Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

[crainbebo]

Two more tapes found at an estate sale down in Yakima yesterday morning.

Tape 1 - Washington at Miami football game taped off KAPP/ABC on 9/24/1994 with commercials; partial recording of the WSU Cougars and UCLA game taped off Prime Sports NW the same day with commercials. Maxell T-120
Tape 2 - 2003 Apple Cup game (Washington vs. Washington State, next-day repeat), two episodes of You Gotta See This!, Sunday Night Fights, Beyond the Glory and first few minutes of Northwest Sports Tonight taped off Fox Sports Northwest on 11/23/2003 with commercials. TDK T-120

There were two more tapes I didn't pick up - both marked with UW games I already had from previous estate sales (the 9/21/91 game at Nebraska, and the 1/1/92 Rose Bowl win over Michigan).

 

[VideoTreasures]

As a archivist/hunter for many VHS recordings with commercials for about 7 years, I did score a recorded VHS lot locally at a video store where I regularly volunteer.

Whose Daughter is She? (1995 CBS TV movie from KDKA Pittsburgh, all commercials)
Trial by Fire (1995 ABC TV movie from WTAE Pittsburgh, all commercials)
A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (1995 CBS TV movie from KDKA Pittsburgh, all commercials)
Cries of the Heart (1994 CBS TV movie from KDKA Pittsburgh, all commercials, recorded in LP mode)
Falling From the Sky: The Free Fall of Flight 174 (1995 ABC TV movie from WTAE Pittsburgh, all commercials)
Danielle Steel's Once in a Lifetime (1994 NBC TV movie from WPXI Pittsburgh, all commercials)
The Cosby Show (4 episodes, one is a late '80s syndicated rerun from WKBN 27 Youngstown and the other three are original NBC broadcasts, all 4 episodes have commercials, episode 1 was in SP mode and the other three in LP)
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1996 Showtime airing with promos after the movie)
White Fang (WGN airing from 1996 as part of the Family Classics banner, includes all commercials)
Au Pair II (Original ABC Family airing from 2001 with all commercials intact)

There were a couple other tapes that had misc. stuff recorded on them.

 

[VideoTreasures]

I also scored another load at the same place, but it turned out to be a bit of a bust. 90 %of the tapes were just home-recorded dubs of retail VHS copies of various movies. However, I was able to salvage three interesting tapes out of the lot.

Tape 1
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) (recorded from a independent Florida station from around 1991 with all original commercials, also included the first 15 minutes of an airing of They Call Me Mister Tibbs!)

Tape 2
An ABC Sunday night timeshift from November 29, 1992 of Life Goes On, America's Funniest Home Videos, and America's Funniest People. Includes the last 10 minutes of ABC World News Now before the first show. Includes all commercials.

Tape 3
A two-hour Three Stooges marathon from TBS around Christmas 1994. All commercials intact.

 

[Route66Fan]

Didnt know the best way to edit the original post, so here were the contents of the oldest tape I've found BY FAR, yes 40 years old:

1980/2/16 Georgia Tech at Wake Forest basketball (90 seconds or so was recorded over by 1990s Disney Channel, I guess kid was grounded and it stopped)
1979/10/6 ALCS Game 4, postgame only, my guess it was recorded over by the prior thing
1979? Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders halftime show routine, only a few minutes in length, weird
1979/10/28 Auburn Coaches Show (Doug Barfield) Auburn vs Wake Forest from WATL Channel 36 (was an independent channel then in Atlanta)
1979/10/28 Country Serenade---I believe this was some sort of syndicated music show, didn't find anything about it online WATL 36
1979/10/28? A Farewell to Arms (1932) also WATL 36---I'm amazed how much we have improved in regards to showing movies on TV, they were obviously airing a copy of a copy of a film print, it was dark, out of focus, and in terrible quality. The commercials looked great, even on an HDTV, but the film itself was barely watchable.
1979/10/28? Coral Gables: Global City of the Future also WATL 36---Strange tourism short documentary that was probably made by the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce, why this aired on an Atlanta independent station to fill time for a short movie I'm not sure.

Do you have a YouTube channel, I am interested in seeing the commercial breaks & id's from this era of WATL-TV Ch. 36. Thank you.

 

[CTListener]

1979/10/28? Coral Gables: Global City of the Future also WATL 36---Strange tourism short documentary that was probably made by the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce, why this aired on an Atlanta independent station to fill time for a short movie I'm not sure.

