Early 80s TOS VHS Tapes

Unfortunately I did! D'oh.

It came out around the time First Contact was in cinemas. It was the 30th Anniversary set and each slip case had the film's tagline like "The Human Adventure is just beginning..." or "At the end of the universe lies the beginning of vengeance."

Presentation was great but I generally thought about what content was unique and what wasn't when DVDs started coming out. VHS letterbox was pretty crappy. Hard to think we ever used to get excited about watching widescreen films on the old TV sets. With just a thin strip of picture, and mostly black border on show.

 

I watch my dads old vhs collection still, and my first tv was an old black and white model, I guess thats why old and outdated stuff doesn't bother me, despite my age I was raised with old and antique stuff, hell our microwave was made in 1984...I still have the old thing to this day...

 

Somewhere along the line, I decided to just hang on to the tapes that didn't make it to DVD. Even if they're just basically the same film as on disc, but have this funny little trailer or cast interview that nobody at Paramount thought to transfer. I picked up a DVD/VHS combo recorder a few years back and although I don't often use the tape part of the machine, it's there if I ever need it. I've still got the films on cassette in pan and scan, where they'd cut off picture information to the left/right, following the action only, so it fit inside a square tube. Cut down frame 4:3 like TV episodes. They only finally stopped doing those with Nemesis.

 

Did I mention that I recently came across a VHS of the original theatrical version of TMP not too long ago?

 

I bought two episode of Trek on VHS for that purpose, an early episode of Voyager, just to see what all the fuss was and the DS9 TOS homage Trials and Tribbleations, which was really worth the purchase.

As a teen it felt outrageous to spend that much money on one TV episode and my mind boggled at people buying the whole of even one series of Trek

 

Came across this thread by accident...I happened to pick up the entire set of those classic Star Trek episodes...Paramount released a series of 5 cassettes in 1980 as "Television Classics". I too collect the episodes, and have the entire original series on Blu-Ray

Each tape featured two episodes.

Volume 1: The Menagerie.
Volume 2: Amok TIme/Journey to Babel
Volume 3: Mirror, Mirror/The Tholian Web
Volume 4: The Trouble with Tribbles/Let that Be Your Last Battlefield
VOlume 5: Balance of Terror/City on the Edge of Forever

As for collectibility.....I would agree that these are collectible....and extremely hard to find. These were sold as a fluke on Ebay and as a set by themselves.

The two most interesting variants on this set are "The Menagerie" and "City on the Edge of Forever".

"The Menagerie" was slightly edited to condense the episode down to one part. Part one fades out, omitting the producer/writer/director credits and the closing credits and fades straight to the title card for Part II, cutting out the opening teaser providing a recap of Part I and the opening credits. It was restored to its proper two-part format when the standard release came in 1986.

"City on the Edge of Forever" is collectible for the fact that this VHS release retains the original recording of "Goodnight Sweetheart" that was used in the original broadcasts but omitted for reruns and the 1986 VHS release, but finally restored in the late 1990s.

As for picture quality, the transfer is typical of most late 1970's-early 1980's VHS tapes. The contrast is not the best and the transfer is utterly primitive by even 1990's standards. Paramount thankfully remastered the episodes before releasing them in their standard video releases in 1985.

This ranks up with the 1982 release of "Space Seed" under the Gateway label and the original theatrical version of TMP in Pan and Scan as some of the hardest-to-find "Trek" tapes. I've been trying to find a VHS tape of TMP in its original theatrical version for almost two years now. It's next to impossible to find in any version other than its full frame.

I do have both the 1981 TMP laserdisc in its original version and the 1983 Special Longer Edition release on LD.

 

I have Trek on video on Vinyl!! The CED's from the 80's are a fun curiosity and a fascinating point in technology.

 

Do you still have the player to play them on?

 

"The Menagerie" was slightly edited to condense the episode down to one part. Part one fades out, omitting the producer/writer/director credits and the closing credits and fades straight to the title card for Part II, cutting out the opening teaser providing a recap of Part I and the opening credits. It was restored to its proper two-part format when the standard release came in 1986.

"City on the Edge of Forever" is collectible for the fact that this VHS release retains the original recording of "Goodnight Sweetheart" that was used in the original broadcasts but omitted for reruns and the 1986 VHS release, but finally restored in the late 1990s.

I recall that both the standard releases of these episodes were in 1985, not 1986.

 

The laserdisc release, which the cover art is in the same style as the early VHS volumes, has the episodes and credits complete. Just not the "next week" previews. When the rest of the series got a LD release, they never bothered to reissue The Menagerie in the same sleeve art as the rest. It stands apart.

Yeah, I only have volumes 1 - 3 of the old VHS tapes. I'd love to track down the rest.

 

Close enough

 

Yep.....it made common sense for Paramount to reissue it in the two part format (mainly since LD was of course limited to almost an hour per side for CLV discs). That and the studio did the right thing and remastered the episode for its LD release to stand up to the then-tighter LD picture quality standards.

When the studio started issuing the episodes on LD months later, their opinion was that remastering the title for LD release in accordance with the production release schedule wasn't necessary.....they instead skipped onto the next episodes on the list, causing the LD releases to have a much faster lead time than the VHS/Beta releases in the U.S.

Like I said earlier.....it's tough to find those episodes. I found mine in a complete set by coincidence.

Personally, I would love to get my hands on the VHS release of TMP's original theatrical version (in pan and scan, of course....the widescreen version is easier to find.)

 

The CED's were the exact same episodes that Paramount released on VHS in 1980....not in that same order, and also with two additional episodes that weren't released on cassette....."The Changeling" and "Space Seed"

Speaking of the 1982 Space Seed release....I did see one pop up on Ebay....but in Beta format which does me no good as I don't have a Beta player.

 

Ugh yeah, tell me about it. It took years just to find the first 3 volumes. Well, no rush. :-)

 

I used to have a few of the beta sets, but can't remember which ones. I sold them (along with some of the Trek films and many tapes of movies and shows I'd recorded from cable - about 60 tapes total) to a guy back in the 1990s.

Doug

 

A friend of mine gave me all of his old TOS tapes and I enjoy them a lot.

I believe someone earlier in the thread mentioned them looking more like when they used to watch them on TV. I agree.

I think some of the hostility against them here is kind of strange. Hi-def means nothing to me. I still have a VCR and the tapes all work. Why not watch them that way?

For those who enjoy the DVDs and Bluray, hey that's cool too.

 

You'd have to pay me to watch them...who's offering me $?

RAMA

 

i only had one official VHS and that was the color version of The Cage. all my other Trek tapes were recorded from various stations. still have most of em.

 

Probably no one. Why should we pay you to bitch about them when we can get that for free right now?

 

For those looking for VHS copies, check your local Goodwill, Salvation Army or other thrift stores. I know I've seen the TNG and DS9 tapes at Goodwill lately, so TOS is bound to show up too.