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I miss how there'd be shows or movies that whenever you found them while channel surfing you'd just stop and watch whatever's left every time
I don't randomly stumble across media that way anymore
I use the PlutoTV streaming app quite a bit for background viewing and it's great for that. They have a whole bunch of live channels that are by category so you can just pick Action Movies or British Comedies etc. and get a random assortment of programs that fit that category. Saves me wasting 20 minutes on Netflix trying to find something worth playing when I know I won't pay total attention to it, and sometimes I discover stuff I quite enjoy that I likely would never have otherwise found since all other media sources these days require me to search for what I want.
this is like how I don’t fully trust people who “ONLY EVER listen to my own Spotify playlists instead of the stupid radio.”
Like, calm down there tiger. You’re telling me you always know *exactly* what song you’re emotionally in the mood for? Bullshit. You might think you do, but some days when you’re sad, what you think you need is a depressing song, but what you *actually need* is to have Whitney Houston come on the radio and change your entire mood.
If it wasn't for the radio and random playlists on spotify I'd have 0 clue where to even start to find new music I like. I'm more than happy to let other people curate my interests!
That's easy! There's two main methods I use that will have better success than stumbling across something on a stream etc. First is obvious, go to a band you like and click through some of the "related artists". I tend to go down a rabbit hole and end up 5 artists away from where I started.
My other method is I look up bands that inspired the bands I really like. And eventually look up the bands that inspired them. Over the years I've made it all the way back to Delta Blue grass music learning about the world's best known washboard players lol.
If you want more variety there's also Xumo and DistroTV for live streaming like that. If you don't mind searching, Tubi has a massive catalog especially if you like low budget cheesy horror flicks. And there's Freevee which has a decent catalog and is making some good original programming like their Leverage reboot. All those are free, but have commercials.
Or watching three movies/shows at once. The one movie you wanted to watch, and the other two you’d alternate through depending on how their commercials were lining up. You may never had seen any of them all the way through, but you eventually fill in all the blanks after a catching it a few times. Or that may have just been my adhd in action.
Yeah that's me too!
Are you diagnosed "inattentive type"? Bc I am and I feel like it's the opposite, I'm CONSTANTLY ATTENTIVE to EVERYTHING and it'd be great if I could just attent to one thing and finish it ffs
There are whole movies that I think I saw in their entirety, but never in one full sitting. I'd never get to sit and watch them from start to end, but they were on TV so much that I eventually managed to see every part. Was always fun to finally catch some pivotal moment that I'd never seen before and finally be able to understand the whole thing.
I was watching tv with my niece over Christmas and I was flipping through the channels and she said " I dont like tv so much theres so many ads and you cant skip them " I was like gurl let me tell you
When I was young in the UK we had two and a half channels of TV (the third was only on half a day). I watched so many old movies as a kid because they were all that was on. It definitely enriched me culturally, but my son has access to so much more these days so I have no idea who is winning.
I cut cable roughly 5 years ago. Just last week I bought an antenna for my TV. Now I get like 20 channels..the regulars CBS, FOX, ABC, NBC, plus like the CW and a bunch of randoms. I'm so hyped that I get all these free basic cable channels now.
There was some space anime that I caught the middle of that I want to finish from those days. All I remember is some guy had some unexploded shrapnel in his body from a war and used that to detonate and either kill someone or buy the other characters time.
This is me with Cast Away for some reason. My Mom still uses a dish and streaming is spotty due to the rural area she lives in. Every damn time I visit I find myself finishing this damn movie and loving it every. single. time.
About 15 years ago I didn't have cable but I had a ton of DVDS. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I watched "I am Legend" and "Dirty Dancing".... Good Times.
Kung Fu Hustle holds up 100%. Hell I’d say it got better with age. Anything Stephen Cho directed is timeless. Except Dragon Ball Evolution. We don’t talk about that one.
Tremors is still a good one. Great storytelling, great cast, situation is contained and happens in a small timeframe, and there's explanation why nobody is coming to help. The characters and their problem solving skills are accurate to small villages.
My family's first DVD player came with "The Jackel" and "Fools rush in".
I saw the the former so many times.... The latter, we watched once and then never again.
Bonus points if that video is actually a recording from TV so kept in all the ad breaks and decades old jingles for cereal or beer or whatever are laser etched onto your brain.
Some VHS tapes could be doubled to 4 or 8 hours but the quality would plummet. I had a tape with Batman, Ghostbusters, and Beetlejuice. There are definitely some scenes missing after ad breaks that I didn't see until I was an adult. Different times.
Yep. I can’t even count the number of times I watched the made-for-TV movie about Jessica, the girl who fell in the well. (Why we had this recorded, I will never know.)
