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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

I did some garage sale shopping yesterday and found one where I found a self-made tape. It turned out to have a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End taped from CBS on November 21, 1999. The tape also had that night's WTOL Toledo 11 News Nightwatch newscast with the 11 Sports Train (Sunday night sports report) segments. It also had an ER rerun that was shown on WTOL just after the news. All of the commercials were included on the tape, including several holiday-themed Hallmark commercials from the movie.
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

urielb22 said:
would you ever find a way to post those tapes to convert to pc and post them on you tube?
Click to expand...

No doubt the stuff is YouTube gold, especially the IDs, promos and sign offs/ons.
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Unfortunaly, the "branda1979" I think is a troll...remember when he/she faked "AETN (Ark.) getting a new look with teen programs on .1, and PBS on .3" as bjbarnettmusic?

-crainbebo
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Last weekend I found three tapes at a garage sale. One had the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation taped from WUAB in 1987 with commercials cut out. At the end were the last ten minutes of a Newscenter 8 (WJW) 6:00 broadcast and the first 15 minutes or so of CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. Both were from July 21, 1987, and both included commercials. The two other tapes contained original broadcasts of Simpsons episodes from the second and third seasons (1990-1991) taped from WOIO. Some of them had commercials, but the majority of them had the commercials cut out.
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

You might find some of these at estate sales while they sell everything in the house after the owner dies or goes to the home?
 
Dug this VERY old thread out...

Oldest VHS (no blank Betas or beta machine yet) altogether were an episode of Growing Pains, two eps of Moonlighting, a couple eps of Cheers, one episode of Miami Vice, the movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and an episode of Good Neighbors, all from late 1986 and 1987, taped on a BASF T-160. This was an eBay find. The Growing Pain/Moonlighting eps were taped from WSET/13 Lynchburg, VA, the Miami Vice/Cheers episodes were taped from WSLS/10 Roanoke, VA, the movie was taped off WVFT/27 Roanoke (when it was an Ind.) and Good Neighbors was taped from Blue Ridge Public Television (WBRA/15 Roanoke). All contents except Good Neighbors (of course) had commercials and bumpers on them, some very interesting to watch.

Oldest VHS taped from home...the movie "Total Recall" off an unknown cable channel (no ads, maybe HBO?) around early/mid 1990s. I also have the move "Freaks" taped from TNT in 1995, and the Seattle Mariners AL West Championship (actually it was my mother's) taped from ESPN/KIRO 7 in 1995, no ads.

-crainbebo
 
The oldest videotapes I've got on off-air VHS:

This was taped over from a Three Stooges video, from July 1984 it's the final seconds of NBC's "Summer Sunday, USA" promo with current California Governor Jerry Brown. The host were Linda Ellerbee (now at Nick News), and Andrea Mitchell (still at NBC today). It has the picture of the two hosts on the top left and the truck driving on a bridge on the bottom left infront of the 1983-85 NBC News Globe graphics. The announcer says "...Governor Jerry Brown, join Linda Ellerbee and Andrea Mitchell sunday!" then it cuts of "Days of our Lives" promo then cuts to Kenn Sparks (who was anchor at WYFF 4 in Greenville, SC at the time) opening his eyes. It has "NewsCenter 4, WYFF-TV Greenville, S.C." in the bottom. Yes, it has the red/blue arrow 4 logo they used for many years. The announcer said from the NBC promo "This week, we hope to sake our wedding bells..." then it cuts back to the Three Stooges. Unfortunately, I didn't see the NBC's Proud 'N logo from 1979-86 on the tape.

Another videotapes I've got are from 1989-1991 (all taped from WYFF 4 with commercials, NBC promos, and WYFF 4 promos and newscast promos during the final days of "NewsCenter4" and early days of "News 4", it has the gold arrow 4 logo as well):

July 2, 1989- NBC Sunday Night at the Movies "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome"
August 7, 1989 - NBC Mini-Series "On Wings of Eagles" -repeat (with Garrick Utley doing NBC News at This Hour on the death of politician Mickey Leland)
November 13, 1989- NBC Monday Night at the Movies "Cast the First Stone"
November 19, 1989?- NBC Sunday Night at the Movies "Top Gun"- repeat
January 22, 1990 - NBC Monday Night at the Movies "The Delta Force"
February 4, 1990- NBC Sunday Night at the Movies "Lethal Weapon"
February 11 and 13, 1990- NBC Miniseries "Blind Faith" (with the late Robert Urich)
February 19, 1990 - NBC Monday Night at the Movies "Nasty Boys" - repeat
February 25, 1990 - NBC Sunday Night at the Movies "A Family For Joe" (starring the late Robert Mitchum, features NBC News at This Hour with Debroah Norville before she went to "Inside Edition")
February 26, 1990 - NBC Monday Night at the Movies "To Young to Die?" (starring Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt before he was famous)
January 6, 1991 - NBC Sunday Night at the Movies "Perry Mason and the Case of the Ruthless Reporter" which followed by WYFF News 4 newscast from that date (incomplete)

Now some from CBS affiliate WSPA-TV.

1992-93: Christmas Specials, "Child of Rage", "John List".

