Badmovies.org Forum

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR?

2.) What was your favorite video rental place?

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals?

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS?

5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals?

I will start:

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR?

December 1982. A silver and slim (!) VCR. I think it was a Pioneer. The tray would pop out from the top. This VCR lasted to the very end when I switched to DVDs in the late 90s. We also bought a beta VCR in 1983, and another VCR with "hi-fi audio playback" and LP, EP/SLP recording speed in 1984.

2.) What was your favorite video rental place?

A place called Video Corner. Membership fee was $25 a year but they dropped the yearly fee after two years. They had a pretty good selection and deals, like rent six movies over the weekend and pay for five. They would also hand out tickets when returning tapes on time. You could collect them and get a free rental with eight tickets. We rented tapes there from the mid 80s to the late 90s. It closed for good in 2001.

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals?

Some: Murder in Texas, Boogeyman, Hell Night, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Saturday the 14th, The Beast Within and Slithis.

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS?

Purple Rain, for $14.95. Which was a steal back then.


5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals?

Picking up a meatball sandwich, cherry coke and a bag of fritos ever so often on our way home from the rental place. There was a sub shop right across the street  :smile:

Spending many afternoons waiting on returns at another rental place (that didn't reserve movies) with my mom. We would just cruise the store for hours looking at tapes or watch guys sneak into the adult section. That was some fun quality time with my mother  :teddyr:

Can't remember the 'firsts' but the local place where we rented was a local video store called "Mick's Flicks" and it had an awesome selection as opposed to the Blockbuster that was closer.

I couldn't tell you when we first got a vcr or what was the first but films that got significant play in the early years were Masters of the Universe and the Three Amigos.

The fondest memory I have of VHS was when my friend and I rented a video when we were about 10 or 12 and somebody taped over the end of the kids movie we were watching with a more risque film.  Ah good times.

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR? - I don't remember exactly, but I'd say it was very early 1980s.  And it was a Beta format machine.  We were the first family among all my friends and relatives to get a VCR, so it was sort of a big deal.  It was a big, heavy, cluncky machine.  I believe my dad still has it in his house!

2.) What was your favorite video rental place? - Originally, it was a place in West Newton, Massachusetts called "Captain Video."  At that time, it was the closest one to my house (about a 40 minute drive!)  Later, I started renting at "Home Video Center" and ended up working for them for about 3 years.

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals? - I think ALIEN might have been the first.  Other early ones were DEATH RACE 2000, MAGNUM FORCE, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, THE GROOVE TUBE, THE BIG BIRD CAGE, and TOO HOT TO HANDLE with Cheri Caffaro!

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS? - Hmmm . . . I don't really remember.

5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals? - I loved the fact that I could finally see uncut versions of movies that I didn't get to see in the theater.  Before videotape, I mostly saw edited versions of movies on TV . . . and some movies I wasn't able to see at all.  It was great standing in the video store and seeing rows of movies on the shelves and trying to decide which ones to rent.

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR?

I want to say about 1982. Bonus points: It was Beta, not VHS.

2.) What was your favorite video rental place?

Wherehouse was where we did most of our rentals. Although I remember the family having a membership to a mom and pop that that the curtained of "adult" section in the back. I never went in there, but it always carried a dark and disturbing aura.

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals?

I don't remember the first one ever, but I remember some of the earlier titles. Excalibur and Time Bandits were early rentals, both of which were at my insistence. My parents hated Time Bandits.  :bouncegiggle:

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS?

I don't remember. I bought very few VHS because I either rented or recorded movies off of cable. We didn't graduate from Beta to VHS until it got to the point that Beta was just not even an option anymore. We were definitely holdouts. So I want to say we upgraded (downgraded if you ask me) to VHS around 1985 because nobody carried Beta anymore. I'm pretty sure Amadeus was an early purchase.

5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals?

Simply that it was such a big deal. Renting a movie was a special event. It meant that the whole family, or a group of friends, or whatever, were going to sit down together, pop to popcorn, and watch a movie. It was before mobile devices, so that meant everyone was actually going to sit down and focus on the movie and not be texting or f**king around with apps throughout the movie. I love technology, but it seems that attention spans just aren't what they once were.

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR?

My mother bought one for the family for Christmas in 1988. Yes, we were late bloomers. My brother and I had been nagging our parents to get one for several years prior and I guess she finally got sick of listening to us.

2.) What was your favorite video rental place?
"Simple Simon's," which was a mom-and-pop convenience store within walking distance of our house. The reason it was our favorite was that they let us borrow porn films even though my brother and I were clearly not old enough to do so legally.  :teddyr:

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals?
Not 100% sure but I'd bet it was probably a Friday the 13th movie.

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS?
Possibly "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Again, it's been so long that I really don't remember.

5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals?
Recording MTV's "Headbanger's Ball" program on Saturday night, and then watching it over and over again the entire following week.

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR? - maybe '87?  Something like that.  

2.) What was your favorite video rental place? - I can't even remember their names now.  One nice little place down the street from us, and another near the mall.  They also had a good selection at the entrance to our local supermarket.  Eventually though I just started going to Blockbuster.

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals? - I remember getting Lifeforce, that space vampire movie.  Correction:  naked space vampire movie.  

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS? - man, I ain't got a clue.

5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals? - I remember two kids standing in line next to me, and one saying she thought the movie Troll was pretty good.  But then she rented Troll 2.  She made a face like she'd just eaten a lemon.   :teddyr:

I do remember the first video I WANTED to buy.  I got my Beta machine for Christmas and my parents took me shopping a couple days later.  I wanted to buy A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, which was $79.99!  My parents refused to buy it for me and encouraged me to get a membership at a rental store instead.

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR?

I'm going to say probably mid 80s.  My brother had a laserdisc player and bought the VHS technology right after it. 

2.) What was your favorite video rental place?

A tiny little place in town, I don't recall it having a creative name.  Then later in life I went to a different place which was next to my old workplace.

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals?

For some reason Gremlins sticks out though it could have been something else.

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS?

Hmmm, good question.  I honestly don't recall but I think it may have been The Terminator. 

5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals?

As a kid, browsing the kids section and bringing the box to the counter to get my tape.  As an adult, browsing the b-movie section and FINALLY experiencing what that "back room" had to offer.  Many I rented a lot of porn on VHS...A LOT. 

When Blockbuster first came to town I really enjoyed their rent one get one free days.  Then I got a lot of coupons on top of that.  Then their rentals became too much for my blood.

1.) What year did you or your family own a VCR?

Pretty sure my parents bought one in 1987 after about 2 years of renting VCRs.

2.) What was your favorite video rental place?

Actually there wasn't any particular place for just movies but gas stations and Mom and Pop stores used to rent videos.

3.) Do you remember your first movie rentals?

Not sure but I want to say WWF's Inside the Steel Cage. I know we also rented a ton of 80s comedies which my Dad loved. Meatballs and Police Academy were definitely early rentals too.

4.) First movie(s) bought on VHS?

I suspect it was Down and Out in Beverly Hills but that was my parents. My first one was I'm pretty certain Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

5.) Your most fond memories during the heydays of video rentals?

All the cool movie covers on VHS cases that often made the movies look far better than they actually were. All the many pro wrestling VHS tapes that were available for rental and were pretty popular back then, I saw a ton of wrestling via video rental and probably every 80s risque comedy as my Dad loved them. I recall soon acquiring a love for Kung Fu films and naturally moved on to B-movies from there. Eventually I moved on to Star Wars and the original cast Star Trek films - I suspect I watched those films on VHS more times than any others.

1. I lived with my mom and dad till about 1979, then my dad split and moved in with my stepmom in 1980, where I moved in with them.  It wasn't until I moved back with my mom, who had relocated to Auburn, WA in 1985 or so.  When I moved in with her in 1987 was FINALLY the year I had my first VCR (though we rented a laserdisc player in the early 80s, and my mom had a VCR when I visited her in Vancouver in 1983-85). 
2. There were a lot of great ones (especially the ones that were $1 a rental); when I lived on my own with my own VCR there was a Hollywood with TONS of obscure stuff on VHS that was down the street from me.  That's probably my favorite.
3. My first rental.. oh man.  Probably Creepshow.
4. First bought movie.. probably Back To The Future.  First movie I bought with my own money: probably Ghostbusters.
5. I loved looking at the cheesy horror covers.  Even though I was squeamish at the time at all horror flicks, there was something exciting about looking at bloody hatchets being waved at nubile teenaged girls cowering in a corner, or some psycho holding a decapitated head by the hair, or something like that.

Great topic!

1. First VCR was Christmas 1986. Before that we'd had an RCA video disc player, a forerunner of today's DVDs, and it more or less totally sucked because it skipped all over the place and it was hard to find titles. The discs were roughly the size of dinner plates too.

2. Favorite video rental place was a little mom 'n pop shop locally. They had converted the ground floor of their family home into a TV repair shop and video store. Nice folks! Blockbuster assassinated them however.

3. First movie rentals I was aware of were kids' shows. One that sticks out from real early, though, is Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We rented that so many times I finally got my mom to just buy it for me and for some reason back then VHS flicks were abnormally pricey, like almost a hundred bucks. The movie that really helped change that was Top Gun, which came out on video about 1987-ish and had a Pepsi commercial built in and that drove down the price. After that movies became cheap enough for them to be practical to own outright.

4. See answer 3.

5. Going out and renting a movie was an event in itself and I miss it in a way. We'd always run into people we knew and talk about what we were renting, and when you went out for a movie you'd almost always buy snacks to go with it and chances are you'd see movies worth buying in the bargain bins and there were posters on the walls and it all had a sort of zeitgeisty charm that today's red boxes and downloads don't have. (But they're a lot more convenient!)

1.First VCR was a Curtis Mathis....Mom paid $1500 for it

2.The Video Store....not very original but it had a great selection. They also had that famous red poster of Bruce Lee on the wall

3.Can't really remember our first rentals....we got several a week....generally whatever was popular back then

4.Our first movie purchase was actually a bootleg copy of Star Wars that someone filmed at a local theater...we paid $100 for it. It was a bit grainy and slightly unsteady but watchable AND we owned it a few months before it came out officially

5.My most fond memories were all of us sitting around with our snacks and watching the movies....it seemed so cool to see a feature you'd seen on the big screen at home

1. My first bought VCR was a Panasonic which I still have but it doesn't work any more: I do have one that works though. I must add that I never had a VCR nor even a color TV until I came to South Africa.  :buggedout:

2. The video store here in Pretoria close to me was a place named Nel's Video (long gone) and they had a good selection too.

3. My first VHS rental was funnily enough The Guns Of Navarone which I showed to my class at college to go with my work piece on Alastair MacLean ~ I can still hear them swearing at me as that film is way over two hours long and they were hoping to get the afternoon off after I finished yakking.  :buggedout: :buggedout:

4. My first VHS purchase was the creepy Leonard Nimoy film Baffled! which I bought at the video shop in (2).

5. Fond memories: finally able to see some of the classics that Dad told me about.  :teddyr: