I could never give up the next episode promos from the first two seasons on my original broadcast videotapes. Or those "Let 'em eat stake!" commercials for AT&T.
Remember the great ads before the first showing of "Surprise" back in 1998?
Next Monday, everything you know about Buffy and Angel is going to change. [Buffy!] It's a story so powerful, it takes two nights to tell. [I love you. I try not to, but I can't stop.] Starting Monday January 19th at nine, eight Central, all Hellmouth breaks loose. [You haven't seen anything yet.] Then the exciting conclusion on Tuesday January 20th at eight, seven Central, is just the beginning as the Slayer stakes out her new night and time. [Now you can have your nightmares a whole hour earlier.] For the premiere of the WB New Tuesday... [Things are about to get very interesting...] someone Buffy knows, someone she trusts, is about to turn on her. [NO!] The Buffy 2-night event begins next Monday.
Back when they could write/make proper promos...
I tossed all of my tapes except for the copy of Earshot & GD2 that I got from the Bronzer tape tree. It felt too much like tossing away a piece of history.
You know what, Kristen? Mine is archived in a hallowed inviolate location away from the run of episodes I taped myself. I still have that tape.
Arggghh, Matt. I'm prevented from reclaiming episode tapes by the fact that I sent my early seasons of tapes to a Canadian convert. The only promos on these tapes are the crappy ones of Buffy S7 and Angel S5.
It is amusing, though, to go back and watch the commercials that were running at the time of the episodes. They, and the promos for contemporary shows, are like jewelry, a setting for the episodes.
Oh, dang, stop talking about how great it is to keep the commercials! I'm this close to being able to finally throw out about 500 home-made VHS tapes.
"I've got two words for you: blue.berry."
"I don't care what your friends do. Eat."
"You're not leaving this house..."
"It's rec-TANG-gular."
Blueberry Pop-Tarts, c. 1994. IJS.
I still have that tape.
YAY! It's not just me! This marshmallow does not stand alone!
Oh, I still have my tape of "Damage" that snapped the first time I tried to re-watch it. Nothing with a Mutant Enemy copyright ever gets thrown away in my apartment.
Of course, the combo of overwork and inertia probably means I have crappy 1995 vintage WB sitcoms and old MTV Spring Break specials from even earlier on tape somewhere in my collection.
OK, this is funny. I was just Buff Diving, and....
Cindy: None of you are true believers. Buffy and Angel tapes get used for nothing else. Do you write your grocery lists in your Bible? Do you write your to do list in Romeo and Juliet? My B/A tapes are on my bookcase, (upper shelves) so my children can't breathe on them and pass them the latest cold going through their schools. They NEVER get taped over. My darling husband knows that to touch one to tape anything is to forfeit his life. They are in chronological order, and labelled with tape number, 2 episode numbers (e.g. S5, ep22, series ep. 100), title, and air date - before the episode starts. I do not re-use them when a season's DVDs become available. Clearly, they have been pre-ordained as back up, and besides, they're where the previouslies and previews live.
The only way I'd use a B or A tape for something else is if one of my children (or Jesus) was going to be on TV, and then? I'd use one that had some blank space on it. THERE IS NO TAPING OVER.
Santa puts blank tapes in my stockings. I get blank tapes for Valentine's Day, my birthday and in my Easter basket. I buy them when I go grocery shopping. The only more urgent non-food item I buy is toilet paper.
You call yourselves Buffistas?
WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?
I don't even know you anymore.
And I don't think I want to.
