Before VCR's

[Shrykull]

Before VCR's and video stores, when you wanted to see a movie, and it haf already come and gone in the theatre how did you? The first movie I ever watched on a VCR was superman 3. I was born in 78 and saw ANH in the theatre, so I guess the only two ways were they would bring it back to the theatre or they would show it on TV?

[TrailerParkJawa]

If you were lucky enough to have cable you might see it there. But back in the 70's movies did not make it to cable very fast. It took years for that to happen. Now days the distribution has changed, even a very popular movie is on cable - vcr - or dvd within a year.

[Tsyroc]

Movies being aired on broadcast tv used to be a big deal and popular movies often were run in consecutive years.

Also, theaters used to show older movies at weekend matinees or on late night showings.

I saw the original King Kong on film at a showing at the Iowa City public library. Libraries used to get prints of films to show and sometimes loan. The were 35mm though. More like the size they used to show in school all the time. Later on they might have some of those jumbo video tapes that were used before beta and vhs. I only ever saw schools and television studios having those player/recorders though.

Where I lived in the Quad Cities there was also some small theater run by a film club or something where I went and saw Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla for the first time.

[neoolong]

If you were lucky enough to have cable you might see it there. But back in the 70's movies did not make it to cable very fast. It took years for that to happen. Now days the distribution has changed, even a very popular movie is on cable - vcr - or dvd within a year.

Even less. The usual time from theater to DVD is about 6 months or so, sometimes even less. Which is why we're going to begin to see more summer movies come out around November and December.

[Shrykull]

If you were lucky enough to have cable you might see it there. But back in the 70's movies did not make it to cable very fast. It took years for that to happen. Now days the distribution has changed, even a very popular movie is on cable - vcr - or dvd within a year.

cable existed in the 70's? I thought it was a early 80's invention, anyone remember the thing HBO used to show every time they showed a movie, flying over the countryside, then the big HBO in the air, takes you inside the O and then depending on what the movie was said "feature presentation" usually, if you listen closely toward the end of the logo that comes on now you can still hear a bit of the music from that thing doo-doo-doo doodoo doodoodoodoo.

[Shrykull]

Even less. The usual time from theater to DVD is about 6 months or so, sometimes even less. Which is why we're going to begin to see more summer movies come out around November and December.

How long did take Titanic to go from theatre to dvd or vhs. I think it was less than the release of the two towers which came out today.

[TrailerParkJawa]

If you were lucky enough to have cable you might see it there. But back in the 70's movies did not make it to cable very fast. It took years for that to happen. Now days the distribution has changed, even a very popular movie is on cable - vcr - or dvd within a year.

cable existed in the 70's? I thought it was a early 80's invention, anyone remember the thing HBO used to show every time they showed a movie, flying over the countryside, then the big HBO in the air, takes you inside the O and then depending on what the movie was said "feature presentation" usually, if you listen closely toward the end of the logo that comes on now you can still hear a bit of the music from that thing doo-doo-doo doodoo doodoodoodoo.

I remember that intro. And yes, I seem to remember some people in my neighborhood having cable in the late 70's. It was a big deal cause out of the 6-8 blocks that made up my neighborhood only the first 3 had cable on their street.

[Shrykull]

If you were lucky enough to have cable you might see it there. But back in the 70's movies did not make it to cable very fast. It took years for that to happen. Now days the distribution has changed, even a very popular movie is on cable - vcr - or dvd within a year.

Usually it does take cable a full year for the movie to come out, comes out in stores even before pay per view, right now they're showing episode 2 on the one of the HBO channels, I'd like pay per view if it came out sooner, and I could watch the movie anytime within a five day period, I know they have all day tickets.

[neoolong]

Even less. The usual time from theater to DVD is about 6 months or so, sometimes even less. Which is why we're going to begin to see more summer movies come out around November and December.

How long did take Titanic to go from theatre to dvd or vhs. I think it was less than the release of the two towers which came out today.

Today? Damn time zone differences.

Uh, I don't know about that. My info says that Titanic came out in 1997, the DVD out in 1999.

The 6 month thing is fairly recent though. I'd say within the last couple of years, with DVDs getting more and more popular.

[Shrykull]

Even less. The usual time from theater to DVD is about 6 months or so, sometimes even less. Which is why we're going to begin to see more summer movies come out around November and December.

How long did take Titanic to go from theatre to dvd or vhs. I think it was less than the release of the two towers which came out today.

Today? Damn time zone differences.

Uh, I don't know about that. My info says that Titanic came out in 1997, the DVD out in 1999.

The 6 month thing is fairly recent though. I'd say within the last couple of years, with DVDs getting more and more popular.

I said VHS or DVD, I remember seeing some of sale at Blockbuster and a grocery store.

[InnerBrat]

There was a time before VCRs? Why hasn't my archaeology stuidies turned up this bizarre age?

Serously, my father is forever reminiscing about the time when cinemas would continously show old films. There were more cinemas, showing a wider variety of films, as oppsoed to today's multiplexes where up to three screens are devoted to showing one movie for about two weeks.

[Col. Crackpot]

I was born in 78 and saw ANH in the theatre, so I guess the only two ways were they would bring it back to the theatre or they would show it on TV?

bah! I saw ANH in Baltimore in 1977 although i was in diapers at the time. And let me tell you the long line isn't so bad if you can just let one go in your pants.

[Damaramu]

Anyone remember that weird movie format from the early 80's?

Basically, the movie was on a big LP sized disc that was encased inside a plastic shell. You would slide the big cartridge in and play side one. Occasionaly you'd have to pop the cartridge back out and flip it over, then reinsert the disc.

A friend that lived up the street from me when I was like 5 or 6 had one of those. I remember watching Spacehunter: Adventures in The Forbidden Zone and Raiders of The Lost Ark on that format.

[Frank Hipper]

You're all a bunch of puling infants!

Our first cable box in the mid-seventies was black metal with a silver face, and a knob with about ten pounds of resistance on it. It made a satisfying *thunk* sound when you changed channels. HBO had a long intro on how they would "only show this Feature at night" for "R" rated movies. We had a parental control box that had an actual key for it.
Networks would show show popular movies once a year, I remember waiting for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang as a youngin'.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Networks would show show popular movies once a year, I remember waiting for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang as a youngin'.

Dont forget the annual showing of Wizard of Oz around the holidays. I remeber that.

[Phil Skayhan]

I never felt that I was missing anything before we had cable or a VCR.

Every week following "Edge of Night", the 4:30 Movie would showcase a week-long theme. Among them: Vincent Price, Planet of the Apes, Elvis Presley, Monster (usually Godzilla), John Wayne, Beach Party, Our Man Flint, Jack Lemmon, Western.

Saturdays were a hodge-podge of war, horror, or sci-fi. However, at three in the afternoon it was time for "Kung Fu Theater".

Sundays were a little tough, but 11:30 AM was time for an Abbot and Costello movie. Then at night you had a Disney movie at 7:30 and a "new to TV" movie at nine.


There was also the annual showing of the original King Kong on Thanksgiving.

And Damaramu, they are called LaserDiscs. A few of us here still have them.

Edit: corrected name of show preceding 4:30 Movie and added link

[Darth Garden Gnome]

And Damaramu, they are called LaserDiscs. A few of us here still have them.

Only way to get the Star Wars OT on a disc until those bums come out with a DVD.

[Damaramu]

And Damaramu, they are called LaserDiscs. A few of us here still have them.

Only way to get the Star Wars OT on a disc until those bums come out with a DVD.

Lol, guys I know what a laser disc is. This definitely was NOT a laserdisc system that I'm familiar with.

As I said, the movies were in an LP sized cartridge of sorts.

Now, this could have been some kind of predecessor to laserdics. Mind you this was circa '80-'81.

[Phil Skayhan]

And Damaramu, they are called LaserDiscs. A few of us here still have them.

Only way to get the Star Wars OT on a disc until those bums come out with a DVD.

Lol, guys I know what a laser disc is. This definitely was NOT a laserdisc system that I'm familiar with.

As I said, the movies were in an LP sized cartridge of sorts.

Now, this could have been some kind of predecessor to laserdics. Mind you this was circa '80-'81.

Sorry about that. The only player I found that meets your descrition is the Panasonic TQ 3032 F. Played 12" cartridge-style video discs.

It seems as though similiar in appearance, videodiscs are somewhat different from laserdisc. Videodiscs use a mechanical stylus that senses varying patterns of electrical capacitance imprinted in grooves on the disc surface. This makes it more akin to a LP.

From the little info I could find, it seems as if videodisc was pushed by RCA while Pioneer competed with the laserdisc format. We all know who won that battle, at least until DVD came along.

Phongn will probably have more knowledge of this obscure format.

[zombie84]

The original star wars films will never be available on DVD--whenever it is that they do come out, after episode III in 2005, they will be the Special Editions and not the Original Versions. Greedo will forever shoot first. The only way to see the originals on disk are the Laserdisk, or the many bootleg DVD that use the ripped Laserdisk transfer (picture quality isnt the greatest but its miles sharper than the crappy VHS and it wont deteriorate, plus its in great DD 5.1 sound and has commentary tracks by Lucas).

[greenmm]

You're all a bunch of puling infants!

Our first cable box in the mid-seventies was black metal with a silver face, and a knob with about ten pounds of resistance on it. It made a satisfying *thunk* sound when you changed channels. HBO had a long intro on how they would "only show this Feature at night" for "R" rated movies. We had a parental control box that had an actual key for it.
Networks would show show popular movies once a year, I remember waiting for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang as a youngin'.

Yeah, I remember that. That was back when it was Warner Cable (not AOL Time Warner), and it was the Qube (sp?) box. IIRC, you had a column of 10 buttons on the left, and 3 marked columns for the channels (can't remember if it was actually written on the face, or if you had a card you slid into a holder). There was no remote, so you had to get up and press the physical buttons to change the channels. I think it was about the size of an office-style phone.

My parents never used Pay-per-View, and almost never put in the key for the rated R films.

Networks tended to only show movies that were either considered "classics" (like Miracle on 34th Street), or the blockbuster films from the year or 2 before. Repeating a movie within a year was almost unheard of, and each network had a major movie on Saturday and Sunday night (damn, I can still remember the intro music and visual sequence ABC used for their weekend movies, with the stars turning into lines that would form the logo...).

What I really miss, though, are the late-night movies. The local stations would have a host (like Fritz the Night Owl here in Columbus, OH), and they'd show late at night (like after midnight) 1 movie during the week and 2 movies Friday and Saturday night. They were always older films, like the B-grade horror and sci-fi flicks from the 50's and 60's (giant insects and spiders, etc.). The best one was WUAB (Cleveland, OH): they had Superhost (dressed up as a cross between a circus clown and Superman), and he had Saturday afternoon from noon to 5: 1 hour of Laurel and Hardy or the 3 Stooges, and 2 B-grade sci-fi/horror films, with a 50% chance of one of them being a Japanese monster film. What I'd love to see again is -- And Now the Screaming Starts: great B-grade screamfest, heavy on atmostphere and moody music, low-budget special effects, and very little gore.

[Stravo]

Ah....those were the days. Luckily my father decided to get cable when it first came out, I have no idea why because we could hardly afford it back then but we were one of the few families on my block that actually had cable and my cousins who lived upstairs would come down when they could to watch our cable.

The box was big and clunky with that rotary dial thing that Frank mentioned earlier and in NYC channel J and Channel N were the porn channels that I would try to turn to when I could.

I remember when Star Wars came on cable back in 79 I think it was a HUGE deal, they must have shown in like twice a day on cable for a month or two and then you did not see it again in years.

[Shrykull]

And Damaramu, they are called LaserDiscs. A few of us here still have them.

Only way to get the Star Wars OT on a disc until those bums come out with a DVD.

Are you sure they were always in a plastic case? I remember in Robocop Clarence put a disk into a player to show that guy before he killed him, just s disk, no case around it.

[Glocksman]

Anyone remember that weird movie format from the early 80's?

Basically, the movie was on a big LP sized disc that was encased inside a plastic shell. You would slide the big cartridge in and play side one. Occasionaly you'd have to pop the cartridge back out and flip it over, then reinsert the disc.

A friend that lived up the street from me when I was like 5 or 6 had one of those. I remember watching Spacehunter: Adventures in The Forbidden Zone and Raiders of The Lost Ark on that format.

Those are called CED discs.

IIRC, there was actually some kind of pickup that made contact with the surface of the disc. I think it was an RCA idea.


The other, more successful disc format from the late 70's was the Pioneer/Philips Laser Disc format. These looked like oversized CD's and utilized a laser pickup much like a CD does.

I had a Pioneer LD player for years. Its picture quality rivaled that of DVD without the digital MPEG compression artifacts.


Edit: Aggh.. Phil beat me to it.

BTW, those large pre-VHS/Beta videotape cartridges were called U-Matic tapes. I think it was a Sony format.

[Peregrin Toker]

Networks would show show popular movies once a year, I remember waiting for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang as a youngin'.

Dont forget the annual showing of Wizard of Oz around the holidays. I remeber that.

This reminds me of the way that during the 1960s and 1970s, every single holiday season, really cheesy christmas movies were shown at the malls so parents looking for cheap babysitting while they shopped would drop their kids off at aforementioned christmas movies. (which range from the cliché-ridden to the psychedelic - such as Santa fighting the Martians or living together with Merlin the Wizard and Vulcan, God of the Forge)