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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

Nice find on that WOWT / KMTV stuff. Wouldn't you believe after probably 800 tapes of searching, not ONE full episode of Dallas found...the only Dallas anything I've found was part of the TV-movie 'Dallas: The Early Years'.
Currently going through the hundreds of tapes I have left. Been pulling some great holiday stuff off for my channel. More to come between now and Christmas.
 
I was only guessing about it being Dallas. The show had the Lorimar logo at the end of it. The "blank" tapes I got came from Independence, MO, so the WOWT/KMTV stuff was suprising.
 
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I just checked the tape & found out that the show I thought was Dallas was actually Falcon Crest. Also, the other NBC movie presentation, recorded off of KMTV, was actually part of the miniseries Peter the Great.
 
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One of the 3 finds from Goodwill bins today:

Elvis & Me Part 2 (February 8, 1988 airing) WGHP (Asheboro/Greensboro, NC)

-This was nearly all of the 2 hour part 2 yet oddly enough someone taped over 40 or so minutes of it with QVC from July 22 or 23rd 1988. QVC video from that era is pretty rare but sadly most of it was lost to a bad cable signal as it had a very loud buzzing sound for audio. Tape ended at about the 2 hour mark even though recorded in EP.
-Even though it wasn't a copied from rental dud, I was a bit disappointed because this was vintage late 1970s VHS tape stock, in this case RCA VK250 in the heavy plastic shell and slipcover. Last time I pulled a VK250 from the bins it had Fall 1979 and Winter 1980 material on it so this was much later, though I've had VK250s with material from as late as 2010 on them. Talk about quite a gap in time of tape stock to usage (and probably a record number of tapeovers)!
-One more thing about RCA VK250s, apparently they are the standard of what vintage TV collectors on Ebay search for, if you type in VK250 in searches and sold prices you will be amazed at what even a simple blank goes for, just from speculation of vintage alone. I wish there were more easy searches on EBay for such stuff, but other brands from that era have changed the packaging and brand name that they are mostly useless.
 
I don't have any Goodwill Outlets nearby, nearest is Pasco (75mi) and then the westside (Tacoma, Olympia). I was planning a possible trip out to the Spokane outlet this summer, but then the last week of July there was an estate sale here and I walked out with several banana boxes worth...yikes! And I've only gone through about 75 tapes since!
 
I did check out the Goodwill Outlet in Akron earlier this year, but didn't find any used blanks in any of the bins. I don't plan on going back there anytime soon. It's not in the best neighborhood for me to want to be in anyway.

Last week I did pick up two unmarked tapes from an estate sale in Seville, but I haven't watched either of them yet. I ordered a VCR/DVD recorder dual unit from Amazon to replace the one I currently have that's been eating tapes. Used but in good condition. Still waiting for it to arrive.
The tapes I found were a late '90s Sony T-120 and a late '80s Scotch T-120, the latter of which has a blank label with Scotch/3M's "Official Sponsor of the 1988 Olympics" moniker on it.
 
Good for you Scott. Unfortunately, cheaper electronics just don't last forever and especially with heavy use with hundreds of tapes from so many unknown sources. I am thankful to have this Sony SLV-N55 sitting next to me below my television + a Betamax unit that both work perfectly. My mono Quasar, along with the other N55 with muffled mono audio, are both being used to copy tapes to DVD before I send them to eBay. The Hi-Fi tapes go in the worn N55 and the mono tapes go into the Quasar.
 
2nd of 3 tapes from the Goodwill bins was a lot better:

1988/11/22 Garfield: His 9 Lives (WFMY 2) missing a couple commercial breaks

1989/1/15 Wild Jack episode 1 of 3 of the miniseries (WXII 12) all commercials cut and recorded in SP format of all things
-I had a hard time finding much information out about this, from the internet it looks like Part 1 had bad ratings to the point that Parts 2 and 3 were burned off way later in the summer.
-This was technically a Wonderful World of Disney release though it seems like a weird fit for it, as it was more a post Dukes of Hazzard attempted vehicle for John Schneider
-The fact that this was recorded in SP messed up what else was on the tape...

1988/11/22 WFMY 2 News, 23 minute partial with commercials
-Segment on the 25th Anniversary of the Assassination of John F Kennedy, I have a copy of the CBS News Special on the same news event that aired that night

1988/11/22 Newhart syndicated rerun, episode 3x19 (WFMY 2)

1988/11/23 Night Heat episode 2x3 "Neighbors" (WFMY 2)
-Night Heat was a Canadian produced series that CBS aired in their "CBS Late Night" block for 3-4 years, they would later revitalize the Canadian content for the "Crimetime After Primetime" ate night series which was later axed for Late Night with David Letterman in August 1993. For what its worth, CBS opted to stop airing Night Heat with a season still left to be produced in Canada. I don't think the show was ever officially released on DVD in America either.

1988/11/23 "Goldie and the Boxer Go To Hollywood" 1981 TV Movie partial, ended at 1:04 with some commercials (WFMY 2)
-From what I can tell CBS Late Night paired an episode of Night Heat with a movie aftewards for a 3 hour complete block
-This was a very rare TV Movie that was an acting vehicle for the now infamous OJ Simpson, though I did find this and the original movie in the series on Youtube

Overall the SP recording of Wild Jack probably wiped out 2 or more hours from the original November 22, 1988 CBS block where the person recording it left it running for a full 6 hour time shift. Oh well.
 
NBC did air some Disney movies on Sundays during the '80s/early '90s...
I've got the Four Days in November special from both WJBK and KIMA, w/ commercials on both.
 
VideoSurferNetwork said:
Hey everyone,

I know it has been a longtime since you've heard from me, I used to go by VideoSurferNetwork, but I am slowly unifying my YouTube channel name across many platforms, YardLionREW. Anyways, I did come across some Betamax tapes, unfortunately my VCR has passed on. I would love to continue digitizing. They're mostly movies and TV shows with commercials from Miami in the 80s and 90s.
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Just a bump for anyone who has followed my adventure. The good news is that I found a better VCR (same make/model), and will continue to digitize exclusive South Florida TV commercials for our channel. Thanks! And I want to send a shout to Pannoni for dealing with so much, but still mananged to get a lot of rare materials.
 
Awesome to hear! I still have my trusty Sony SLV-N55 (it may be Chinese made but I'm surprised at how durable it has been over the past months and years), the Quasar mono VCR from 2001, the SL-3030 Betamax from 1984 or 85, and the Funai...but I am thinking about getting another unit on eBay once I get my next aid refund. It has digitized about 700 DVDs and is starting to wear out. Either that or my stack of HP discs are absolutely awful, which I think they are. Out of 100 discs in the box, about 20 to 25 fail to work altogether and I've had to throw them away. I just ordered some Verbatim discs which are way better and will likely never go back to HP. Normally I use Verbatim but I have used Sony and I think Memorex in the past.

I've got a small stack of holiday VHS tapes + a couple of Betas I am trying to rush through before Christmas. My channel will have some cool last-minute Christmas clips before the big day!
 
crainbebo said:
Awesome to hear! I still have my trusty Sony SLV-N55 (it may be Chinese made but I'm surprised at how durable it has been over the past months and years), the Quasar mono VCR from 2001, the SL-3030 Betamax from 1984 or 85, and the Funai...but I am thinking about getting another unit on eBay once I get my next aid refund. It has digitized about 700 DVDs and is starting to wear out. Either that or my stack of HP discs are absolutely awful, which I think they are. Out of 100 discs in the box, about 20 to 25 fail to work altogether and I've had to throw them away. I just ordered some Verbatim discs which are way better and will likely never go back to HP. Normally I use Verbatim but I have used Sony and I think Memorex in the past.

I've got a small stack of holiday VHS tapes + a couple of Betas I am trying to rush through before Christmas. My channel will have some cool last-minute Christmas clips before the big day!
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To be quite honest the SL2000 (original model) is far superior than the V9800.
 
Anyone know the exact airing dates of certain 1987 $25,000 Pyramid episodes with Ilene Graff and Blake Clark? All I could get was Week of April 27-May 1st. I think this would be a new episode too as I didn't see anything on Youtube or GSN archive from this week of episodes.
 
chandler0201 said:
Anyone know the exact airing dates of certain 1987 $25,000 Pyramid episodes with Ilene Graff and Blake Clark? All I could get was Week of April 27-May 1st. I think this would be a new episode too as I didn't see anything on Youtube or GSN archive from this week of episodes.
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Since celebrity partners changed weekly, that's basically the closest estimate we'll know without any clues within the episode. Dick Clark sometimes would give the day of the week in his descriptions towards the start of the show. I have found a few original broadcast episodes of Dick Clark Pyramid: May 9 & 10, 1984, about half of December 26, 1984 episode, as well as most of the September 11, 1987 $100,000 episode from a seller based out of El Paso in 2017. Sony tends to target Pyramid episodes on YouTube every now and then (like Wheel of Fortune, but not quite to Jeopardy! levels of protectionism). Sometimes there's a voiceover promo during the credits or a network promo right afterwards.

