I’ve started converting some of my old VHS tapes to DVD, which means I’m running across stuff I haven’t seen since I recorded it years ago.
So far, I’ve run across several episodes of Chico and The Man, The Two Ronnies, Monty Python, lots of SCTV, and a bunch of random stuff that I taped once cable TV came to Mt. Prospect.
In some cases, I’m not exactly sure why I recorded them, so I wrote it off to the fact that I was just playing with a new toy.
(Unfortunately, I did not save any episodes of “Morrie’s Markdown Mart,” a weekly half-hour infomercial on the long-gone Modern Satellite Network, featuring products from the also-long-gone C.O.M.B. closeout distributors. The crown jewel of their product line was the Commodore SX-64, billed as “the portable version of the most popular personal computer in the world!!”)
I also ran across some great MTV clips, including XTC’s Andy Partridge hosting “Post-Modern” in 1989, and XTC’s appearance on Late Night With David Letterman that same week.
The final episodes of Cheers, Newhart, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson also made it to tape. What makes some of these recordings interesting are the commercials that are still intact.
Chicago radio host Steve Dahl makes a few appearances here, with his Greetings From Graceland, An Extremely Low Budget Show, It’s Too Early, and a couple episodes of his cable-access Steve Dahl Show, the highlight of which was Garry Meier riding a Chia Pet through the magic of Chroma-Key.
As I discover more things I find interesting, I’ll mention them here, perhaps with vidcaps.
Not only is this an opportunity to archive the stuff I want to keep, but it’s also creating a nice stack of videos which may find their way to eBay as I weed out my collection.
One item that will certainly be for sale soon is the complete 13-part series Hollywood: A Celebration of The American Silent Film by David Gill and Kenneth Brownlow. This is a must-have for anyone who’s interested in the history of silent movies, and features hours of clips and interviews with the people who were there.
We watched Sunset Boulevard the other night on TCM, and thanks to the Hollywood series we were able to catch all the “inside” movie references (such as DeMille calling Norma Desmond “young fellow,” which is what the real-life DeMille called Gloria Swanson when he directed her in the silent days).
Watch for my stuff on eBay and elsewhere. Commercial over.
One of my hopes is to digitize some of the material that I’ve converted and post it here. A couple people have written asking for copies of my Nite-Owl tape, and perhaps I’ll get a few minutes ripped down for your viewing.
Now, all I need is the time to get through all this tape…