VHS Television Treasure Hunt

By Anthony J. Rapino

            Like so many forms of obsolete media before it, VHS tapes have recently seen a resurgence in popularity, specifically among collectors and retro-junkies.  Some of the rarer tapes (specifically ones that house out-of-print movies) have even become collector’s items in their own right, fetching high dollar prices at auction.  Even cooler, nearly every yard sale, flea market, and rummage sale will have boxes upon boxes of VHS tapes for as low as 25 cents apiece! 

            But this article isn’t about the growing cult of VHS collectors.  It’s not even about the rare and sought-after tapes, featuring obscure and sometimes fantastic movies.  No, this article is about an even more specific obsession: scouring home-recorded VHS tapes for commercials and television programs from my childhood. 

            It all started with a little movie called The WNUF Halloween Special.  This gem of a film--directed by Chris LaMartina--was made to look like a real newscast/Halloween Special that someone taped on TV in the 80s.  It is filled with commercials, fast-forwarded segments, and all manner of Halloween goodness.  They even released the movie on VHS for authenticity.  I loved the movie, and I watch it every year, but it also acted as a catalyst of sorts. 

            Not long after my first viewing, I started noticing the vast array of home-recorded VHS tapes at yard sales.  You know the ones.  They have a white sticker on the end, usually with hand-scrolled titles.  The boxes are from Polaroid or Maxell, generic in their conception.  Yet even these mundane visages are enough to throw me back into a time of boxy CRT televisions and poor reception.  A time when there was no DVR, instant streaming, or internet.  If you wanted to see a television program, you either had to remember to watch, or set up your VCR to record.

            These are the tapes I now search for.  The ones that some long-ago child lovingly placed into the VCR so as not to miss a particular holiday special or cartoon.  Because these tapes hold our childhoods inside them, and wait to transport us back to a time when we’d sit on the floor with a bowl of cereal and become transfixed. 

            This is what I do now.  I sort through old VHS tapes at yard sales, looking for ones that indicate a certain era.  I try to avoid the kind with only movie titles on them.  In my experience, these usually only hold the movie, maybe recorded from HBO.  Those tapes won't have commercials or any of the ephemera I'm searching for.  But the ones that have dates written on them, or television show names, or the Holy Grail: Halloween Special!  Yes, these are the ones to buy.  These are the ones that will almost certainly hold precious commercials for Monster in my Pocket, Thundercats, Nintendo, Toys ‘r Us, and countless other nuggets of 80s gold. 

            The pragmatist in me says, “Hey dummy.  YouTube it!”  But the sentimentalist inside me says, “That’s cheating.”  This isn’t just about watching the commercials and TV shows.  It’s about the thrill of the hunt.  It’s about getting to watch it in a way that we did when we were kids. 

In short, it’s about nostalgia and feeling young again.  

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