Nostalgia of TOS on VHS!

[KirkusOveractus]

In a thread where we're discussing watching TOS on old TV sets, it got my memory going (along with a box from my parents' house) of TOS when it was on VHS.

Now, I don't mean the mid-1980's releases of TOS (which were insanely cool!), but when Paramount had released TOS in a five-volume set! When my parents brought this box over, those were in the box! I remember watching these over and over and over, and when I popped them into the VCR a few nights ago (yep, I still have 2 VCRs!) my first reaction was how terrible the transfer was by today's standards.

But, in watching further, I remember how this was the only way I could have a fix of TOS whenever I wanted, before I started taping episodes off WPHL on Saturday nights.

Then, around the time of TWOK, a special VHS edition of "Space Seed" had been released, with the trailer for TWOK before the episode!

I love that period of my fandom in Trek! The posters for the five volumes, saying, "Paramount is Going Home Again" for those, all that stuff is so cool to me!

Anyone else have a similar nostalgic feeling about this?

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Yes, definitely! I had a couple of these (City/Balance of Terror and Tribbles/Last Battlefield) and also bought that Gateway release of Space Seed. I couldn't afford to buy all five. Trek hadn't been on for several years in my location, so those were my only "fix," apart from one episode I had audiotaped when I was 8 and the various tie-in products.

I remember that Vol. 1 was The Menagerie and Vol. 2 was Amok Time/Journey to Babel, but I can't quite remember what Vol. 3 was. Was it The Enterprise Incident/The Immunity Syndrome?

 

[KirkusOveractus]

Yes, definitely! I had a couple of these (City/Balance of Terror and Tribbles/Last Battlefield) and also bought that Gateway release of Space Seed. I couldn't afford to buy all five. Trek hadn't been on for several years in my location, so those were my only "fix," apart from one episode I had audiotaped when I was 8 and the various tie-in products.

I remember that Vol. 1 was The Menagerie and Vol. 2 was Amok Time/Journey to Babel, but I can't quite remember what Vol. 3 was. Was it The Enterprise Incident/The Immunity Syndrome?

Actually, Volume 3 was my favorite! It was "Mirror, Mirror" and "The Tholian Web".

The other thing that always stuck with me is that they cut the pre-credits opening and the opening credits from the second part of "The Menagerie", opening with the Enterprise shot and Kirk's log entry. Plus, the sound quality on that was really muted!

 

[Melakon]

That version of Space Seed with TWOK trailer was one of the first pre-recorded tapes I bought after getting a VCR, which I'd bought specifically to tape TOS off the air. The second pre-recorded was a version of The Menagerie that came in a black box (with the ape creature I think) which had a hinged cover to open like a book. I had to talk the video store into selling it to me, as it was their only rental copy.

 

[SchwEnt]

My nostalgia of TOS on VHS is the Columbia House Collector's set. It was such a big BIG thing for a fan back then.

This was before all the on-demand, streaming, interweb whatever whatever when anyone can watch any eps whenever.

Sure, the old days had TOS reruns on TV. But with the VHS tapes, for the first time a ST fan could watch any eps at any time, as many times as he wants. It was a really big deal.

How big? Enough for a high school kid working after school to buy the Columbia House set via mail. Two eps per tape, for $29.95 plus $4.95 s&h each tape. Do the math...
It was almost $1400 for the entire TOS series on VHS. That's my nostalgia.

Hell, it'd be unheard of to pay over one thousand dollars today for any complete TV series. Back in the 1980s, well, that's still a lot of money.

 

[Timewalker]

I still don't own any TOS (or any other kind of Trek) on DVD; it's all on VHS. I have the movies on commercial VHS, a couple of blooper tapes, and a few episodes. The rest I taped myself. I remember my old Star Trek club meeting at my place a couple of times a month for watching (I was the only one who had everything up to TNG at the time). We literally wore out the first-season TNG tapes from watching them so many times!

My clearest memory of watching The Trouble With Tribbles was when we noticed Kirk apparently changing clothes in the turbolift. He got on wearing one shirt and got off wearing a completely different one.

I'm going to have to get the DVDs, though, since my tapes are wearing out and I'm running out of room to store them. Even putting 6-8 episodes on one tape takes up a lot of physical space!

 

[RandyS]

Anyone else have a similar nostalgic feeling about this?

Sure do. In fact, I had at least half of the tapes that were released from 1986-1989, and my best friend bought the other half, and we swapped tapes to make copies.

The nostalgic feeling didn't last though. Both of us gave them away in 2004 when the first DVD release came out.

I miss those old tapes with the Transporter covers....

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Before WRATH OF KHAN was released, I was under the false impression only SPACE SEED, JOURNEY TO BABEL and AMOK TIME were the only TOS episodes on VHS. It's funny TRIBBLES was paired with BATTLEFIELD. I, MUDD or A PIECE OF THE ACTION would have been more thematically similar.

Yeah; fortunately Tribbles was first on the tape. I only watched Battlefield a few times.

 

[HGN2001]

There's an older thread around here that dealt with the first TOS release on VHS. I remember two different ways of obtaining them. Paramount released the ten "big" episodes paired off two-to-a-tape. This was early '80s when VHS was still battling it out with Beta, and both formats got these same 10 episodes.

Fotomat, the drive-up kiosk company where you dropped off your film to be developed, had a side business of renting videotapes. You'd call a number, reserve your tape, tell them which address the kiosk was at, and pick it up on your way home from work. After a few-day viewing period, you'd drive it back to the kiosk. Well, this Fotomat had their own in-house video-duplicating arm, and made their own logo'ed versions of the STAR TREK tapes. You'd pop it in and get a little animated Fotomat logo before the Paramount Home Video logo.

These tapes were made for the rental market, yet also available for a ridiculous price of something like $79.95 for one tape. After a time, the rental model died down and more and more were into purchasing tapes. Low-priced tapes (at $20-$25 a pop) started selling well and companies scrambled to get out of rentals and into sales. It was at that point that some retailers sold off their used tapes, and I acquired three of the genuine Paramount TOS tapes, and filled in with two Fotomat versions.

I had those for years until we finally moved, and sold them off at a garage sale. In the intervening years, I bought the "transporter" VHS tapes of all of the STAR TREK episodes. Those served for years whenever I needed a TREK fix. When one group of ten tapes were released, I recall going to our local West Coast Video to meet James Doohan, and I got his autograph on one of the episodes. THAT on I still have.

I also bought a few from that same series on LaserDisc, and those too are long gone. Later I grabbed a couple of the double-episode DVDs, but abandoned that when the three clamshell season sets were released.

I didn't update to the remastered episodes until the Blu-ray season sets. Wonder what's next?...

Harry

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Prob 3D who knows, I have the clamshell releases and the Remastered on DVD and the new Blu Rays, I know I know

 

[Mycroft Maxwell]

I get a nostalgia feeling from my old TOS single episode tapes. Some episodes i have in the older "Picture in transporter" paramount 75th anniversary edition, and some are in the newer "Comet" edition. The actual smell of the tapes after they been playing a while even reminds me of old days of watching star trek as a child. FOr a few years, the only episodes I owned were "The Corbomite Manuever" "Balance of Terror" and "The Cage". We didnt have much money when I was growing up and those episode I caught on sale.

What Gives me the ultimate nostalgia trip, is the tape called "STAR TREK 25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL". I still have it in good condition on VHS. If only they would re-release it on DVD. I really wish they would re-release "William Shatner's Star Trek Memories" on dvd, and film "William Shatner's Star Trek Movie memories."

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I get a nostalgia feeling from my old TOS single episode tapes. Some episodes i have in the older "Picture in transporter" paramount 75th anniversary edition, and some are in the newer "Comet" edition. The actual smell of the tapes after they been playing a while even reminds me of old days of watching star trek as a child.

You reminded me there of how much I used to love the smell of electronics. After buying a new VCR, tv, radio, etc., my nose would immediately go to the air vent/grill thing and inhale deeply!

Being in the process of moving currently, I just so happen to be going through my old 'transporter' Star Trek videotapes from the mid-late eighties. I'd picked up maybe fifteen or twenty episodes, chosen entirely on the whims of the moment. Now here I am, on the verge of throwing these old gems away...

 

[Ssosmcin]

My nostalgia grew into an interest in preserving these collections. I loved all the Trek VHS releases and still have full runs of the single episode "transporter box" set, the Columbia House set (then called the CBS Video Library) as well as the full run of Lasers. I have 3 out of the 5 earlier VHS release (and am having a hell of a time tracking down the last two). I still pop in the Laserdiscs because they have the mostly correct sound mix the DVDs and Blu-Rays don't. I love them, honestly, and prefer the lower resolution to the far too detailed and revealing HD releases.

 

[Cap'n Caveman]

I remember purchasing The Wrath of Khan from Erol's back when Paramount was offering new movie releases at the then-unheard-of price of $29.95 (most new movies then cost about $100, sold to tape-rental stores). I have a few of the old Columbia House tapes, and most of the Columbia House laserdics. Sadly, I don't have a working tape machine, but man, I gotta dig that old LD player out and watch them old episodes again.

 

[WisTrekFan]

The reason I bought my first VCR in 1985 was to buy and watch the Star Trek episodes that were being released on VHS. I think three or four tapes were issued at a time, so it took a while to get the entire series. I still have the tapes on my shelf and still haven't purchased TOS on DVD.

 

[Mycroft Maxwell]

I try to get a VCR at a yard sale whenever I can. I keep wearing the belts (thats what i get for not finding me a rewinder-rewind is hard on vcr belts) out and screwing up the heads(Dont know how) . I have most of the first season of TNG on the Columbia House 2 episode Tapes. A few 2nd season episodes on single episode VHS tapes.

 

[Melakon]

The reason I bought my first VCR in 1985 was to buy and watch the Star Trek episodes that were being released on VHS. I think three or four tapes were issued at a time, so it took a while to get the entire series. I still have the tapes on my shelf and still haven't purchased TOS on DVD.

You must have been buying them around the same time I was. The ones I was getting (my copy of Private Little War has a 1986 copyright date on the box) were being released in lots of 10 about every 4 or 6 months in USA. I'd go to my local store and special order the entire lot as they were released. They probably really loved me for that as they always treated me well.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Being a Johnny-come-lately to Trek, I first truly delved into the series via the VHS releases in the mid-eighties. A local video store had all of Season 1 and all but few episodes of Season 2. Let's just say that I only rented them once, but watched them many, many times....

 

[BillJ]

Being a Johnny-come-lately to Trek, I first truly delved into the series via the VHS releases in the mid-eighties. A local video store had all of Season 1 and all but few episodes of Season 2. Let's just say that I only rented them once, but watched them many, many times....

The joy of patch cables!

 

[publiusr]

I've got a lot of VHS tapes, and it is too costly for me to transfer them over now. My combo DVD VHS eats tapes, so I don't dare play anything on it.