I found this film online at https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/252961. No copyright notice at start or end, which is strange, but the disco music alone would put it firmly in the mid/late '70s. It reminds me a lot of "Progress Island USA," a promotional film about Puerto Rico that gained notoriety as the subject of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment in the '90s. I wouldn't be surprised if the films shared the same producer.

 

[crainbebo]

Question for Pannoni (and other YouTubers):
All of us have been getting stern popups saying that we must obey with the COPPA laws and tell YouTube whether each video we upload is for a child-friendly audience. The FTC could be fining creators $42,000 for each video marked for kids but not kid-friendly, vice-versa.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9383587?hl=en

In this case, should I be worried about old content from The Disney Channel, Saturday morning cartoons, my early 2000s commercials from Cartoon Network, etc.? Should these be marked as for a child-friendly audience? Because the majority of my videos are for a general audience looking for TV nostalgia, as is many of the other classic TV accounts.
Thanks!

Re VideoTreasures - this must be a used video/DVD/CD store where donations come in...maybe similar to the record store I used to visit often up in Everett WA? I'm 2 hours from that record store but if I ever have a Sunday off (lately this isn't happening because my workplace loves putting me on 8 hour shifts on Sat/Sun), the pass isn't full of snow, and my car is in decent shape, perhaps I'll take a visit up to that place again.

My first seasonal videos will be uploaded probably the weekend of the 22nd-23rd. Holiday finds will continue up to 12/24. Boy do I have a lot of them. Including complete Thanksgiving parades, some late '80s Xmas cartoons w/ commercials, aforementioned content from K60EB Yakima, our short-lived LPTV WB station in the mid-late '90s, and an awesome find from KSBW Salinas.

 

[Syfy]

Question for Pannoni (and other YouTubers):
All of us have been getting stern popups saying that we must obey with the COPPA laws and tell YouTube whether each video we upload is for a child-friendly audience. The FTC could be fining creators $42,000 for each video marked for kids but not kid-friendly, vice-versa.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9383587?hl=en

In this case, should I be worried about old content from The Disney Channel, Saturday morning cartoons, my early 2000s commercials from Cartoon Network, etc.? Should these be marked as for a child-friendly audience? Because the majority of my videos are for a general audience looking for TV nostalgia, as is many of the other classic TV accounts.
Thanks!

Re VideoTreasures - this must be a used video/DVD/CD store where donations come in...maybe similar to the record store I used to visit often up in Everett WA? I'm 2 hours from that record store but if I ever have a Sunday off (lately this isn't happening because my workplace loves putting me on 8 hour shifts on Sat/Sun), the pass isn't full of snow, and my car is in decent shape, perhaps I'll take a visit up to that place again.

My first seasonal videos will be uploaded probably the weekend of the 22nd-23rd. Holiday finds will continue up to 12/24. Boy do I have a lot of them. Including complete Thanksgiving parades, some late '80s Xmas cartoons w/ commercials, aforementioned content from K60EB Yakima, our short-lived LPTV WB station in the mid-late '90s, and an awesome find from KSBW Salinas.

If they weren’t for a child friendly audience Disney wouldn’t be airing them in the first place as for cartoon network as long as its not the adult swim portion at night you should be okay as most of the stuff on cartoon network during prime time is rated PG. As for the fines has anybody came out and said that they actually went through with a fine that would not even hold up in court most likely.

 

[pannoni1]

Regarding COPPA, I'm just setting my channels as being "not targeted towards kids" just to be quick and safe. After all, most of my stuff is 20+ years old and "kids" means under 13, and even though they may not see some my videos due to blockings, they could easily just have a parent/guardian with them and find that most of my videos are suitable, not to mention that most of today's parents grew up in the 1980s and '90s, so they could enjoy those too as a means of rekindling their youth, while passing them down to their kin so that it gives a new generation to appreciate toys of a different era (I myself was born in 1985, so most of those toys were a little before my time, but I wouldn't mind finding some in terms of curiosity and collectibility). I just uploaded on pannoni10 last night a block of ads off WLVI that happened to be 40 years ago to the day, taken from their weekly Saturday Family Movie "Robinson Crusoe On Mars" that starred Adam West, and it included numerous ads targeted towards kids at the time, including the Simon-clone Einstein, a Perfection-like Disney clock game, a Star Wars electronic game, Atari's Touch Me (another Simon knockoff), Baby Little Love doll, Dolly Pops Poptown, Silly Sammy the Seagull, and many more, including some local Boston-area ads, including WBZ radio and 68 RKO AM. After all, I never personally selected our local oldies radio stations as a kid, but enjoyed what was playing off of them when my mom/dad put them on. It's like the difference between TV-Y/TV-Y7 and TV-G/TV-PG; I don't really target my channel towards kids but a broader general audience.

