"The Most Common (and Uncommon) Things People Taped To VHS" Talkback

[Peter Paltridge]

After years of exhaustive research, I present the most common things people taped during the VHS era...and some of the most uncommon! They're not what you think!

The Most Common (And Uncommon) Things People Taped To VHS

 

[MilkTheCouch]

After years of exhaustive research, I present the most common things people taped during the VHS era...and some of the most uncommon! They're not what you think!

The Most Common (And Uncommon) Things People Taped To VHS

Ah, so this explains why in a Discord server I'm in, someone finds a Rudolph or Frosty recording at a thrift store every other week. It also explained an incident I witnessed once, where, when I was sitting in traffic in April of 2010, I saw kids watching what I later identified from the episodes on it as the SpongeBob Halloween DVD, as holiday DVDs tend to be cheaper out of season.

I also remember you mentioning the rarity of the Disney Afternoon in another article on Saturday morning preview specials, but I had no clue a full recording of TGIF was almost as rare. I was also shocked at the Disney Channel fact, as based on your logic, some friends of mine have luckily been able to stumble upon old Disney Channel recordings, but it's usually the preschool shows, as those could be used as "babysitter tapes".

 

[Chris]

We had the Disney Channel as a kid. Despite this, there are only two things from it we (my parents) bothered to tape: Seuss on the Loose and Alice In Wonderland.
One day I was channel surfing and found MTS3K reruns on the Sci-Fi channel one Saturday Morning in 2004. So I started taping them. I had four (well, six, but two were accidentally taped over.) After rerun #6 I was crushed to learn Sci-Fi would stop airing them.
There is a full episode of the final episode of Full House in my collection. Unfortunately, the local news station felt they had to break into it to tell us president Clinton had been shot. Did he die? well, not yet.
And yes, the usual holiday specials. I have the 1996 airing of the Peanuts Halloween special, and after that was a Winnie the Pooh Halloween special.
I recorded the entire 17th season of the Simpsons on DVD. My goal was to continue the book guide, but I stopped after one season and made a complete guide, but for just season 17.

 

[Erased Paper]

The hardest for me to find is a complete afternoon block of Fox Kids. I've never been able to do it. The closest I've got is 3/4 of one afternoon from July 1995.

 

[Zorak Masaki]

Huh, surprised that you found 14 airings of Lost, that show came out just as home taping was dying out and DVRs were becoming the norm. On a related note, I get the feeling that shows and media from the 2010s and above will actually become even harder to find in the future (which makes me wonder, what's the oldest and most recent tape you've come across in your searches?).

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Huh, surprised that you found 14 airings of Lost, that show came out just as home taping was dying out and DVRs were becoming the norm. On a related note, I get the feeling that shows and media from the 2010s and above will actually become even harder to find in the future (which makes me wonder, what's the oldest and most recent tape you've come across in your searches?).

Oldest is a Beta recording of Barnaby Jones from November 1977.

Newest is a night of NBC's Revolution and The Voice from September 2012.

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

We had the Disney Channel back in the early ‘90’s and my parents taped a ton of movies from it. Also my mom would tape My Little Pony and Care Bears for me. I know we had a tape where my mom attempted to record Care Bears but ended up taping the entire day because she forgot to hit stop (it was an extended play tape). This tape also had some Checkerboard era CN. This tape was eaten by our old VCR around 2001 or 2002, before You Tube was a thing.

Speaking of the Disney Afternoon, I had a tape of most early episodes of Aladdin. Like seriously some of these episodes are clearer in my mind than the movie. This tape is long gone by now, and since my dad was the one doing the recording, he very carefully paused out the commercials.