap dvd recorders arrived. I began to switch to dvd and transfer some vcr recorded shows. They take up much less space. But, this is the first year I have stopped recording shows. Since it seems tv on dvd has caught on and shows are now coming out in droves.