 

[Route66Fan]

Tape 2
An ABC Sunday night timeshift from November 29, 1992 of Life Goes On, America's Funniest Home Videos, and America's Funniest People. Includes the last 10 minutes of ABC World News Now before the first show. Includes all commercials.

I have heard that around 1990-93, ABC was experimenting with the American version of Teletext & that if the TV, that you have the VCR that's playing the tape hooked up to, supports Teletext (The Teletext function can usually be found in the settings for Closed Captioning, under T1 & T2.), you can actually still see what messages ABC was transmitting at the time, as well as find out, more easily, what day the recording was made & even find out what the next days ABC schedule was.
ABC was using the Teletext service to tell deaf & hard of hearing viewers what programs were Closed Captioned.
Also, in addition to having regular Closed Captioning on CC1, they also, at this same time, had a repeating message on CC2 extolling the different uses for Closed Captioning (In addition to being used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing, It could also be used to teach the English (Or any other.) language).
ABC also had Teletext on T2, that told viewers to turn their Captioning Decoders to CC1 for regular Closed Captioning, CC2 for the aforementioned message, or to their Teletext service on T1 for a network schedule & a list of "Captioned Programs on ABC".
I've tried this out on a few tapes that I have that had shows & movies recorded off of ABC during this time period, & was able to see the messages.

 

[pannoni1]

Just received another eBay lot today, and you can't go wrong when disco-era content shows up! Kept nine tapes out of ten, and all were Sony L-500 late '70s tape stock, with the maximum recording time of two hours listed. Several different markets, including Phoenix, Indianapolis, NYC, and Burlington were also represented. The seller was from Ashville, NY (no "e" like in NC), and is located in a remote section in the far SW part of the state). In order:

Tape 1: Begins with about half of Hee Haw from late 1985 or early 1986 without commercials, then contains the majority of the American Bandstand 33 1/3 Celebration (over two hours out of three) off KTVK on 12/1/1985 with commercials. I've got this special already from another market, so I'll just farm the local spots as always.
Tape 2: Begins with the Rock 'n Roll Years documentary off an unknown channel without commercials, then cuts for the end of Jake and the Fatman and a full episode of Guns of Paradise (basically Season 3 of the western Paradise) off WISH on 2/5/1991 with commercials. There's even a brief Gulf War update at the beginning of the tape, as well as part of an intro to Jeopardy! which sadly was recorded over.
Tape 3: Yes, my commuter bus driver pressed the "Santa" button on the way home from work today, but this certainly was an early gift here. Starts with about 45 minutes of WPIX's Christmas Day Yule Log instrumental footage, followed by a Christmas Message and an episode of the public affairs talk show Focus New Jersey on Christmas Day 1978 with a few commercial breaks, as well as an EBS test.
Tape 4: Starts with about an hour of morning coverage off the 1984 Summer Olympics, followed by All My Children and about half of One Life To Live off ABC/KTVK on 8/10/1984 with commercials. If you don't know, ABC's one hour soaps that week were cut to 40 minutes during those Olympics, and I've already got the same AMC/partial OLTL from a trader from earlier in the games.
Tape 5: A full episode of The Donny & Marie Show off WEZF on 10/20/78 minus commercials (Robert Conrad, Ted Knight, and Andy Gibb were among that night's guests), then cuts to nearly the last 10 minutes of Donny & Marie from 2/17/78 with one commercial break. I know a "best of" compilation with four episodes exists, but I'm not sure if this one circulates.
Tape 6: The CBS Special Movie presentation of Caddyshack off KOOL, as well as the first few minutes of the late news on 5/9/1982 with commercials
Tape 7: Most of The Heroes of Rock 'n Roll on 2/9/79 minus commercials (I've already got this via a trade with the commercials), followed by approximately the last ten minutes of an episode of the short-lived adventure series Flying High, followed by the first couple minutes of the WCAX 11 PM News on 12/15/78 with a couple commercial breaks
Tape 8: Some potentially one-of-a-kind content here! The tape begins with what appears to be clips from an ABBA special from around 1978 featuring a medley of many popular seventies pop songs, followed by a couple clips from the short-lived Denny Sho from 1978 featuring the Mamas and the Papas, then cus over to a couple clips of That Nashville Music with Crystal Gayle and Bonnie Tyler performing, then back to the end of The Denny Sho, then it cuts over to my oldest ever newscast find: the last several minutes of The ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner (just before the change to World News Tonight) as well as half of a syndicated rerun of The Flinstones off WEZF on 6/1/1978 with some commercials (too bad it wasn't a game show like Tom Kennedy's Name That Tune, the Nighttime Price Is Right, Hollywood Squares, or Bill Cullen's $25,000 Pyramid as they commonly air following the evening news)
Tape 9: This tape contained an index card that mentioned "For Kids", with various words like "Bobby + Lolita", "Ziegfried + Roy", "Karl Karson", "Fagen", "Dueling Banjos", "Muppets", "Edgar Berconi", "Fred the Cockatoo", "Tin Man", and "Physical Fitness". These were just short clips from various shows, even though most kids would find these boring nowadays sadly. There was one commercial break on the tape, taken from the ABC Sunday Night Movie "Law & Disorder" on January 15, 1978 (WEZF), marking my fourth oldest ever find off any tape. This was recorded in Beta I speed, so that would have required multiple tapes just to get the whole film in, clunky in those early VCR days.

Well, it's all-Christmas pretty much now until the new decade, where I plan to upload several classic episodes of ABC's 20/20 to celebrate the occasion!

 

[crainbebo]

The 1978 WPIX Yule Log (even partial)? Sahhhhweeett! Can't watch the Yule Log nowadays over the air in my area. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries I'm sure will do their's again this year. We used to get a Yule Log for a few hours on Xmas morning on CW Plus (KIMA-DT2), and of course KCPQ still airs it but I don't get them in Ellensburg.

The WEZF-TV 22 stuff is just rare as hel-l. Seriously. It's equivalent to my KAPP find from 1979 a couple years ago. Somewhere there has to be some early 1979 or 1978 Yakima recordings. We had electronics stores and department stores and they carried Beta and early VHS recorders...the question is, who had the $$$ in a town like Yakima? And here in Ellensburg, even with the higher-seniority CWU professors and admin, if anyone was taping, they were very likely taping off a Seattle station. Cable has been around in Ellensburg since the '60s, with Seattle stations (and Yakima).

 

[Scott2013]

Last Friday I picked up a few more tapes at a couple of estate sales.

Estate sale #1--Parma, Ohio--all of the tapes from this sale were unlabeled
TAPE 1: General Hospital episodes taped from WEWS on May 18, 19, 20, 23 and 24, 2005 with commercials; episode of American Idol taped from WJW on 5/24/2005 with commercials; GH episodes taped from WEWS on March 8 and 9, 2005 with commercials. Maxell T-160.

TAPE 2: General Hospital episodes taped from WEWS on September 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, 2002 with commercials; partial GH episode taped from WEWS on 6/12/2002 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 3: 61* (made-for-TV movie) taped from HBO Plus in May 2001 with commercials; episode of ER taped from WKYC on 5/10/2001 with commercials. Polaroid T-120.

TAPE 4: Camp Meeting infomercial, The World's Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets infomercial and Elvis: The Ultimate Film Collection infomercial taped from WVPX in fall 2007 with commercials in between. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 5: Colm Wilkinson Sings Music from Les Miz, Phantom, Evita and Much More, Lord of the Dance, one full and one partial episode of Nova taped from WVIZ in March 1997 with pledge breaks. TDK T-120.

TAPE 6: Episode of General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/25/2005 with commercials; two-hour season finale of American Idol taped from WJW on 5/25/2005 with commercials; episode of General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/26/2005 with commercials. Maxell T-160.

I did find a seventh tape from this sale that I only took a partial look at. Not holding onto it because the tape inside the cassette started crinkling when I rewound the tape in my VCR. All I saw was that it had a syndicated rerun of NYPD Blue taped from WJW in either 1997 or 1998. When I first put the tape in, it was cued about 3/4 through, so this could have possibly been an uncut six-hour weekend aircheck of WJW. Would have been nice to have found original Fox broadcasts of Cops and America's Most Wanted at the start of it, along with that night's Fox 8 News, of course. Fox 8 aired NYPD Blue in the late night hours on the weekends.


Estate sale #2--Medina, Ohio
TAPE 7: Witness (1985) taped from WJW (CBS Sunday Night Movie) on 5/7/1989 with commercials; Top Gun (1986) taped from WKYC (NBC Monday Night at the Movies) on 5/8/1989 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 8: Cocoon: The Return (1988) and part of Micki + Maude (1984) taped from HBO in December 1989 with promos in between. Maxell T-120.

 

[bmp63099]

I just recently went to Goodwill in Spencer, Iowa and found one recorded VHS tape along with 2 other VHS movies.

1. BASF T-120: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - taped off KTIV-4 (NBC) in Sioux City, Iowa on December 11, 1994 with commercials (apparently, this tape was in a clamshell case containing a Black Diamond release of 101 Dalmatians released in 1992, but as soon as I opened it up, I had realized that there was a VHS recording in there. What a steal!)

Other VHS's:

2. Runaway Ralph (1999 Anchor Bay Entertainment release) - No print date.
3. The Biscuit Eater (2002 Walt Disney Home Entertainment release) - Print Date: 091002 - September 10, 2002

 

[Syfy]

Last Friday I picked up a few more tapes at a couple of estate sales.

Estate sale #1--Parma, Ohio--all of the tapes from this sale were unlabeled
TAPE 1: General Hospital episodes taped from WEWS on May 18, 19, 20, 23 and 24, 2005 with commercials; episode of American Idol taped from WJW on 5/24/2005 with commercials; GH episodes taped from WEWS on March 8 and 9, 2005 with commercials. Maxell T-160.

TAPE 2: General Hospital episodes taped from WEWS on September 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, 2002 with commercials; partial GH episode taped from WEWS on 6/12/2002 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 3: 61* (made-for-TV movie) taped from HBO Plus in May 2001 with commercials; episode of ER taped from WKYC on 5/10/2001 with commercials. Polaroid T-120.

TAPE 4: Camp Meeting infomercial, The World's Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets infomercial and Elvis: The Ultimate Film Collection infomercial taped from WVPX in fall 2007 with commercials in between. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 5: Colm Wilkinson Sings Music from Les Miz, Phantom, Evita and Much More, Lord of the Dance, one full and one partial episode of Nova taped from WVIZ in March 1997 with pledge breaks. TDK T-120.

TAPE 6: Episode of General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/25/2005 with commercials; two-hour season finale of American Idol taped from WJW on 5/25/2005 with commercials; episode of General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/26/2005 with commercials. Maxell T-160.

I did find a seventh tape from this sale that I only took a partial look at. Not holding onto it because the tape inside the cassette started crinkling when I rewound the tape in my VCR. All I saw was that it had a syndicated rerun of NYPD Blue taped from WJW in either 1997 or 1998. When I first put the tape in, it was cued about 3/4 through, so this could have possibly been an uncut six-hour weekend aircheck of WJW. Would have been nice to have found original Fox broadcasts of Cops and America's Most Wanted at the start of it, along with that night's Fox 8 News, of course. Fox 8 aired NYPD Blue in the late night hours on the weekends.


Estate sale #2--Medina, Ohio
TAPE 7: Witness (1985) taped from WJW (CBS Sunday Night Movie) on 5/7/1989 with commercials; Top Gun (1986) taped from WKYC (NBC Monday Night at the Movies) on 5/8/1989 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 8: Cocoon: The Return (1988) and part of Micki + Maude (1984) taped from HBO in December 1989 with promos in between. Maxell T-120.

Scott do you put up any of your tapes on Ebay by chance?

 

[bmp63099]

Update on my National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation recording: I recently fast forwarded through blank space on the tape and just found an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (the one where Christopher Robin breaks his grandfather's statue and runs away from home) - recorded off of ABC Saturday Morning (unknown station, presumably KCAU-9 (ABC) Sioux City, IA - around summer 1997.)

EDIT: It also has a promo for Crash the Curiousaurus which originally aired as an ABC Weekend Special on January 14, 1995.

 

[Route66Fan]