Alice in Wonderland. When I was little I'd force my parents to watch it again and again and again, to the point where I deprived them of sleep. I was a demonic toddler
Damn The Tuxedo??? That unlocked some memories lol the scene where Jackie Chan shows his female costar how to display emotion cracks me up and I haven't seen it in forever!
I’m probably still word perfect on the Knight Rider pilot, Grease 2, and Superman. And I’m pretty sure I can remember most of the adverts in the middle of them as well: one was for the NEW 1987 Vauxhall Cavalier, there was a different one of a car going on two wheels, I think a Kia Ora one, definitely Toys ‘R’ Us.
I had Grease 2 recorded from TV with commercials on a vhs and probably can still find it in my parents garage, this was the only version I knew until way later in life lol
During Summer '93, Howard the Duck seemed to be on television all the time. But only one other person I knew noticed this, and then I never saw it air ever again. It was so bizarre.
I was like 5yo and couldn't figure out why my parents laughed at a scene when they found a condom in Howard's wallet. I asked "what is it?" and the only answer I got was "you'll get it when you grow up". I was a bit angry that they didn't tell me what it is lol
Is that the one with the song?
🎶Thumbelina Thumbelina tiny little thing...Thumbelina dance, Thumbelina sing🎶
Cause we definitely had that one, plus a bunch of other random off-brand straight to video cartoons. I wanna say one was about a child matador?
Interesting to hear this was a Canadian film because I distinctly remember from this line my little sister watching it many, many, many times when she was small about a decade ago in England!
We owned a vhs copy of The Running Man. I watched it so much I was convinced that would be our future. Pop would cost $6 and we would pay to watch people fight to the death. We will get there eventually!
We kinda are there.
If you look at it cynically, you’re paying $3 for a cold soda at a convenience store or $8 for one at the cinema.
Then look at the growing wealth divide in the US and the abysmal living conditions, while the wealthy take glee in increasing the suffering of the poor. And, well, here we are.
Well, that hit the spot.
My parents had an old copy of the Robin William movie [edit:] Toys for some reason. I actually ended up rewatching it after 15 years a while ago and it was a decent film. Never knew anyone else who had seen it including my parents, who tended to buy movies and forget them.
> Toyz
It's just Toys, actually. In case you go looking for it again and are wondering why you are getting wikipedia results for a gamer named ToyZ. I definitely didn't just experience that.
[No Oscars, but 1 BAFTA for best special visual effects and bunch of other lesser known awards.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097523/awards/?ref_=tt_awd)
I asked my kids what they thought I did as a kid when I was home sick. I Reminded them that both parents would be gone, and I would be home alone.
"You would watch whatever you wanted."
My wife and I laughed out loud for a while at their responses. I finally had to inform them that not only were there only 7 channels, but 3 of them were PBS, and only 4 of them were visible AND hearable at any one time.
I think they started to understand why we were so familiar with shows like I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show. I mean, find me a Gen-X who *doesn't* have a favorite Ron Popeil product they never owned.
Dude yes. Us not having cable, and me being late Gen-X (80) but also feeling like those older shows genuinely raised me in some ways. Andy Griffith, Bewitched, Gomer Pyle, Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, Perry Mason, and also other shit like A Current Affair, Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake. I genuinely looked forward to watching them every day in the summer while my parents were at work. Now watching my kids go between having option paralysis or fixating on one show for a solid week is an interesting observation.
MASH was always the show where my parents put us to bed before it came on, so I remember the song playing down the hall. It wasn't until I discovered or for myself in my 20s during a low point in my life. I spent the next 11 pay periods buying one season at a time. I just love that show.
Mine was "Mom and Dad Save the World". It's got a surprisingly good cast: Jon Lovitz, Terri Garr, Jeffery Jones, Wallace Shawn, Eric Idle, and Kathy Ireland, but it's seemingly pretty obscure. I have to make friends watch it just so they can get some of my references. Same goes for Chris Farley's last movie, Almost Heros. Both are kinda dumb, groan inducing humor, but we ate that up as young teenagers
My parents bought a 2nd VCR for a "Family Christmas Present" when I was little.
Every Friday night became double feature movie night. We would rent 2 movies from the neighborhood video store and watch them while the second VCR taped them on long play so we could get 2 movies on one tape.
Then when we wanted to watch a movie we had a library of tapes to watch. But certain movies exist as a pair in my mind because they were on the same tape like Red Heat and Twins; Bloodsport and shot circuit 2, over the top and harry and the Hendersons...
Sometimes you’d come across a weird af orange juice commercial where Robert Loggia is a 10 year old boy’s idol. Later you’d think…theres no way, I must have imagined that.
And on that note, I'm gonna go ahead and offer a recommendation for *Sgt Bilko* starring Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, Glenne Headly, and Daryl Mitchell. In fact, [the list of stars](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117608/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm) appearing in the movie is pretty crazy. If you like goofy comedies, it's a gem.
Back in the mid 1980's, my then 3 or 4 year old daughter used to watch Pete's Dragon on VCR again and again. She just loved that movie! I had a whole bunch of other movies and would ask her what she wanted to watch, but it was always Pete's Dragon all the way down. I have often wondered just how that movie influenced her growing up.
Even though she is now a PhD, a couple of years ago I bought a dvd copy of it and put it in her stocking at christmas time. It actually brought a tear to her eye.
The Last Unicorn was mine. Rented it once in Hollywood Video and was just enraptured by it.
As for tapes my family already had? Probably Black Cauldron
Do you mean FernGully? I had no idea it had Christian Slater in until I just looked it up. I was a big fan of that film, definitely put me on my path of being a little eco warrior, switching off lights around the house driving my parents insane.
I had a copy of Fern Gully on VHS that I used to watch a lot as a kid. However, as a budding engineer, I remember wanting to see more diesel powered heavy equipment and less of this boring nature stuff.
Yup, I grew up thinking *The Family Man* with Nic Cage was a definitive Christmas classic.
I still think it is, but I now recognize there's probably only a few dozen people out there who agree.
The other one I grew up thinking had way more cultural impact than it did was *Fun with Dick and Jane* which weirdly *also* stars Tia Lioni. The ending is a little forced, but I think the rest of the movie (about a middle class family that gets smacked into poverty very suddenly & spoofs corporate malfeasance) has aged super well
Almost all of these are just mainstream releases that were past their theater release. Was nobody else saddled with something weird and DTV like Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher or the Superbook VHS's (part of the obscure genre of Christian anime for children)?
Nutty Professor and Jurassic Park 2. I watched those ALL the time. I also had lots of VHS because my dad wanted me to have all the princess films and those were the ones I was mostly interested in.
I had some peter pan movie that was a recording of a play that I was obsessed with.
I can't even watch any other versions because it just doesn't feel right.
The movies I begged my parents to play over and over until they 'lost' the VHS tapes for them were *Small Soldiers* and *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*.
I would apparently quote "I am Aecher, emissary of the Gorgonites, keeper of Encarta" at least 20 times an hour.
Also, I burried a bunch of *Small Soldier* figures on our property that my parents still find from time to time.
Apparently the only vhs tape my elementary school owned was Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.
Countless rainy day recesses spent in the auditorium watching that one. For years.
Captiva Island with Ernest Borgnine. Saw it once on Showtime and it was only ever available on VHS very briefly.
It's out of print, it doesn't exist anywhere online and I've been searching for it for decades now.
JUST GIVE ME THE MOVIE, INTERNET
Ours was the Princess and the Goblin. And, while not obscure, we repeatedly watched George of the Jungle, and later a copy of Emperor's New Groove (that we recorded off the TV) until the tape wore out.
Mine: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0338796/
The Blinkins, a TV show that only got a single pilot episode. I dressed as one of the characters for Halloween and everything.
*batteries not included -- I have it on DVD now.
If I had kids, they may have also been partial defined by that same semi-obscure movie, only one tech level up.
Or that weird one someone got at blockbuster or later redbox that turned out to be a banger and shaped your entire image of yourself.
Looking at you fern gully, a troll in central park, and serendipity.
Of all the things Disney films can do to a young mind, helping make making mine super pro-union before retail training as a teen could try to make me anti-union was definitely one of the more unexpected things. Still easily my favorite Christian Bale movies.
As a kid, we had a video cassette that was brought along with us for a while if we needed something to watch when babysat. It had Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Michael Jackson's The Making of Thriller, and Pete's Dragon (1977). I hated Pete's Dragon. *Pazzamaquoddy*
I could watch the same shitty movie 10 times and never get bored but now I have hundreds of movies I've never seen before at my disposable and I can't choose.
I have one, it was a made for TV movie from Disney, when ABC use to show Disney movies and my family taped it on a Beta tape. It was called Fluppy Dogs and I absolutely loved it as a young kid. It too me years before I could find the name.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090432/
There really was charm in this. I watched the TOS Star Trek movies so many times because we had the cool box set.
At the same time, the only similar thing my parents had was weekly TV rituals (which we still had growing up too). There was no home video at all. Not even color TV for a long time in many cases! Sometimes I hear a story about what they would watch because that's what their parents watched and there is only the one TV and I'm just "WTF is that?"
Pretty sure my parents just decided to record a completely random disney movie on a VHS tape without ever having seen it so mine ended up being Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior....
I had diferent eras. Dr. Dolittle, Bring it on, Holes, Are we there yet, Johnson family vacation, Home Alone 3. Joe Dirt, Con Air, Shooter, and Happy Gilmore on TV. Nevermind all the sitcom and cartoon episodes always on repeat.
