We had a Hollywood Video and a Blockbuster within a stones throw of each other. Now one is a walk-in health clinic and the other is a PIMA medical training school. I preferred Hollywood Video. They seemed to have a better selection of available movies.
My wife misses Hollywood Video. There was never one near me, but we had 3 Blockbusters within a 5 mile radius of my house.
I worked for Blockbuster back in the day, I started as an Assistant Manager and was promoted to Store Manager in 6 months. I love, love working for Blockbuster. My favorite thing was keeping the wall, updating with new releases and keeping it in more or less alphabetical order. I also knew where almost every movie was located in the store because of this. It was faster to ask me, then look up locations in the computer system. We enjoyed watching Blockbuster but overall it wasn't very good. There were a few moments, just a lot of wasted opportunity.
It's interesting really same over here all the video stores here died, even the big chain stores and even when DVD arrived they tried to stay alive with those but it just died. There was something hugely fun about going there once a week to pick a movie or just browse.
We had a Blockbuster, but our area was mostly served by either smaller local chains or mom&pop operations.
Block buster rented out 10 weeklies for 10 dollars, and they had all of TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. The scales fell from my eyes.
I remember going to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video afer becoming a Trek fan and renting lots of the episodes they had. I miss the feeling of watching good tv being something special. Now we watch anything we want anytime we want thus the anticipation is not the same.
As a kid, I remember renting TOS episodes from Blockbuster. I would then set up two vcrs... one to play the episode, the other to record. This was always a treat because the aired versions were always chopped.
I did that as well. I didn't even know how to do it but I moved wires in and out of slots until I got it to work somehow. I was also wanting to record them in correct order so I could just turn on my tape and have 6 hours of non-stop Trek. Even when I stared getting Trek episodes in the mail I still wanted to record them. The idea of watching 6 episodes without having to take the tape out after each episode seemed cool..
Well I also recorded sports games without the written consent of the NFL as well. Or the MLB or NBA. use to have a huge collection of vcr tapes. FIlled with Star Trek and early 90's sci-fi and tons of sports games and I admit a few things I masturbated to. Sometimes they would all be on the same tape. Unlabeled to boot. I was so unorganized with them. Plus they were pilling up. Lots of them in storage bins and laying around stacked on top of each other. Then their was my crazy idea to make Trek feel more like a movie by just putting my small tv on a high self and then turn the lights out.
IIRC, it's only piracy if you were recording a scripted program. Things like the news or sports games were okay. Indeed, I remember the blank videos I used to get back in the day had an endorsement on the box saying they were recommended by the NFL for recording their games.
Sports were OK if it was for personal use. Not sure if the modern prohibition for public use without a license was up back then
The Boys Skewers Warner Bros. Discovery's Gutting of HBO Max Content BY SEAN GRIBBIN PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO The Boys' in-universe superhero company, Vought International, mocks Warner Bros. Discovery pulling content from HBO Max by making cuts to Vought+. ... In a move that mimics decisions made by Warner Bros. Discovery regarding HBO Max, The Boys' Vought International has made some changes to its own fictional streaming service, Vought++, restoring it back to just "Vought+." Back in August 2022, Vought International made the announcement on Twitter that its various streaming apps (which don't exist in the real world) -- VTV+, VNN+ and VSN+ -- were being merged with Vought+, rebranding the service as Vought++. However, on January 4, 2023, Vought reversed course, tweeting out, "To begin 2023, we’re proud to unveil the most effective restructuring in entertainment history. Vought++ is now Vought+ again! We’ve unbundled your favorite apps like VTV+ and VSPN+, and eliminated 35% of our films. All for the new low price of $119/month, plus!" It appears that the tweet is intended to mock Warner Bros. Discovery, which has pulled a sizable portion of content from HBO Max over the last year. https://www.cbr.com/the-boys-parody-warner-hbo-max-content-vought-amazon/