Here's some from ABC affiliate WLOS-TV.

January 1989: ABC Sunday Night Movie "Ghostbusters" with promos and one promo featuring the late Peter Jennings.

From Fox Affiliate WHNS-TV.

February 28, 1990 - Broadcast of the 1985 movie "To Live and Die in L.A."
April 1990 - Broadcast of a "Simpsons" episode plus promos and station ID, follows by FOX ID, and first seconds of "Married with Children".
 
I still have a few ball games that I recorded off WGN-TV in 1981 - the first year I had a VHS machine. This was the last year that Jack Brickhouse was with the Cubs and Harry Caray was with the Sox, so I want to hang on to them as long as I can. They still play on my 10-year-old Panasonic machine.
 
Hmm, let me think. Well, I do have a Betamax tape from 1982 containing episodes of SCTV. In one episode, Bobby Bittman (Eugene Levy) tearfully announces to the world that Britain and Argentina are at war in the "Fakland" Islands. That would put the recording in April of 1982. The tape plays back OK with some occasional strain on the machine's transport.

But I also have a U-Matic recording of a story I did in 1979 when I was working at KEZI in Eugene on the Oregon gold rush. The station had just converted from 16mm film to U-Matic in that year. Sadly, the tape no longer plays.
 
Which station did you tape SCTV from? I would say KVAL 13 Eugene, as it was NBC (last year actually).

-crainbebo
 
The oldest off-the-air tape I possess is a half-hour 1986 USA "Night Flight" profile of Bryan Ferry, which reprises an interview the singer did the previous year with Lisa Robinson for "Radio 1990," when he was promoting his "Boys and Girls" album. (Amusingly, after the profile concluded, the program screened King Crimson's "Sleepless" video, incorrectly identifying the band as a Roxy Music offshoot.) This tape today, alas, is barely watchable. I also have a fair amount of videos I recorded from MTV's "120 Minutes," including their 1987 segment on David Sylvian, whose 1986 "Gone to Earth" album had (finally) been released stateside. Those were the daze!
 
crainbebo said:
Which station did you tape SCTV from? I would say KVAL 13 Eugene, as it was NBC (last year actually).

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

Actually I was back in Los Angeles by 1982. So I saw the show on KNBC.
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

I found four more old tapes at a flea market last weekend. Here's what I found:
-Two episodes of Gilmore Girls from August or September 2005 taped from WBDT in Dayton n/c
-One partial episode and one complete episode of Will & Grace from April 2003 taped from WLIO in Lima, also included the first five minutes or so of ER w/c
-Three movies recorded from pay TV channels: The Banker (1989) taped from an unknown channel, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987) and The Killers (1946) both taped from the Movie Channel around 1991
-Music videos taped from MTV (music videos on MTV, imagine that!) in September 1991 w/c
-Casper (1995), ABC Family Movie presentation taped from WPTA in Fort Wayne on October 25, 1998 w/c
-101 Dalmatians (1996), Wonderful World of Disney presentation taped from WPTA on November 1, 1998 w/c
-Get Shorty (1995), NBC airing taped from WKJG (now WISE) in Fort Wayne in November 1998, also includes NBC 33 News Weekend Nightbeat opening w/c
-(Most of) Legends of Laughter (PBS documentary on Groucho Marx and Jack Benny) taped from WBGU in Bowling Green in November 1989
-Clips from Land O' Loons (PBS stand-up comedy show produced by KTCA in Minneapolis-St. Paul) taped from WBGU in November 1989
-Part of the fourth quarter of a Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls game from May 1989 on CBS (I'm guessing WTOL because it was on the same tape as the WBGU stuff, but don't know for sure because only one commercial break was found from the game, two others were cut out)
-The end of that tape had a few minutes of an unknown PBS documentary on the Civil Rights Movement (I'm guessing 1989 based on the other stuff on the tape, and I'm also guessing it's either from WBGU in Bowling Green or WGTE in Toledo, but I couldn't tell despite the flash flood warning graphic on-screen)
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

The thread continues on...

Sunday, went back to the same record store in Everett, WA I was at before when they had the "Hoarder's" lot of VHS tapes (2000 or so!) Good news is that most of the boxes were put on the shelves, with only about nine or ten left to go, so it was easier finding the blank VHS tapes. Picked up two TDKs, an HS T-120 and an HS T-160.

Tape 1, the T-160, had coverage of when the Kingdome in Seattle was torn down, on March 26th, 2000. It was taped from KOMO 4 (ABC) in Seattle, SP mode, Dan Lewis and Kathi Goertzen anchored, of course Steve Pool did the weather, reporters included Eric Johnson and Keith Eldridge. This tape has the original 2000 commercials, lots of local ads.

Tape 2, the T-120, had an episode of SNL from May of 1995 in the LP speed with David Duchovny hosting, with musical guest Rod Stewart. Unusual tape as it has commercials, but rather than pausing and cutting out ads, the audio was muted, so there would be dead audio during the breaks. This was taped off KING 5 (NBC) in Seattle. After SNL there's an episode or two of an erotic drama called "Red Shoe Diaries".