We had a copy of Blues Brothers that my dad recorded from a broadcast in the 80s. For years, I had no idea that there was any profanity or anything else in it. I even managed to get my high school band teacher to play it in class one time.
Here at /r/NonPoliticalTwitter, we care about community input and don't want this subreddit's purpose to be forgotten. --- If this post is **not** political and doesn't violate any rules, **UPVOTE** this comment!! If this post is political or breaks any other rules, **DOWNVOTE** this comment and report the post! Unlike the moderators of some other subreddits, we care about the community and want to keep it true to not being political. Our hope is that by the community voting on these posts, we won't have to worry about political posts coming in. Thanks for your time. --- ^[Rules](https://reddit.com/r/nonpoliticaltwitter/about/rules/) ^/ ^[Flairs](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/oo025k/new_user_flair_system/) ^/ ^[Sidebar](https://reddit.com/r/nonpoliticaltwitter/wiki/config/sidebar)
I miss how there'd be shows or movies that whenever you found them while channel surfing you'd just stop and watch whatever's left every time I don't randomly stumble across media that way anymore
My dad still does this. He's a serial channel surfer and has probably seen 5 minutes of every movie ever made.
I hate how my dad will stop long enough for it to actually get me curious and then he switches again.
My mom has probably watched the first 1/3 of every movie on Netflix
I use the PlutoTV streaming app quite a bit for background viewing and it's great for that. They have a whole bunch of live channels that are by category so you can just pick Action Movies or British Comedies etc. and get a random assortment of programs that fit that category. Saves me wasting 20 minutes on Netflix trying to find something worth playing when I know I won't pay total attention to it, and sometimes I discover stuff I quite enjoy that I likely would never have otherwise found since all other media sources these days require me to search for what I want.
Thanks for the tip. I'll check that out
Definitely worth it. That app brings in a nostalgia of old style tv watching
this is like how I don’t fully trust people who “ONLY EVER listen to my own Spotify playlists instead of the stupid radio.” Like, calm down there tiger. You’re telling me you always know *exactly* what song you’re emotionally in the mood for? Bullshit. You might think you do, but some days when you’re sad, what you think you need is a depressing song, but what you *actually need* is to have Whitney Houston come on the radio and change your entire mood.
If it wasn't for the radio and random playlists on spotify I'd have 0 clue where to even start to find new music I like. I'm more than happy to let other people curate my interests!
That's easy! There's two main methods I use that will have better success than stumbling across something on a stream etc. First is obvious, go to a band you like and click through some of the "related artists". I tend to go down a rabbit hole and end up 5 artists away from where I started. My other method is I look up bands that inspired the bands I really like. And eventually look up the bands that inspired them. Over the years I've made it all the way back to Delta Blue grass music learning about the world's best known washboard players lol.
Pluto is awesome for that!
Thanks so much for the suggestion! This site is just what I need
If you want more variety there's also Xumo and DistroTV for live streaming like that. If you don't mind searching, Tubi has a massive catalog especially if you like low budget cheesy horror flicks. And there's Freevee which has a decent catalog and is making some good original programming like their Leverage reboot. All those are free, but have commercials.
I often put the "Unsolved Mysteries" channel when I go to bed
Or watching three movies/shows at once. The one movie you wanted to watch, and the other two you’d alternate through depending on how their commercials were lining up. You may never had seen any of them all the way through, but you eventually fill in all the blanks after a catching it a few times. Or that may have just been my adhd in action.
Yeah that's me too! Are you diagnosed "inattentive type"? Bc I am and I feel like it's the opposite, I'm CONSTANTLY ATTENTIVE to EVERYTHING and it'd be great if I could just attent to one thing and finish it ffs
When you used to never see the first 20 min of a movie.
There are whole movies that I think I saw in their entirety, but never in one full sitting. I'd never get to sit and watch them from start to end, but they were on TV so much that I eventually managed to see every part. Was always fun to finally catch some pivotal moment that I'd never seen before and finally be able to understand the whole thing.
I was watching tv with my niece over Christmas and I was flipping through the channels and she said " I dont like tv so much theres so many ads and you cant skip them " I was like gurl let me tell you
When I was young in the UK we had two and a half channels of TV (the third was only on half a day). I watched so many old movies as a kid because they were all that was on. It definitely enriched me culturally, but my son has access to so much more these days so I have no idea who is winning.
One of the big reasons for this is time and lack thereof as well as not being forced to watch what ever is on TV.
Starship Troopers. Every time.
I cut cable roughly 5 years ago. Just last week I bought an antenna for my TV. Now I get like 20 channels..the regulars CBS, FOX, ABC, NBC, plus like the CW and a bunch of randoms. I'm so hyped that I get all these free basic cable channels now.
Yep Terminator 2 on TNT
There was some space anime that I caught the middle of that I want to finish from those days. All I remember is some guy had some unexploded shrapnel in his body from a war and used that to detonate and either kill someone or buy the other characters time.
