Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

[RetroCirq]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Looks like I've found some stuff last week:

Primarily PBS stuff (i.e. Live from Lincoln Center, Great Performances, etc.)

But there were a few gems:

• Motown 25, yes THE Motown 25th Anniversary Special from 1983 with Commercials
• Pointer Sisters: Up All Nite (aired in 1986) off WSVN-TV

• Kennedy Center Honors off WTVJ
• Parts of "To Kill a Mockingbird" off WCIX-TV (when it was an independent station)

[/list]

 

[Scott2011]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

As I was looking through some of my old tapes-I spotted one with some Toledo programs! I have a tape of "Rhinestone" with Dolly Parton, and I found out it had commercials. I checked and there was an old WNWO 24 news teaser. The tape dated back to May 1987.

-crainbebo

That was less than a year after the station changed their call letters from WDHO to WNWO. I actually have a fair amount of tapes from Toledo TV that I found at a couple of flea markets while I was living in Bowling Green taking classes at BGSU (graduated just last year). Probably mentioned these finds already, but here's a rundown of what I have from that area:

-Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Texas Longhorns taped from WTVG on 9/23/1995 with ads and also including some footage of the 31st Ryder Cup Matches
-Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Ohio State Buckeyes taped from WNWO on 9/26/1996 with ads, along with part of a Cosby Show rerun and part of the evening's NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams taped from the same station
-Part of a broadcast of CBS Morning News with Giselle Fernandez taped from WTOL on 11/6/1991 with a few ads
-Episodes of The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, and As the World Turns taped from WTOL on 9/26/2001
-1998 NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 taped from WNWO on 5/31/1998 with ads
-1998 NBA Finals Game 4 taped from WNWO on 6/10/1998 with ads
-1998 NBA Finals Game 6 taped from WNWO on 6/14/1998 with ads, NBC 24 News at 11:00 with ads, and first few minutes of Pensacola: Wings of Gold
-Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End (CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame movie) taped from WTOL on 11/21/1999 with ads, Toledo 11 News Nightwatch with ads, one complete and one incomplete episode of ER, also with ads from WTOL
-Part of the PBS documentary Legends of Laughter and part of an episode of Land O' Loons taped from WBGU in Bowling Green in November 1989 with promos between the two shows
-Parts 4, 5 and 6 of North and South Book II (ABC miniseries) taped from WDHO on May 7, 8 and 11 with ads
-Part of an episode of American Dreams taped from WNWO on 2/16/2003 with a few ads
-Last 15 minutes of a General Hospital episode and first 10 minutes of a Rosie O'Donnell episode taped from WTVG in July 2002 with ads

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Remember I had that "All in the Family" tape that I thought was erased? Good news is there's episodes-I had to fast forward a couple of minutes, since the first 3 or 4 min were blank. Episodes were taped off KONG-TV here in Seattle, as soon as it started. (Many, MANY classic TV shows on there in the very early days, and Northwest Cable News simulcasts late at night) Bad news is it has no commercials.

-crainbebo

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Got four more tapes today in Everett. Here's what I found.

Tape 1-Two episodes of Twin Peaks taped off Bravo around 2000 with ads, locally from AT&T Broadband in Seattle. LP mode.

Tape 2-The movie "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe"-aka Lily Tomlin stand up (1991) and "The Super" (1991) as well as "My Blue Heaven" (1990). No commercials, so no way to know if it was rental tapes or off premium cable.

Tape 3-Supposed to be Twin Peaks, but got taped over by infomercials on Court TV- a Feed the Children infomercial, a Cross Bow infomercial and part of the Westerfield Sentencing, which was in January 2003.

Tape 4-A great tape! Starts with a few Kalapana Volcano news clips from Hawaii itself, including a KHON-2 report and a taped report from KITV-4. It then flips to USA reruns of a Canadian show called "Diamonds" with Nicholas Campbell, taped also around 1990 with commercials included.

I also got five other movies, all studio tapes.


-crainbebo

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

I have a VHS in the "ER" right now. It's tape #67, with "Neverending Story", "Shoot for the Living and Pray for the Dead" and a Johnny Appleseed show off Showtime. They are minus commercials. The tape guard snapped off after rewinding it, and I'm afraid that it's not replaceable. Should I put super glue on the cracked part of the tape guard, or just throw it out and replace with another #67?

-crainbebo

 

[Scott2011]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

My first flea market VHS haul for 2013! Picked these tapes up just yesterday.

TAPE 1: Twelve O'Clock High (1949) taped from WVIZ in October 1997 with promos for Mobil Masterpiece Theatre, The Adventurers, Nova, and Frontline at the end of the tape

TAPE 2: Hamburger Hill (1987) and Casualties of War (1989) taped from Showtime in March 1991 with promos found before the first movie

TAPE 3: Spaceballs (1987) taped from WUAB in August 1994 with ads

TAPE 4: Little Heroes (1999 made-for-TV movie) taped from Animal Planet in January 2000 with ads

TAPE 5: Hard Rain (1998), episode of JAG, and most of U-571 (2000) taped from USA in March 2003 with ads, including several local ads from Comcast during their early days of availability in Northeast Ohio

Also found a tape of Super Bowl XXV from January 27, 1991, but didn't notice until after I took it home that the tape inside the casing appeared to be covered in dust. I actually tried playing it back for about a minute, but when I tried to rewind it, my VCR ejected the tape and turned off by itself. Not really sure if I should even try playing it back again or not.

Other labels on tapes I spotted there but didn't pick up included episodes of The A-Team (possibly taped from TV Land, date read 2-28-00, so not sure if that was the network the show was on at that time or not), Under Siege (already have a copy of that movie), Home Alone (already have a copy of it), Mickey's Christmas Carol and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (already have both of those on separate tapes), I Spy (obviously couldn't tell if that was the TV show or the movie), and a couple of tapes that appeared to have been family home video recordings based on the labels.

 

[Scott2011]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Found some more tapes at one of the local flea markets on Sunday.

TAPE 1: Hoosiers (1986) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1988; Morgan Stewart's Coming Home (1987) taped from HBO in July 1988 with promos found after the movie

TAPE 2: This one was basically a compilation of sports videos and events, mostly basketball: Michael Jordan in the Paint, Michael Jordan: Airtime, Michael Jordan: Come Fly with Me, and 1992: The Year in Sports all copied from rental tapes; some ESPNews footage of NFL player Korey Stringer's funeral in August 2001; second half of Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Finals taped from WKYC on 6/13/1997 with ads, also including part of the victory celebration at the end

TAPE 3: Dennis the Menace (1993) taped from WKYC on 12/28/1996 with ads and also including the first couple minutes of The Pretender

TAPE 4: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) taped from HBO circa 1995 (I already had a tape of this movie recorded from Fox/WJW, but that tape was very damaged, plus the first 15 minutes or so were taped over, so I bought this to replace that other copy)

TAPE 5: Most of O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) taped from TBS circa 2004 with ads cut out; partial broadcast of WWF Raw taped from TNN on 10/9/2000 with ads; complete broadcast of WWF Raw from 10/16/2000 also with ads; WCW Monday Nitro taped from TNT on 10/23/2000 with ads; WCW Thunder taped from TBS Superstation on 10/25/2000 with most ad breaks included (a couple were cut out, and at least one of them was interrupted by channel surfing on the original owner's cable box)

TAPE 6: Most of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT from sometime in February 2000 and part of WWF Raw on USA from that same night (whoever taped this flipped back and forth between the two shows, very few commercials from them were found); most of Def Jam's How to Be a Player (1997) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1998; partial episode of ER taped from TNT in October 1998 with ads; two full episodes of ER on TNT in October 1998 without ads; last 30 minutes of an episode of Knight Rider taped from USA in March 1995 with one commercial break found

This was the same flea market where I found those tapes of Dark Shadows recorded from the Sci-Fi Channel from a vendor who had a couple of big boxes full of them. I picked up three more of those and found many more episodes of said show with commercials from April and May 1995 included. One of those tapes, however, actually had about six episodes of The Hardy Boys taped from the Disney Channel (with promos found before each episode) before six more episodes of Dark Shadows.

Other recordable tapes I spotted there but didn't pick up included The Snowman (I'm presuming it's the 1982 Christmas special produced by Channel Four in the UK), Fantasia (already have a copy of it), Batteries Not Included (already have a copy of it), A Christmas Story (already have a store-bought copy of it, but the label actually read that it was taped from Channel 5 [WEWS]), All in the Family episodes (bought another tape of episodes of said show from the same flea market vendor last year), more wrestling programs, more movies that I can't think of now, and strangely enough, a couple that appeared to be family home movies according to the labels.

 

[tebjr]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

TAPE 3: The Comancheros (1961) taped from KUSA in Denver; Red Mountain (1951) taped from SuperStation WTBS; and Man Without a Star (1955) taped from SuperStation WTBS, all taped circa 1986, but not positively sure because no ads were found during any of the movie

New to the board, but was wondering if you still had these in your collection? I'm a HUGE fan of the old Superstation and am always on the lookout for new finds.