Other tapes spotted there included several movies, a couple of documentaries, a tape of Fawlty Towers (Presumed taped off KCTS-9) and some tapes without labels! I haven't checked all the boxes yet for the treasures, but I know there might be more!

-crainbebo
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Thanks again crainbebo for sharing your video tape finds. you got Youtube gold there on those tapes.Thanks to ssetta for starting this great thread.Maybe 5 years we can start a selfmade DVD thread.
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

WPPCProductions said:
Thanks again crainbebo for sharing your video tape finds. you got Youtube gold there on those tapes.Thanks to ssetta for starting this great thread.Maybe 5 years we can start a selfmade DVD thread.
Click to expand...

Which is a good point, crainbebo, have you ever thought about putting any of these commercials, newscasts, or other random finds on YouTube?
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Possibly someday, but I'm not sure about using a camcorder. Sometimes there's poor video pointing toward a TV.

-crainbebo
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

They have those USB video capture boxes for about $50 and up for encoding the videotapes to DVD,Mpeg,AVI,FLV files to send to youtube or DVD.I got to get one myself and try it out. .I do have a Hauppauge WinTV PCI card in my relic win98 computer with Adobe Premeire which it works great but its slow like a turtle.
 
Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Last weekend I bought four tapes at a garage sale and six tapes at a flea market.

Here's what I found on the tapes at the garage sale (the guy who sold them to me had a lot more in the box, but I just took four):
-Last 30 minutes of Superman (1978) taped from unknown channel, more than likely in the late 1980s, n/c
-Goonies (1985) taped from WKYC in Cleveland around 1989 or so, n/c
-Some gymnastics and swimming events from the 1992 Summer Olympics (taped from WKYC in August 1992) very few commercials
-Monday Night Football: Cleveland Browns vs. San Francisco 49ers 9/13/1993 (taped from WEWS in Cleveland) w/c
-WEWS News Channel 5 at 11:00 9/13/1993 (with Roy Weissinger, Wilma Smith, Kerry O'Reilly filling in for Don Webster, Bob Stevens filling in for Nev Chandler) w/c, leads up to the start of Nightline
-American Idol "Final 32" audition episode (taped in February 2004 from WJW in Cleveland) w/c
-Oliver Beene episode (taped in February 2004 from WJW) w/c
-Part of the movie Firewalker (1985) taped from TBS in 1993, very few commercials
-Fox NFL Sunday: Cleveland Browns vs. Washington Redskins (taped in October 2004 from WJW) very few commercials

And here's what I found on the six tapes from the flea market (I bought them from five different vendors):
-The Viking Queen (1967) taped from KTLA in Los Angeles 10/6/1985 (starts with the end of New York Hot Tracks) w/c
-Knights of the Round Table (1953) taped from KTLA 10/6/1985 w/c
-Third 1992 Presidential Debate (ABC coverage taped from WAKC in Akron) some commercials near the end
-Small part of the movie The Crusades (1935) taped from KTLA 10/6/1985 w/c
-Under Siege (1995) taped from unknown pay TV channel
-Home Alone (1990) taped from HBO in December 1991 with promos at the end
-Part of an episode of Justice Files (taped from the Discovery Channel in December 1991) w/c
-Part of the movie Vanishing Son II (taped from WUAB in Cleveland 7/23/1994) with some WUAB promos
-The Westerner (1940) taped from WEWS in Cleveland 8/18/1994, w/c and Cablevision cable box channel surfing during a couple of the commercial breaks
-Summer Rental (1985) taped from unknown channel n/c
-In Harm's Way (1965) taped from AMC in December 1994 with promos before the movie
-First half of an American Idol episode from April 2006 (one of the last of the season, taped from WJW) w/c
-House season two finale (starts with end of another Idol episode, taped from WJW 5/23/2006) w/c
-First half of a WJW Fox 8 News broadcast 5/23/2006 (with Bill Martin, Stacey Bell, Dick Goddard, and Tony Rizzo) w/c
-Most of an episode of the Colbert Report (taped from Comedy Central in April 2006) w/c
-Most of Friends season nine finale (taped from WKYC 5/15/2003) w/c, leads up to the start of Will & Grace season finale
-Partial Will & Grace episode (taped from WKYC in May 2003) w/c
-Another episode of House (taped from WJW in April 2005, starts with end of Idol episode) w/c
-Last few minutes of an episode of My So-Called Life (taped from either WEWS or WAKC, can't say for sure, in December 1994) w/c
-Ten Years of Friends (NBC special on Friends sitcom, taped from WKYC 5/6/2004) w/c
-Friends final episode: The Last One (taped from WKYC 5/6/2004) w/c, leads up to start of ER
-The Tonight Show with Jay Leno episode on Friends set (with musical guest Black Eyed Peas, taped from WKYC 5/6/2004) w/c
-Late Night with Conan O'Brien episode (guests are Brad Pitt and Janet Jackson, taped from WKYC 5/6/2004) w/c
-Most of Last Call with Carson Daly (guests are Lauren Holly and Dave Atell, featured musical guest Rooney, but not on the tape, taped from WKYC 5/6/2004) w/c
 


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