@MLClark A couple years ago, I invested in old VCRs I found on eBay, to use them for digitizing what I wanted to keep. Some went back to my first VCR in 1980! (With the long-useless time-codes on the label.)
The first TV show I recorded was the Star Wars Holiday Special. ๐คฎ
๐ You got your mistakes out of the way early, I see!
I found it quite striking to rewatch those original broadcasts. There was a Gulf War tickertape that ran at the bottom of my CityTV episodes one year, so you definitely got a sense of the political context in which these visions of a better future were airing.
Kind of painful to revisit them years later for that reason, though; you could *feel* how far we were from our goal at the time, while still striving to dream better.
@MLClark A lot of those old tapes, I moved up to YouTube, including the first Gulf War.
You mention context. I left in the commercials; a few people complain that I should have edited out the commercials, but most people love them because they reflect the era. I think they're important for context.
Agreed. The commercials show a foreign country known as the past.
Some of my favourite commercials from that era were Juan Valdez coffee spots. :) Apparently I was being indoctrinated early on for life in my current digs! ๐
@MLClark Are the good people of Colombia aware of the Juan Valdez stereotype?
The Juan Valdez coffee chain is quite popular here in shopping malls, and equivalent to... not quite a Starbucks, more like a Timothy's in Canada or Peet's in the US. The other prominent but consciously low-cost coffee chain is Tostao, which is like a classier Tim Horton's.
But yes! Folks are aware! :) Juan Valdez is *classic* paisa in manner and attire, and folks are quite fond of the image. (Much better than some Colombian stereotypes that came later!)
@MLClark Okay, thank you for the insight.
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@MLClark You reminded me of an old #StarTrek VHS of "The Cage" I bought in the 1980s. It had an introduction by Gene Roddenberry; if memory serves, he described Trek as "a crucible for examining the human condition."
My copy is long ago lost, but I found it used on eBay so I just ordered it.
Notable about this version is that some parts are color, some are B&W. The color parts were from "The Menagerie." The original color prints weren't found until later.
@WordsmithFL
Argh! Crushing defeat! ๐