Why VCRs shouldn't have come with Pause buttons!

Wanted to share this, since this is a perfect example of things that make me scream when I'm going through old videotapes- here we have a movie from WCBS's "Late Show", going to a commercial break and we see a Crazy Eddie commercial with lots of great 70s electronics including a Pong game, then CLICK! Back to the movie, since whoever taped this didn't want to waste tape on the commercials. Why were they even up taping this instead of using the timer?

I later got a complete copy of the commercial shown here (it's for a "Christmas In August" sale), but just wanted to curse those who were lucky enough to have a VCR in the 70s and didn't record the stuff that really mattered! The movie here "Conquest" was eventually issued on prerecorded tape.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• WCBS
• LateShow
• CrazyEddie
• JerryCarroll
• 1970s
• NewYork

[wmbrown6]

Based on the Crazy Eddie ad, this appears to have been transmitted late Aug. 25/early Aug. 26, 1977.

[eyeh8nbc]

@wmbrown6 Do you have a copy of the TV listings that show when this movie was ran, or do you just have a really good memory?

[wmbrown6]

The particular "Late Show" slide used here was an alternate, with the color scheme same as the bumper which had the title and the words "Continues after these messages and station identification."

[eyeh8nbc]

@wmbrown6 I have a complete "Late Show" broadcast that shows that slide in the middle of a commercial break, with the one seen here shown right before the breaks start. Sort of funny it mentions "station identification" as if they couldn't have just put that on the slide.

[JesseL85719]

@eyeh8nbc Seems he DID purchase a TV Guide that week. Now I will admit looking after them as well as VHS tapes nowadays.

[cgmoog]

Have you posted the complete copy of the original Crazy Eddie Christmas in August ("Its August the sun is glaring the streets are sweltering ...")

I can't find it.

[DanZero77]

@eyeh8nbc Any chances we might see some of that? This is amazing enough here, but I'd love to get some more Late Show

[ntropolis]

I feel your pain. In a recent batch of VHS tapes I got from Southwest VA, there's a tape of a couple movies recorded from WDBJ and WSLS around 1983... the commercials are cut out. Who knows what could have been on there. All I have of the WSLS is an on-screen ID!

[Attmay]

You would REALLY hate my parents. When they taped stuff for me before I was old enough to figure out how to do it myself, they seldom saved commercials and were so bad at unpausing that beginnings of shows got cut off regularly.

[DanZero77]

@wmbrown6 THANKS for the tip! That video had to be one of the most amazing, and nearly complete New York blocks I have ever seen. Nice to see the shorter marquee on that one again, with a bonus V/O and a new WCBS Celebrates promo, thanks for posting the link to the music bed used on that too!

[wmbrown6]

@DanZero77 - This particular marquee appeared to be used for short titles like this. (See 'KLXT77's' video of 1978 clips from WCBS up to sign-off time, this marquee was also used for "Enchanted Island.") The "entire screen" marquee may've been for longer titles.

[DanZero77]

@wmbrown6 What really strikes me was the title slide itself there. It's different from the ones I remembered as used during "Late Show" and the other WCBS umbrellas. The marquee "lights" took over near the entire screen, as opposed to this "compact" marquee. Also, don't ever recall seeing B&W films on "Late Show", with the chroma-key effect.

[gli7utubeo]

Those are some amazing comments here. Thanks!

[wmbrown6]

@eyeh8nbc - Checked from capsuled New York Times TV listings as cached at Google News Archive.