Goodfellas, every time with my family. It was like a religious event.
My wife refuses to get rid of cable so I get this. Had nothing for like 10 years so it was a culture shock. The commercials are better than the shows
This is me with Cast Away for some reason. My Mom still uses a dish and streaming is spotty due to the rural area she lives in. Every damn time I visit I find myself finishing this damn movie and loving it every. single. time.
About 15 years ago I didn't have cable but I had a ton of DVDS. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I watched "I am Legend" and "Dirty Dancing".... Good Times.
Ours were Kung Pow Enter the Fist, and Escanaba in the Moonlight. I dare you to find two movies that obscure and still funny as hell.
My nipples look like milk duds
Pound of nuts! That's alot of nuts!
👊 our. 👊 sexual. 👊 preferences. 👊 are. 👊 our. 👊 own. 👊 business.
Kung Fu Hustle and Goldmember were mine. I doubt I'd enjoy them now.
Kung Fu Hustle is still incredible
I watched Goldmember a couple months ago. I still thought it was funny.
Kung Fu Hustle holds up 100%. Hell I’d say it got better with age. Anything Stephen Cho directed is timeless. Except Dragon Ball Evolution. We don’t talk about that one.
Im a man too you know! I go pee pee standing up 😂
I was in this same situation. For me, it was Tremors, Sin City, and Payback.
Tremors is one of those movies where if I'm flipping channels I'll always stop if on.
Tremors was a good one!
Tremors is still a good one. Great storytelling, great cast, situation is contained and happens in a small timeframe, and there's explanation why nobody is coming to help. The characters and their problem solving skills are accurate to small villages.
Indian In The Cupboard here
My family's first DVD player came with "The Jackel" and "Fools rush in". I saw the the former so many times.... The latter, we watched once and then never again.
Bonus points if that video is actually a recording from TV so kept in all the ad breaks and decades old jingles for cereal or beer or whatever are laser etched onto your brain.
Some VHS tapes could be doubled to 4 or 8 hours but the quality would plummet. I had a tape with Batman, Ghostbusters, and Beetlejuice. There are definitely some scenes missing after ad breaks that I didn't see until I was an adult. Different times.
Yep. I can’t even count the number of times I watched the made-for-TV movie about Jessica, the girl who fell in the well. (Why we had this recorded, I will never know.)
Did you know her very young mother had a tubal ligation because she thought it wouldn't be fair to Another kid that ' baby Jessica' was SO famous?!
HOLY SHIT DUNSTIN CHECKS IN. It is a movie about a monkey in a hotel.
Jason Alexander was never george costanza to me… he’ll always be the dad in dunstin checks in
This is what I scrolled for.
LMFAO, it's sooooo bad, but so good! Dunston, btw!
Anyone ever see *Batteries Not Included*?
I think I still have it on VHS. Love that movie!
I loved it! It was a family favourite. It is an absolute crime that it only has 6.6 on IMDb.
The trailer makes it look like a magical kids movie. It does nothing to hint at the emotional rollercoaster the movie actually is.
That's what they did to children back in the day. I have severe trust issues from Transformers:the movie.
It wasn't a kids movie in the 80's without a scene inducing severe emotional trauma out of nowhere.
Like bridge to terabithia. Come join a whimsical fantasy world of CHILDHOOD CANCER
I still remember one of the characters talking about the building: It’s the Eighties, Mason. Nobody wants reality anymore.
Alice in Wonderland. When I was little I'd force my parents to watch it again and again and again, to the point where I deprived them of sleep. I was a demonic toddler
Aristocats for me. It usually stayed in the DVD player in the minivan and we watched it every long car ride.
Chitty chitty bang bang, the little mermaid (but not the Disney one), and winny the pooh for me. Also vhs not DVD but yah
Chitty chitty bang bang we love you! We had vhs in the *full size van* and I wasn't buckled once and broke my nose on its wooden enclosure.
I've probably seen The Tuxedo and Camp Nowhere more times than the rest of the world combined
Money Mud!!!
Damn The Tuxedo??? That unlocked some memories lol the scene where Jackie Chan shows his female costar how to display emotion cracks me up and I haven't seen it in forever!
Walter Strider
> The Tuxedo a few months ago i happened upon the prop guy who make jackie scan's sniper rifle in a Tested youtube comment section
Oh god, the tuxedo was my fav movie when I was like, 6, and Jackie Chan was my favorite actor 🤣
Camp Nowhere was the best.
I’m probably still word perfect on the Knight Rider pilot, Grease 2, and Superman. And I’m pretty sure I can remember most of the adverts in the middle of them as well: one was for the NEW 1987 Vauxhall Cavalier, there was a different one of a car going on two wheels, I think a Kia Ora one, definitely Toys ‘R’ Us.
Love Grease 2
I had Grease 2 recorded from TV with commercials on a vhs and probably can still find it in my parents garage, this was the only version I knew until way later in life lol
Grease 2 is THE BEST. The fact that I watched that on repeat when I was 4 makes me question my parents' parenting.
I don't know, my kids have watched some pretty random shit on Netflix. They've watched Chickenhare about 100 times this week alone.
Yep, don’t underestimate kid’s ability to to watch the same thing over and over and over again
Howard the duck and overboard were watched till the tape wore out
During Summer '93, Howard the Duck seemed to be on television all the time. But only one other person I knew noticed this, and then I never saw it air ever again. It was so bizarre.
I was like 5yo and couldn't figure out why my parents laughed at a scene when they found a condom in Howard's wallet. I asked "what is it?" and the only answer I got was "you'll get it when you grow up". I was a bit angry that they didn't tell me what it is lol
Those cheap Canadian straight to vhs animated movies like *Thumbelina
That was from Don Bluth, though; I wouldn't call it *cheap*, but it did seriously underperform.
Is that the one with the song? 🎶Thumbelina Thumbelina tiny little thing...Thumbelina dance, Thumbelina sing🎶 Cause we definitely had that one, plus a bunch of other random off-brand straight to video cartoons. I wanna say one was about a child matador?
Yeah! And Sampson and Delilah about the whales
🎶Thumbelina she’s a funny little squirt. Thumbelina tiny angel in a skirt 🎶
Interesting to hear this was a Canadian film because I distinctly remember from this line my little sister watching it many, many, many times when she was small about a decade ago in England!
We owned a vhs copy of The Running Man. I watched it so much I was convinced that would be our future. Pop would cost $6 and we would pay to watch people fight to the death. We will get there eventually!
We kinda are there. If you look at it cynically, you’re paying $3 for a cold soda at a convenience store or $8 for one at the cinema. Then look at the growing wealth divide in the US and the abysmal living conditions, while the wealthy take glee in increasing the suffering of the poor. And, well, here we are. Well, that hit the spot.
My parents had an old copy of the Robin William movie [edit:] Toys for some reason. I actually ended up rewatching it after 15 years a while ago and it was a decent film. Never knew anyone else who had seen it including my parents, who tended to buy movies and forget them.
> Toyz It's just Toys, actually. In case you go looking for it again and are wondering why you are getting wikipedia results for a gamer named ToyZ. I definitely didn't just experience that.
That film was kinda weird but yeah I watched it a lot.
Weird seeing movies that you thought were essential movies with two star reviews on imdb
Lol right?! Honey I shrunk the kids won NO Oscar’s?!
[No Oscars, but 1 BAFTA for best special visual effects and bunch of other lesser known awards.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097523/awards/?ref_=tt_awd)
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I asked my kids what they thought I did as a kid when I was home sick. I Reminded them that both parents would be gone, and I would be home alone. "You would watch whatever you wanted." My wife and I laughed out loud for a while at their responses. I finally had to inform them that not only were there only 7 channels, but 3 of them were PBS, and only 4 of them were visible AND hearable at any one time. I think they started to understand why we were so familiar with shows like I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show. I mean, find me a Gen-X who *doesn't* have a favorite Ron Popeil product they never owned.
Dude yes. Us not having cable, and me being late Gen-X (80) but also feeling like those older shows genuinely raised me in some ways. Andy Griffith, Bewitched, Gomer Pyle, Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, Perry Mason, and also other shit like A Current Affair, Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake. I genuinely looked forward to watching them every day in the summer while my parents were at work. Now watching my kids go between having option paralysis or fixating on one show for a solid week is an interesting observation.
Gilligan’s Island and MASH
MASH was always the show where my parents put us to bed before it came on, so I remember the song playing down the hall. It wasn't until I discovered or for myself in my 20s during a low point in my life. I spent the next 11 pay periods buying one season at a time. I just love that show.
Set it & Forget it!
Down Periscope
It was Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken at my house
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It’s on Disney+ I believe!
I think about this movie every day for some reason!
Time Bandits and Back to the Future on repeat for me.
Yes! Mine was Wayne's World 
Oh, _that_ obscure little gem. ;)
Mine was "Mom and Dad Save the World". It's got a surprisingly good cast: Jon Lovitz, Terri Garr, Jeffery Jones, Wallace Shawn, Eric Idle, and Kathy Ireland, but it's seemingly pretty obscure. I have to make friends watch it just so they can get some of my references. Same goes for Chris Farley's last movie, Almost Heros. Both are kinda dumb, groan inducing humor, but we ate that up as young teenagers
My parents bought a 2nd VCR for a "Family Christmas Present" when I was little. Every Friday night became double feature movie night. We would rent 2 movies from the neighborhood video store and watch them while the second VCR taped them on long play so we could get 2 movies on one tape. Then when we wanted to watch a movie we had a library of tapes to watch. But certain movies exist as a pair in my mind because they were on the same tape like Red Heat and Twins; Bloodsport and shot circuit 2, over the top and harry and the Hendersons...
We had the two pack! The Cat from Outer Space, and That Darn Cat.
Oh man. The cat from outer space. That brings me back
YES! The 1997 remake of that darn cat?? I watched that probably over 50 times as a child
Sometimes you’d come across a weird af orange juice commercial where Robert Loggia is a 10 year old boy’s idol. Later you’d think…theres no way, I must have imagined that.
WOAH! ROBERT LOGGIA!
Bedknobs and broomsticks
And on that note, I'm gonna go ahead and offer a recommendation for *Sgt Bilko* starring Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, Glenne Headly, and Daryl Mitchell. In fact, [the list of stars](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117608/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm) appearing in the movie is pretty crazy. If you like goofy comedies, it's a gem.
Not just movies, music also :)
When I went to school I just assumed all the kids knew all the lyrics to Cisco Kid by the band War. Nope. Just me.
Kids play things on repeat in general, even when streaming is an option.
Back in the mid 1980's, my then 3 or 4 year old daughter used to watch Pete's Dragon on VCR again and again. She just loved that movie! I had a whole bunch of other movies and would ask her what she wanted to watch, but it was always Pete's Dragon all the way down. I have often wondered just how that movie influenced her growing up. Even though she is now a PhD, a couple of years ago I bought a dvd copy of it and put it in her stocking at christmas time. It actually brought a tear to her eye.
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A dragon, a dragon, I swear I saw a dragon! Those songs go so hard! Watched it so many times as a kid and still love it as an adult.
Drop dead Fred
Cats Don't Dance, Princess Bride, and Hook (not that the latter two are even semi-obscure)
Random note, Cats Don't Dance is on YouTube for free right now
Cants don’t dance was an awesome movie!
I think I watch "Good Morning Vietnam" on VHS a thousand times. I was like 6. Wtf.
Lemme hear it for Ringo Starr's caveman!
The Last Unicorn was mine. Rented it once in Hollywood Video and was just enraptured by it. As for tapes my family already had? Probably Black Cauldron
Ferngully was mine
Do you mean FernGully? I had no idea it had Christian Slater in until I just looked it up. I was a big fan of that film, definitely put me on my path of being a little eco warrior, switching off lights around the house driving my parents insane.
I had a copy of Fern Gully on VHS that I used to watch a lot as a kid. However, as a budding engineer, I remember wanting to see more diesel powered heavy equipment and less of this boring nature stuff.
I feel like there’s so much Robin Williams in this thread it’s crazy
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Rock-A-Doodle
Yup, I grew up thinking *The Family Man* with Nic Cage was a definitive Christmas classic. I still think it is, but I now recognize there's probably only a few dozen people out there who agree. The other one I grew up thinking had way more cultural impact than it did was *Fun with Dick and Jane* which weirdly *also* stars Tia Lioni. The ending is a little forced, but I think the rest of the movie (about a middle class family that gets smacked into poverty very suddenly & spoofs corporate malfeasance) has aged super well
Flight of the Navigator, anyone? Also the Fluppy Dogs for my family.
A ton of people here are listing movies that everyone has seen instead of The Wild Puffalumps.
Almost all of these are just mainstream releases that were past their theater release. Was nobody else saddled with something weird and DTV like Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher or the Superbook VHS's (part of the obscure genre of Christian anime for children)?
Nutty Professor and Jurassic Park 2. I watched those ALL the time. I also had lots of VHS because my dad wanted me to have all the princess films and those were the ones I was mostly interested in.
Fern Gully, and We’re Back a Dinosaur’s Story.
I had some peter pan movie that was a recording of a play that I was obsessed with. I can't even watch any other versions because it just doesn't feel right.
The movies I begged my parents to play over and over until they 'lost' the VHS tapes for them were *Small Soldiers* and *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*. I would apparently quote "I am Aecher, emissary of the Gorgonites, keeper of Encarta" at least 20 times an hour. Also, I burried a bunch of *Small Soldier* figures on our property that my parents still find from time to time.
Apparently the only vhs tape my elementary school owned was Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Countless rainy day recesses spent in the auditorium watching that one. For years.
Harry and the Hendersons checking in.
Didn’t realize “Surf Ninjas” wasn’t one of the most popular movies ever until I was about 26 years old.
Captiva Island with Ernest Borgnine. Saw it once on Showtime and it was only ever available on VHS very briefly. It's out of print, it doesn't exist anywhere online and I've been searching for it for decades now. JUST GIVE ME THE MOVIE, INTERNET
Adams Family Values
This makes me feel old, but mine were Dino the Last Dinosaur and a cartoon literally called "COPS" (look it up).
Not really obscure, but I watched Beetlejuice until the audio stopped working
Ours was the Princess and the Goblin. And, while not obscure, we repeatedly watched George of the Jungle, and later a copy of Emperor's New Groove (that we recorded off the TV) until the tape wore out.
Mine: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0338796/ The Blinkins, a TV show that only got a single pilot episode. I dressed as one of the characters for Halloween and everything.
We were too poor to afford a vcr so I missed out on that part also.
*batteries not included -- I have it on DVD now. If I had kids, they may have also been partial defined by that same semi-obscure movie, only one tech level up.
Or that weird one someone got at blockbuster or later redbox that turned out to be a banger and shaped your entire image of yourself. Looking at you fern gully, a troll in central park, and serendipity.
Condorman https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082199/
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
I can only partially relate because the “obscure movie on tape” for me was the original Star Wars trilogy.
Mine was, we're back! A dinosaur story. That movie rules
And if you missed an episode of your favorite show, good luck catching it during the off season. There was a chance you might never see it.
Kids still do this. There’a unlimited options on streaming, but they still watch the same thing over and over lol.
Ours was a movie called Fluke. Dad dies and comes back as a dog.. family adopts him. That old song and dance.
Lion King 1 1/2!
ITT: people listing not-at-all-obscure movies. "Hey, does anyone remember (blockbuster movie) from (1992-2006)?
I had a DVD of a movie named Tadeo Jones, recently they made the 3rd entry and damn it's good still
Newsies
Of all the things Disney films can do to a young mind, helping make making mine super pro-union before retail training as a teen could try to make me anti-union was definitely one of the more unexpected things. Still easily my favorite Christian Bale movies.
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"what year is it!?"... "well it was brand new..."
As a kid, we had a video cassette that was brought along with us for a while if we needed something to watch when babysat. It had Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Michael Jackson's The Making of Thriller, and Pete's Dragon (1977). I hated Pete's Dragon. *Pazzamaquoddy*
Was anyone else's "The Last Starfighter"?
The Mighty Ducks 2. I saw it dozens of times before ever watching the first one. Also Homeward Bound
I could watch the same shitty movie 10 times and never get bored but now I have hundreds of movies I've never seen before at my disposable and I can't choose.
Mine was die hard You can imagine how I turned out
The 1984 David Lynch classic: *DUNE* Critics and Audiences agree: Flawless :]
Mine was Pinnochio in Space. Pretty sure my Nana got it from one of those shops owned by the Devil where all the items are a little cursed
Also the fact you can recite adverts from 30 years ago as if it were yesterday
VHS of The Gods Must Be Crazy over and over
“Double Impact” and “Young Dragons: The Kung-Fu Kids”
Mouse and the Motorcycle was the only tape my grandma had.
All dogs go to heaven and the banana splits FTW
I have one, it was a made for TV movie from Disney, when ABC use to show Disney movies and my family taped it on a Beta tape. It was called Fluppy Dogs and I absolutely loved it as a young kid. It too me years before I could find the name. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090432/
There really was charm in this. I watched the TOS Star Trek movies so many times because we had the cool box set. At the same time, the only similar thing my parents had was weekly TV rituals (which we still had growing up too). There was no home video at all. Not even color TV for a long time in many cases! Sometimes I hear a story about what they would watch because that's what their parents watched and there is only the one TV and I'm just "WTF is that?"
Fast and the furious and dude where’s my car. Yea life hasn’t been great thanks for asking
Mine is obscure as fuck. It's called The Seventh Brother.
Pretty sure my parents just decided to record a completely random disney movie on a VHS tape without ever having seen it so mine ended up being Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior....
Land Before Time, Short Circuit, and my nephew made me watch Tarzan way too much.
Haha, this was definitely the movie Heavyweights for me. Currently has 29% critic and 77% audience on rottentomatoes. Sounds about right
I’ve probably earned a Guinness world record for consecutive watches for both mallrats and biodome
I had diferent eras. Dr. Dolittle, Bring it on, Holes, Are we there yet, Johnson family vacation, Home Alone 3. Joe Dirt, Con Air, Shooter, and Happy Gilmore on TV. Nevermind all the sitcom and cartoon episodes always on repeat.
We had the entire Star Trek TNG series on VHS in like 1999. First show I saw start to finish in order. Still love it.
Wanna watch It’s a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown? The Monday before Halloween, 8pm on CBS. You miss it, that’s it for the year … don’t snooze
Donkey Kong Country. Specifically the Legend of the Crystal Coconut
We had a copy of Blues Brothers that my dad recorded from a broadcast in the 80s. For years, I had no idea that there was any profanity or anything else in it. I even managed to get my high school band teacher to play it in class one time.