The oldest VHS tape I have (Which I currently cannot locate - I know I still have it, though.) is from 1983 & has stuff on it that was recorded in Early-to-Mid 1984. I had gotten this tape within the past 10-12 years at a garage sale East of Kansas City, MO. The tape has mostly classic TV shows from the 1950s' to the 1970s' on it including the following shows:
Chico & the Man (1 episode recorded off of WGN-TV, Ch. 9, Chicago, IL.).
Bachelor Father (1 episode recorded off of CBN Cable.).
The Rifleman (1 episode recorded off of CBN Cable.).
National Geographic: Love Those Trains (Possibly recorded off of KCPT-TV, Ch. 19, Kansas City, MO. The recording started about a minute (Or so.) after the show started & another recording started during the underwriter spots at the end. I could however make out the 1971-1984 PBS id in the rainbow pattern during the start of the next recording.).
(I'm not really sure what order the following shows are in on the tape.)
The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show (1 episode recorded off of CBN Cable.).
You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx (1 episode recorded off of CBN Cable.).
Gunsmoke (1 episode recorded off of KSHB-TV Ch. 41, Kansas City, MO - during their "All Night Live with Uncle Ed" show - also includes segments from "All Night Live" that were shown before, during & after the episode.).
The Untouchables (1 episode recorded off of KEKR-TV Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO.).
The tape also has other stuff, including various music videos like Van Halens' "Jump", as well as others including a couple of recordings of Hall & Oates version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" & others, as well as various bits & pieces of other TV shows, including part of the end credits of an episode of "The Muppet Show" (Recorded off of an unknown TV station.), the last few minutes of an episode of "Putting On The Hits", recorded off of KSHB-TV, Ch. 41 (Which was also shown during "All Night Live".) & also the tail end of a Big 8 College Basketball game live from Lincoln, NE, that was recorded off of KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO, plus the introduction of an episode of "Mannix" that was also recorded off of KEKR-TV & the tape also has commercials on it as well.
The quality of the video on the tape ranges from "Good" to "Somewhat fuzzy, but still watchable", also, the tape was recorded in EP (SLP.).
The garage sale that I got this tape at had several milk crates full of other VHS & Beta tapes that had similar stuff & I was offered to take all of the tapes, however I couldn't take all of them due to space limitations. I tried going back to this garage sale the next year, but I couldn't find the tapes anymore. I would like to have gotten, at least, a few other tapes. Also at that time, I didn't have a Beta VCR & didn't get one until about a few months ago, off of EBay. I'm just happy I could, at least, get this tape.

 

[Scott2013]

Looking back on some of the garage sales I've been to where these tapes are sold in bigger quantities in a box, sometimes I wish I would have bought the entire box of tapes when offered to do so. I think the main reason why I usually don't do that is because of how much space so many of these things have taken up at home in the last few years. I especially regret not taking advantage of the big box of tapes sold at a moving sale in Medina just a couple months ago. The homeowners offered to sell the entire box for just five bucks, but I only ended up buying nine tapes out of about three or four times that amount inside the box I found them in. This was the sale where I found the tapes of the 200th episode of Cheers, the 100th episode of L.A. Law, the NBC miniseries Noah's Ark, the local news coverage of the Cleveland Indians American League championship victory rally in 1995 and a partial recording of the pilot episode of Christy, among others. Among the "unexpected" finds from those tapes (content not listed on tape labels) were a few hours of Headline News programs from 2007 (Nancy Grace, Showbiz Tonight, Glenn Beck, etc.), a PBS documentary called In Search of the Oregon Trail, a partial Cleveland Indians game from 1996, a partial Cleveland Browns game from 1990, an ABC News special on the aftermath of the Waco siege, an episode of a short-lived NBC series called Reasonable Doubts, and a couple of short-lived daytime talk shows (Mark Walberg and Tempestt Bledsoe). At least I found some winners with what I did pick up there. I'm trying to remember what was on some of the labels of the tapes I left behind. I know one read "Gulliver's Travels," which I'm assuming is the NBC miniseries, which I already have a recording of from KNBC in Los Angeles. Another was a tape of much shorter length that I think may have been prerecorded but later taped over.

Based on some YouTube videos I've been finding as of late, it seems like one trend I've been seeing quite a bit of lately is YouTubers recording their own videos of their "reactions" to some of the old VHS tapes they have found in the wild (thrift stores, yard sales, etc.), especially if they're not marked. If anyone's interested, below are some links to some examples of what I'm talking about.

This guy found some pretty random stuff here, including some Disney Channel shows and some Spanish shows from Telemundo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyH4DQ82kgo

This guy found some VHS recordings that were surprisingly recent on some tapes he got at a yard sale. He also found a tape of Howard Stern's syndicated TV show that ran from 1998 to 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifq43dNyncw&t=74s

The tapes this lady found were purchased from a Goodwill store and were Scotch-taped together. Kind of reminds me of the tapes crainbebo has found as of late at his local Goodwill since they were sold in bundles. One of them is actually a prerecorded automotive instructional video that was eventually taped over with TCM footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9lTKYR9La0&t=10s

And the guy who runs this YouTube channel does a regular feature called "Mystery Tape Monday" where he live-streams himself scanning through unmarked tapes he finds (although it's been a couple months since he's done one of these). Just be cautious of where you watch his videos though because he does a lot of cussing.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6vnHhXJvQHU-Vb0S2QvUQ/videos

 

[crainbebo]

'Reaction' videos to old VHS tapes? Like 'reaction' videos to football games or Fortnite battles? Not for me at all. I keep my reactions to myself. Albeit, I felt like jumping up and down and cheering when I initially saw the old 1979 KAPP tape a couple years ago...my favorite home-recorded tape so far! Often I'll go through a tape and hit the Eugene Register-Guard microfilm on Google News Archive for a date! The 1980s and 90s printings all list the major cable networks, including WTBS and TNT. Sometimes I'll use the Free-Lance Star in VA or even the Ellensburg Daily Record for a local recording.

 

[pannoni1]

It's Round 2 with that eBay seller from Ashville, NY which featured the same ten black & silver Sony L-500 tapes. Another nine out of ten to add, including my oldest complete local newscast find!

Tape 1: The Buddy Holly Story followed by about eight minutes of promos taped off HBO in June 1979, including a Video Jukebox segment featuring a John Travolta clone with lots of NYC aerial shots featured.
Tape 2: I'm not a huge country music fan, but for the classic country fan, this find is hard to beat. Starts off with most of the TNN Video PM Top 10 Countdown from early 1991 without commercials, then cuts to about 90 minutes of TNN Video PM and the first 20 minutes or so of TNN's American Music Shop from just before Christmas 1990 with commercials (Dwight Yoakam is tonights guest), then cuts to to about the last 20 minutes of The Young Riders off WRTV in December 1990 with a couple commercial breaks
Tape 3: Part of the incentive to purchase this lot, with ALF labeled on the front, it certainly delivered. Consists of six original broadcast episodes (one repeat) from Season 1 with commercials (some credits are full, some partial): 11/10/1986, 3/16/1987, 3/23/87, 4/6/87, 4/20/87 (a rerun of the 11/17/86 episode), and 5/4/87. The tape begins with the Hollywood Squares bonus round prior to the first episode, and I'm certainly delighted to find these since the R1 DVDs have the syndie edits.
Tape 4: About three-fourths of a syndicated rerun of The Sonny & Cher Hour taped off KTVK around the spring of 1982 with commercials (poor video quality at times though), followed by a rebroadcast of the 1980 Steve Marin: Comedy Is Not Pretty off KPNX on 1/23/1982 with commercials
Tape 5: Nearly 20 minutes from the Dick Clark and a Cast of Thousands special from 9/6/1978 without commercials (presumably off KPNX), followed by about the last half of a rerun of a Just For Laughs special from the summer of 1978 (includes an "NBSeeUs" promo) off KPNX with commercials, rest of the tape consists of a movie taped off a premium cable channel or rental without commercials
Tape 6: Begins with about the first 20 minutes of The Terminator 2: Judgement Day copied off a rental (includes previews), then cuts with a jumble of recordings including part of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air intro, the Weather Channel, and the 1990 Billboard Music Awards intro for a minute, before joining in during Lisa Stansfield's performance of "All Around The World" and continues for about the last 90 minutes of the special, taped off WXIN on 12/10/1990 with commercials (cuts off just before the credits)
Tape 7: Consists mainly of a movie copied off of a rental (can't recall at this time), but at the end of the tape, it features the first two segments of the KPNX 10 O'Clock News on 11/3/1979 with a commercial break
Tape 8: The Bee Gees Special, the KPNX 10 PM News, and the first couple minutes of an NBC News special report on the Iran-Hostage Crisis taped off KPNX on 11/21/1979 with commercials (another network would later do something similar and make Ted Koppel a household name)
Tape 9: Begins during the credits of Family Feud, followed by the CBS special SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back (hosted by Skywalker himself), M*A*S*H, and most of WKRP In Cincinnati, off KOOL on 9/22/1980 with commercials, then cuts to about five minutes of a certain NBC soap from around the summer of 1980 with one commercial break. The video quality is not the best at times though during the WKRP portion, and tape itself seems a little brittle.

The tenth tape unfortunately featured a zapped airing of American Graffiti from NBC's Big Event taped in February 1979, followed by part of a movie taped off HBO or a rental.

