Circuit City instore laserdisc December 1993

Here's the segments of Circuit City's instore laserdisc from December 1993, produced by StopWatch Entertainment. They'd already been using laserdiscs with movie trailers and Circuit City commercials for a couple years, but around this time they did them with a "hosted" format featuring Wendi Westbrook, who's been in a few B-movies. I don't know if anyone actually hung around the stores and watched these all the way through, but here's all the hosted segments from that disc with the trailers and music videos cut out.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• CircuitCity
• WendiWestbrook
• StopWatchEntertainment
• 1990s
• Christmas

[MetallicBill]

I shopped at plenty of stores that went under, even Tom Petter's Warehouse! I never once saw any LDs there, I got mine used, pawnshops. Sony SoundCenters likely had them, Audio King sold them. Video Update was the best store for LD buying and renting, then there was Hollywood Video, also supporting LD!

[eyeh8nbc]

@MetallicBill None of the Hollywood Video stores near me had laserdisc- they were all VHS when they opened. I went in a couple when they were new and said "You mean someone would open a brand-new video store with NO laserdiscs? Well, have fun going out of business!" It took them a while, but I was proven right! :) 

[Watcher3223]

And I'll bet that demo LaserDisc was made by 3M (though I would not be surprised if this disc was made by Pioneer).

[eyeh8nbc]

Yep, Pioneer made this one. Oddly there's only analog sound with no CX, but side 2 has the turtle with digital sound- silent of course.

The in-store discs used at Sears were made by 3M, which later became Imation and they used them as late as 2001, when they'd already stopped putting out movies on laserdisc.

[Watcher3223]

For the demo disc, it may be likely that the "dead side" is merely one that Pioneer makes for all discs with programming on one side only, which may explain why the dead side has a digital audio track, though silent, while the side with the Circuit City promo is analogue audio only.

[eyeh8nbc]

@Watcher3223 The 'turtle sides' had a few variations- most ran exactly 9000 frames (5 minutes), but some had digital sound while others didn't, and some cut to black at the end while others faded to black. There were a few weird variations too, like ones that faded to black halfway through, or just ran half as long, and there was one that ran about 30000 frames. I always let them play through when I'm watching a disc- yes, I'm weird.

[matrixmm2]

we will miss Circuit City God Bless you guys and i hope that ur gonna find a job soon

God Bless America

[SylvianLight]

You will be missed.

[MegaCrowdaddy]

As a former CC sales counselor, hearing her say "it's so easy to get a CC credit card, and your sales counselor can do it for you right at the register" all I can remember is, "cmon, let it go through, let it go through, big money, big money, no whammy, no whammy, STOP!

[jordanthewizard]

Wow, that camera is so small

[izzi1s]

Is anyone aware that Wendy Westbrook was in a softcore film called Married People Single Sex.

[MetallicBill]

@eyeh8nbc Damn right, if you tested as many as you came across to report on them! I don't read too much into a pre-programmed fade, but DAMN the loss of content on discs so well-endowed, like me! haha

[MetallicBill]

@matrixmm2 I dunno if God Blesses US Commerce, but now Ultimate Electronics is also going under, they were known as Audio King before the change, and I shopped there as well, mainly to browse electrical goodies

[MetallicBill]

@donniedarkodevotte Ok. Look at the amount of Sony items in a 1990s Sony Style magazine, are they all worth picking up? Quite frankly, NO! But Sony made some impressive benchmarks just the same

[Watcher3223]

@eyeh8nbc

Yep, Pioneer had a few different masterings of those dead sides. Some with digital audio, some wtihout, some that only ran for a few minutes and some where the whole side of a turtle (if memory serves me).

As for letting them play through, I wouldn't call that weird, but I would have concerns about burn-in with CRT and plasma as well as image persistence with LCD and plasma.

[donniedarkodevotte]

I've always hated commercials like this. After the second item, it's like ENOUGH! We get it. You like everything Circuit City sells and think we should buy it all. And no Brian McKnight or Aaron Neville? Bitch, I should slap you.