I've just completed my final round of new-to-YouTube content uploads before Christmas, and hopefully a lot of 60 Betas will allow for some hunting time soon as they've been in a holding pattern at the crowded shipping facilities for over a week, after the seller waited five days just to ship those tapes, likely because eBay's special offer turned out to be presumably lower than the seller's Best Offer minimum that I described. For less than $1 each, it certainly is a great way to pass the long nights while hoping for gold and not duds that make you feel cold.
 
In the middle of uploading another batch and then getting right back to the last of the holiday tapes for this year. I still leave a couple dozen + behind...thanks to that Ellensburg estate lot I got in July.
I've never found any Dick Clark Pyramids, but I do have part of a Donny Osmond Pyramid from May 2004 to upload soon. KNDO aired Pyramid at 4am in 2003-04...
 
I was finally able to ID the episode as being from April 29, 1987, some interesting content on that tape to say the least, that Pyramid episode not being the only thing either...
 
Finally finished said tape with the $25,000 Pyramid episode, some interesting stuff on there indeed, all from the Greensboro/High Point market which is rather small (also this was yet another Goodwill bin find):

1. 1987/4/29 Hour Magazine main guest Leeann Hunley of Dynasty fame, her character's big wedding aired the next week
-Missing first few minutes of intro otherwise complete, WFMY2
2. 1987/4/29 $25,000 Pyramid Ilene Graff, Blake Clark, complete, WFMY 2
3. 1987/4/29 New Card Sharks 4 minute partial, WFMY 2 (I'm guessing taper set timer wrong and did 2 hour recording block)
4. 1987/4/30 Hour Magazine main guest Rue McLanahan
-Complete minus a few seconds, I ascertained the date from the promo on the prior episode for this one, WFMY 2
5. 1987/4/30 Oprah episode on Exorcisms!?!?!?
-Many people as old as me remember that Oprah used to not be as "high brow" as she is regarded today, this episode and the "Rainbow Party" episode are proof that she could drop into Maury Povich/Jerry Springer territory. As it is, this episode made the list of 14 most bizarre Oprah episodes on her website. Complete, WGHP 8
6. 1987/4/30 Fame, Fortune, and Romance
-Sadly this was also only 4 minutes as the taper must have had a busted timer clock. This was a short lived spinoff of the Robin Leach series Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous that featured a young Matt Lauer. WGHP 8
7. 1988/3/5 High Mountain Rangers Episode 1x11 "Run of Her Life"
-Short lived Robert Conrad CBS series that only aired 12 or 13 episodes, someone posted an episode of this on Archive recently, and amazingly the whole series is also on TVV. Complete with commercials, WFMY 2.

I found it interesting that the taper skipped forward nearly a whole year with content and yet avoided taping over the other stuff. After the episode of High Mountain Rangers it flipped back and forth with a blank screen and pieces of game shows I think one clip was from Scrabble and another from New Card Sharks again. My guess is that the tape was worn down to the point of not having a signal from frequent tape overs. As it is, tape ended around the 4:40 of 6 hours mark. Inside the box had some torn out pages of a 1987 issue of TV Guide which led me to believe one of the Kenny Rogers Gambler movies was on this tape, apparently it is on another one from this same lot, but we will see.
 
I don't have any Goodwill Outlets nearby, nearest is Pasco (75mi) and then the westside (Tacoma, Olympia). I was planning a possible trip out to the Spokane outlet this summer, but then the last week of July there was an estate sale here and I walked out with several banana boxes worth...yikes! And I've only gone through about 75 tapes since!
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There's one in Orchards if you're ever in the Vancouver or Portland metros again. Used to be behind the big GICW at 4th Plain and Andresen until they opened the stand-alone unit about 10 years ago. Just up SR503/NE 117th about 3 miles from city limits. I ride past it on my mountain bike all the time but you'd have one hell of a time getting me to set foot in a Badwill these days.

://mapper.acme.com/?ll=45.68770,-122.55089&z=17&t=MLB
 
That would be me who posted the High Mountain Rangers episode, as well as about a half-dozen others. It was a show that came and went too soon IMO.
 


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