I may consider hopping aboard the "reaction" trend, since I've just placed an order for a third round with similar tape stock. Frankly, I'm not too impressed with the late '90s/'00s finds that some people react about, since those came at the tail end of the VCR era when the Internet was taking off to change the world like TV did 40-50 years prior. You didn't have those catchy commercial jingles like you had in the '70s, '80s, and early '90s.

 

[Scott2013]

Does the Video PM Top 10 Countdown have the music video for "Fancy" by Reba McEntire? I'm pretty sure that was around the time that song came out. A friend of mine from college is a huge Reba fan, so every time I hear one of Reba's songs, I think of her. And as I type this, I'm actually watching this year's CMA Country Christmas on ABC, and it sure is different without Reba hosting the show.

It's Round 2 with that eBay seller from Ashville, NY which featured the same ten black & silver Sony L-500 tapes. Another nine out of ten to add, including my oldest complete local newscast find!

Tape 1: The Buddy Holly Story followed by about eight minutes of promos taped off HBO in June 1979, including a Video Jukebox segment featuring a John Travolta clone with lots of NYC aerial shots featured.
Tape 2: I'm not a huge country music fan, but for the classic country fan, this find is hard to beat. Starts off with most of the TNN Video PM Top 10 Countdown from early 1991 without commercials, then cuts to about 90 minutes of TNN Video PM and the first 20 minutes or so of TNN's American Music Shop from just before Christmas 1990 with commercials (Dwight Yoakam is tonights guest), then cuts to to about the last 20 minutes of The Young Riders off WRTV in December 1990 with a couple commercial breaks
Tape 3: Part of the incentive to purchase this lot, with ALF labeled on the front, it certainly delivered. Consists of six original broadcast episodes (one repeat) from Season 1 with commercials (some credits are full, some partial): 11/10/1986, 3/16/1987, 3/23/87, 4/6/87, 4/20/87 (a rerun of the 11/17/86 episode), and 5/4/87. The tape begins with the Hollywood Squares bonus round prior to the first episode, and I'm certainly delighted to find these since the R1 DVDs have the syndie edits.
Tape 4: About three-fourths of a syndicated rerun of The Sonny & Cher Hour taped off KTVK around the spring of 1982 with commercials (poor video quality at times though), followed by a rebroadcast of the 1980 Steve Marin: Comedy Is Not Pretty off KPNX on 1/23/1982 with commercials
Tape 5: Nearly 20 minutes from the Dick Clark and a Cast of Thousands special from 9/6/1978 without commercials (presumably off KPNX), followed by about the last half of a rerun of a Just For Laughs special from the summer of 1978 (includes an "NBSeeUs" promo) off KPNX with commercials, rest of the tape consists of a movie taped off a premium cable channel or rental without commercials
Tape 6: Begins with about the first 20 minutes of The Terminator 2: Judgement Day copied off a rental (includes previews), then cuts with a jumble of recordings including part of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air intro, the Weather Channel, and the 1990 Billboard Music Awards intro for a minute, before joining in during Lisa Stansfield's performance of "All Around The World" and continues for about the last 90 minutes of the special, taped off WXIN on 12/10/1990 with commercials (cuts off just before the credits)
Tape 7: Consists mainly of a movie copied off of a rental (can't recall at this time), but at the end of the tape, it features the first two segments of the KPNX 10 O'Clock News on 11/3/1979 with a commercial break
Tape 8: The Bee Gees Special, the KPNX 10 PM News, and the first couple minutes of an NBC News special report on the Iran-Hostage Crisis taped off KPNX on 11/21/1979 with commercials (another network would later do something similar and make Ted Koppel a household name)
Tape 9: Begins during the credits of Family Feud, followed by the CBS special SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back (hosted by Skywalker himself), M*A*S*H, and most of WKRP In Cincinnati, off KOOL on 9/22/1980 with commercials, then cuts to about five minutes of a certain NBC soap from around the summer of 1980 with one commercial break. The video quality is not the best at times though during the WKRP portion, and tape itself seems a little brittle.

The tenth tape unfortunately featured a zapped airing of American Graffiti from NBC's Big Event taped in February 1979, followed by part of a movie taped off HBO or a rental.

I may consider hopping aboard the "reaction" trend, since I've just placed an order for a third round with similar tape stock. Frankly, I'm not too impressed with the late '90s/'00s finds that some people react about, since those came at the tail end of the VCR era when the Internet was taking off to change the world like TV did 40-50 years prior. You didn't have those catchy commercial jingles like you had in the '70s, '80s, and early '90s.