Thanks,

Tommy

 

[johnnya2k6]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

-WWF Saturday Night Main Event 4/30/1988 (more than likely taped from WOIO, but don't know for sure) n/c

Saturday Night's Main Event was on NBC, so I think you mean WKYC.

 

[Scott2011]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

-WWF Saturday Night Main Event 4/30/1988 (more than likely taped from WOIO, but don't know for sure) n/c

Saturday Night's Main Event was on NBC, so I think you mean WKYC.

Yeah, I figured that out shortly after I posted that.

 

[KML0224]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

WWE Saturday Night's Main Event, which aired that night, was taped at the Springfield Civic Center (now the MassMutual Center) in Massachusetts. The show was an NBC mainstay from 1985 to 1992. Two episodes of that series would air on FOX in 1992-93: one from Texas and the other from Terre Haute, IN. I have that Springfield show in my own collection, with the end credit partially cut off. Something which wouldn't happen with a DVD recorder now. :

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

TAPE 3: The Comancheros (1961) taped from KUSA in Denver; Red Mountain (1951) taped from SuperStation WTBS; and Man Without a Star (1955) taped from SuperStation WTBS, all taped circa 1986, but not positively sure because no ads were found during any of the movie

New to the board, but was wondering if you still had these in your collection? I'm a HUGE fan of the old Superstation and am always on the lookout for new finds.

Thanks,

Tommy

I've got some Superstation stuff dating back to early 1988. I also used to have a tape of "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" taped off WTBS around 1995 with all commercials, but I misplaced the tape!

-crainbebo

 

[willdav713]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

I have a VHS in the "ER" right now. It's tape #67, with "Neverending Story", "Shoot for the Living and Pray for the Dead" and a Johnny Appleseed show off Showtime. They are minus commercials. The tape guard snapped off after rewinding it, and I'm afraid that it's not replaceable. Should I put super glue on the cracked part of the tape guard, or just throw it out and replace with another #67?

-crainbebo

Buy a cheap blank VHS tape and transplant it. If it is the leader that snapped off, that is an easy fix, take the case apart and scotch tape the tape together. I did that with mine. My tape had the Warner Cable Channel Lineup change from 1989. After fixing it I played it and uploaded it to Youtube under RetroMericalsTV channel.

 

[Darth_vader]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

Ugh---I cringe every single time I read about Scotch Tape splices, regardless of format.....

"Tape 1-Two episodes of Twin Peaks taped off Bravo around 2000 with ads, locally from AT&T Broadband in Seattle. LP mode."

Do you know which episodes they are, specifically? (They didn't officially have names, only numbers.)

Are the "Log Lady" introductions there?

 

[tebjr]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

I've got some Superstation stuff dating back to early 1988. I also used to have a tape of "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" taped off WTBS around 1995 with all commercials, but I misplaced the tape!

-crainbebo

Do you trade?

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

I don't trade - but in the near future I might post the commercials onto YouTube. Just got to get a better camera and one of those S-Video inputs.

-crainbebo

 

[Darth_vader]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

"

'Tape 1-Two episodes of Twin Peaks taped off Bravo around 2000 with ads, locally from AT&T Broadband in Seattle. LP mode.'

"

"Do you know which episodes they are, specifically? (They didn't officially have names, only numbers.)

Are the "Log Lady" introductions there?"

Don't know? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Twin_Peaks_episodes

Hint: If Leland's hair is white, they're from series ("season") 2. Remember: the owls are not what they seem.

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

I've got to pull out the tape first - maybe this weekend.

-crainbebo

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

A couple weeks ago I got one more blank tape (to replace 67, obviously). It has three movies - Dark of the Night (1985), The Amateur (1981) and Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) taped off an unknown source due to minus commercials.

Noticed very few blank tapes recently on eBay. Most are PBS programs. Should have gotten those lots of T.J. Hooker and Wonder Woman that were on there a few months ago! Probably would have found '80s galore!

I'll head back to Everett soon and see what I can get.

-crainbebo

 

[crainbebo]

Re: Self-made VHS tapes at Thrift Stores

"

'Tape 1-Two episodes of Twin Peaks taped off Bravo around 2000 with ads, locally from AT&T Broadband in Seattle. LP mode.'

"

"Do you know which episodes they are, specifically? (They didn't officially have names, only numbers.)

Are the "Log Lady" introductions there?"

Don't know? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Twin_Peaks_episodes

Hint: If Leland's hair is white, they're from series ("season") 2. Remember: the owls are not what they seem.

The first episode (after the commercial) starts with a shot of a full moon, but does not display an episode number. Leland's hair is dark brown, so it's season 1.

-crainbebo