Collecting Poll (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

Recorded several shows on cassette tape around 1980, a few episodes of Gilligan, still have the caveman dream one which is damn funny even without video. Also a Happy Days when Joanie is caught smoking. I have a whole tape of tv theme songs and I announce each one with my pre-pubic voice! lol my dad laughs during the Jeffereson's one when George is jumping on the bed even though I asked him to be quiet. There's Muppets, Sha na na, Tonight Show with Johnny doing a jewish joke, love boat, etc etc... I listened to that thing 30 times over the years. I need to put on those in mp3s. great memories.

In the early 80s we got a Zenith VHS with SP LP and EP and a mic hookup so you could record over video, something I used in college to make a commercial with voice and music, something nobody in the class could do. I did the audio at the second radio station I ever worked at in the early 90s, that player latest quite a while.

started recording Trek in the 80s in LP.. then I was going back and recording SP over the LP to get better quality and was horrified when I saw What are Little Girls made of, Kirk was on the ledge then after commercial he was in a room talking and fine. the dirty truth right there they were messing up Trek and cutting out a minute and a half. disgusted, they didnt do that the other times I recorded . would be the first thing that would eventually kill my desire for monthly subscription tv years later, along with promos that played over 1/3rd of the screen during a damn show. started slowly buying tapes of TRek but glad I didn't get a lot. recorded the whole show twice off sci-fi with shatner hosting first then most with Nimoy, I still have all of these including my old mostly LP from 80s local tv. Then bought whole series on dvd, then blu ray. i'm done with classic Trek buying... I guess. hee hee!

So many shows etc I regretted not recording and keeping over the years, like mst3k, Tonight show, SNL, Fridays, saturday morning cartoons, afterschool specials, weekend specials...etc etc etc etc. I recorded too many I didn't need, like Trek, Hercules, Xena, Brit coms... all those replaced with dvd/blu ray.

fabulous topic!!!!!!

 

[Radioman970]

Oh I forgot... Brady Bunch at the grand canyon on these... beat that! 1 lol

Oh the memories!!!

 

[John*Wells]

Recorded several shows on cassette tape around 1980, a few episodes of Gilligan, still have the caveman dream one which is damn funny even without video. Also a Happy Days when Joanie is caught smoking. I have a whole tape of tv theme songs and I announce each one with my pre-pubic voice! lol my dad laughs during the Jeffereson's one when George is jumping on the bed even though I asked him to be quiet. There's Muppets, Sha na na, Tonight Show with Johnny doing a jewish joke, love boat, etc etc... I listened to that thing 30 times over the years. I need to put on those in mp3s. great memories.

In the early 80s we got a Zenith VHS with SP LP and EP and a mic hookup so you could record over video, something I used in college to make a commercial with voice and music, something nobody in the class could do. I did the audio at the second radio station I ever worked at in the early 90s, that player latest quite a while.

started recording Trek in the 80s in LP.. then I was going back and recording SP over the LP to get better quality and was horrified when I saw What are Little Girls made of, Kirk was on the ledge then after commercial he was in a room talking and fine. the dirty truth right there they were messing up Trek and cutting out a minute and a half. disgusted, they didnt do that the other times I recorded . would be the first thing that would eventually kill my desire for monthly tv years later, along with promos that played over 1/3rd of the screen during a damn show. started slowly buying tapes of TRek but glad I didn't get a lot. recorded the whole show twice off sci-fi with shatner hosting first then most with Nimoy, I still have all of these including my old mostly LP from 80s local tv. Then bought whole series on dvd, then blu ray. i'm done with classic Trek buying... I guess. hee hee!

So many shows etc I regretted not recording and keeping over the years, like mst3k, Tonight show, SNL, Fridays, etc etc etc etc. I recorded too many I didn't need, like Trek, Hercules, Xena, Brit coms... all those replaced with dvd/blu ray.

fabulous topic!!!!!!

And even in the DVD era, unfortunately, We are not assured of getting full episodes of shows due to the Digital rights Clearance problems. This also results in entire episodes being omitted from series Sets In the Heat of the night Season 2 being a good example. The one example for me thats Glaring of rights issues is Gomer Pyle USMC in which a lot of Gomer's musical numbers were cut. I do hope Those rights issues are Cleared although I have been advised in this very forum truthfully i am afraid that the chances of this are nil

 

[Jeff*H]

Used my new Betamax to record WTBS, CBN, and local station classic tv lineups in the early 80s, completed a 1966 Batman run in 1984.

In the late 70s, pre-VCR, I recorded shows on a cassette tape recorder and listened to them after going to bed at night until I fell asleep.

Good times...the thrill of the hunt!

 

[LouA]

I started in 1983 when I got my first VCR- a Hitachi with a wired remote. I began searching out shows I loved growing up like Have Gun - Will Travel, The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis , The People's Choice, Twilight Zone , Yancy Derringer , Casey Jones , Rescue 8, Andy's Gang , Rocky And His Friends , anything Disney, I love Lucy , My Little Margie , Amos And Andy , Sea Hunt , Warner detectives , Warner westerns , Gunsmoke , Honeymooners , Abbott And Costello Show etc. , etc. , etc. .
I'm still at it .

 

[Lecagr]

If I recall the year correctly, 1981 was the year I purchased my first VCR. It was a nice machine, a General Electric brand top loader. It was heavy too, VCR's in their early days were heavy until later when they were manufactured lighter. I had that GE VCR for about 30 years, at which time it started breaking down and not working properly anymore, so I decided to scrap it. I also had another top loader VCR, this one was a Fisher brand, but I only had that machine for about 10 years or so, it didn't last nearly as long as the GE VCR did.

On the subject of recording shows/movies from TV for a collection, here's something I started doing around 1983/1984, I was living in Chicago at the time and I decided to record and save East Side Kids and Bowery Boys movies from WGN. I continued recording the movies until 1987 when WGN discontinued airing them. From WGN, I ended up getting 10 East Side Kids movies and 36 Bowery Boys movies. The titles that WGN didn't air, I eventually acquired those elsewhere to complete the collection. I still have these WGN airings, the masters are on VHS tapes and I've also made DVD's of them so I have the movies in both formats, VHS and DVD.

 

[Richard V]

And even in the DVD era, unfortunately, We are not assured of getting full episodes of shows due to the Digital rights Clearance problems. This also results in entire episodes being omitted from series Sets In the Heat of the night Season 2 being a good example. The one example for me thats Glaring of rights issues is Gomer Pyle USMC in which a lot of Gomer's musical numbers were cut. I do hope Those rights issues are Cleared although I have been advised in this very forum truthfully i am afraid that the chances of this are nil

Another good example was The Twilight Zone, where I think 3 or 4 episodes were left out of the Syndication package, I think Miniature, An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge, and A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain, were ones I can remember. I think there were a couple more too. They were never seen after their first broadcast until the 80's when they were shown on a TV special. They were later restored to the DVD release, and I think they were eventually restored to syndication as well.

 

[John Sparks]

Whatever year blank VHS tapes were available and the first cable companies came into existence. I was right there taping and collecting everything that had to do with sci-fi/horror and that continues right up to to-day.

 

[Lutz Koch]

I bought my first VCR in late 1977, it was a Philips VCR longplay which used rather bulky tapes. At the time I was not aware that shortly thereafter Betamax and VHS would enter the scene and make VCR longplay obsolete. A 3-hour cassette for VCRlp was about $30 IIRC, so it was no wonder that by 1980 the system was dead in the water. I don't think it was ever marketed in the US.

Due to the high cost of taping I did not record any TV shows during those three years, just some movies that I absolutely wanted to watch and rewatch multiple times. In 1980 I switched to Beta and a few years later to VHS, and that was when I really became a TV show collector.

 

[darkrock17]

This looks more like an answering machine than VCR.

 

[Scott511]

Started recording in November of 1981. I bugged my parents for two years, they caved in and bought a Zenith Betamax. I was 15 and the TV Guide was my bible, I was in heaven. Before that in 1976 I started recording Star Trek episodes (and several other series) on cassette tape.

 

[TJPC]

This was my first machine. It weighed a ton! Blank tapes depending on how long they were cost $25.00. A local chain of drug stores had them on sale for $18.99. The limit was 2. We drove all over the city to get as many of these bargains as we could.

 

[JQuintana]

Flashing clock and wired remote too I hope!

 

[Scott511]

View attachment 54302

This was my first machine. It weighed a ton! Blank tapes depending on how long they were cost $25.00. A local chain of drug stores had them on sale for $18.99. The limit was 2. We drove all over the city to get as many of these bargains as we could.

Yep....at $25 I was told "make it last as long as you can"

 

[Radioman970]

Started recording in November of 1981. I bugged my parents for two years, they caved in and bought a Zenith Betamax. I was 15 and the TV Guide was my bible, I was in heaven. Before that in 1976 I started recording Star Trek episodes (and several other series) on cassette tape.

I still have a bunch of TV guides like George Castanza's dad. *embarrassed embarrased* I also loved HBO's little monthly booklet. I wish I'd saved all of those!! there's still things I remember but can't figure out what the hell they were! Lots of animated stuff like on of a funny little short dude taking a shower with his funny little wedding tackle hanging out. I laughed mine off watching that. and now I have no idea. HBO was magic in the 80s.

I drooled over those big giant VCRs! Mom finally bought us one like this... I thought it was absolute magic! recording damn tV? I mean... witchery!! and you could record stuff on tv and watch something else at the same time... leave the timer on and record something at 3:30 in the morning? get up and watch it then? how many souls does Satin want for this hocus pocus video box!!?!!! lol Ours came with a little 30 minute tape as if to tease us. Final thing I recorded on that tape was Yellowbeard at EP.

 

[Scott511]

I still have a bunch of TV guides like George Castanza's dad. *embarrassed embarrased* I also loved HBO's little monthly booklet. I wish I'd saved all of those!!
View attachment 54305

I have about 15 years worth of TV Guides.

The little town I grew up in didn't have HBO, but we had Showtime. I still have the monthly Showtime booklets, January 1980 to March 1983.

 

[JQuintana]

I have about 15 years worth of TV Guides.

The little town I grew up in didn't have HBO, but we had Showtime. I still have the monthly Showtime booklets, January 1980 to March 1983.

Hope this isn't your house.

 

[Scott511]

Hope this isn't your house.

LOL...no.

We do have many many bookcases. Plus one room devoted to nothing but storing my crap in rubbermaid tubs.

 

[Radioman970]

^^ calling the FBI! where is the camera set up?! lol

We were the first family in my large subdivision i Augusta ga to get cable. My mother sold jewelry in the mall and met the cable guy. we had to keep it quiet.

 

[borisfw]

Started recording shows around 1981 with a Betamax that i bought at Montgomery Wards in Bedford NH. I quickly moved on to VHS. Never forgave that sales guy at MW who convinced me that Betamax was the best way to go .