Episode 372: Video Home System Killed the Betamax Star

Episode 372: Video Home System Killed the Betamax Star This week Host Dave Bledsoe gets all nostalgic with some old home videos only to discover something unspeakably horrible on a tape labeled “David’s 12th Birthday” (Actual footage of his 12th birthday, god he was a fat little kid!) On the show this week we tell the tale of the most brutal conflict of the 1980’s, the war between VHS and Beta (So…Much…Blood) Along the way we discover why Dave isn’t allowed in any movie theaters anymore. (It would be better if it were a Pee Wee Herman thing) Then we dive right into the creation of home video, from its absurdly British beginnings to the mighty Titan that was Sony striding across the land. (Spoiler: Sony loses). Then we dig into General Curtis LeMay’s porn preferences for reasons never truly explained, only to veer back on topic with the tale of two tape formats and the brief but bitter fight over which one would dominate the world. (It turns out to be the one that is slightly cheaper.) We wrap up with a delightful but completely irrelevant tangent on why people called Montgomery Ward department stores Monkey Ward. (Are there monkeys involved? You’ll have to tune in to find out, or, you know, Google it.) Our Sponsor this week is Mondo Fast Eddie’s Home Video, we got the tapes, you gotta have the machines. We open the show NEC’s brand new video cassette machine and close with Lucy May Walker eulogizing the Radio Star. Show Theme: https://www.jamendo.com/track/421668/prelude-to-common-sense The Show on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHell_Podcast The Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthehellpodcast/ The Show on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxP5ywpZ-O7qu_MFkLXQUQ www.whatthehellpodcast.com Give us your money on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/Whatthehellpodcast The Show Line: 347 687 9601 Closing Music: https://youtu.be/-6WWO6c7ud8 We are a proud member of the Seltzer Kings Podcast Network! http://seltzerkings.com/ Citations Needed: The quest for home video http://www.terramedia.co.uk/media/video/telcan.htm Sony CV Series Video http://www.smecc.org/sony_cv_series_video.htm The Decline and Fall of Betamax http://keyboardaerobics.blogspot.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-betamax.html Wikipedia: VHS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS#VHS_development Porn industry may be decider in Blu-ray, HD-DVD battle https://www.macworld.com/article/179767/pornhd.html Wikipedia: Videotape format war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war Uncited Additional Reading:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videocassette_recorder https://www.mediacollege.com/video/format/compare/betamax-vhs.html https://www.thrillist.com/vice/how-porn-influenced-technology-8-ways-porn-influenced-tech-supercompressor-com https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/christmas-shopping-for-a-vcrdvd-1981-vs-2009/#:~:text=Cost%20of%20a%20Sears%20VCR,%247.42%20(total%20private%20industries). https://keepthatshort.com/how-much-did-a-vcr-cost-in-the-80s https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/07/22/rip-to-the-vcr/ https://kodakdigitizing.com/blogs/news/5-things-you-might-not-know-about-betamax-tapes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/sonyhistory-d.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices