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comment by steve
steve  ·  2426 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski, what's your favourite TV show that is more than 20 years old?

Without question, Northern Exposure.





kleinbl00  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I knew a family that owned like half of Roslyn, and I worked in a bar owned by John Corbett (my first introduction was trying to kick him out of the green room). It's funny - Northern X kind of defined my early 20s but I don't think I've ever watched more than half an episode.

steve  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

apparently me and JonG97's dad have them on DVD if you want to watch...

(is this the part where I even confess to setting the timer on my VCR to record it so I could have the entire series on tape? nah... that's even more embarrassing and moderately depressing.)

kleinbl00  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I did that with West Wing.

Then I had a friend staying over who stopped it so she could watch 90210 reruns.

Bitch.

steve  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

that's pretty damn low.... I mean... one could argue something something about the pop culture significance of 90210 something something... but damn.... that's low.

kleinbl00  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

She was my most-recent ex-girlfriend's ex-best-friend, she was a dead ringer for Shannon Elizabeth, and she'd grown really, really close over email as I helped her get over ex-husband #3.

I had just started dating my wife about a week previously or things might have gone very differently. It's entirely possible she fucked up my recording in a passive-aggressive sort of way. I mean, I was the first person she asked her dad to add to his prison visitation list.

Shades of Say Anything.

JonG97  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not every season on DVD, mind you.

Damn, steve, how many VHS tapes did it take to store the whole series?

steve  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I own all the seasons... COME AT ME BRO (if you'd like to borrow them)

    how many VHS tapes

a lot... and I was enough of a nerd to want "high quality" recordings, so I was doing the "SP" setting so I could only fit two hours (two episodes) per tape. It was obscene. I think I got through about three seasons like that - and switched to LP which gave me four per tape? And then I couldn't afford cable for a while.... and the streak was broken... and then DVDs came out... and then I had kids... and then I was like "hell if I'm ever moving this box again" and then I got cable again... and then I filled up my DVR with them... and then I figured out that I could export the contents of my DVR to my Mac (via the handy firewire port on the back)... which I could import using some janky old Mac utility I dug out of some obscure forum online.... and then I started to convert those files into something I could burn to DVD... and then the Northern Exposure series was released on DVD and I bought the special collector edition of season 1 and 2 (complete with little down parkas) for $25 per season... and then a year later seasons 3,4,5,6 were in a multipack in a Target discount bin for I shit you not $10.

and this is the sad, sad world that I call my life.

JonG97  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You're right, dude, that is sad. Great story, though! I felt your pain quite keenly.

I wonder about those poor souls who got caught in the middle of the transition from VHS to DVD. You've got a stash of tapes with entire seasons of TV shows stored away in them.

How do you cope with the fact that DVDs offer more storage space than analogue tapes?

steve  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    How do you cope with the fact that DVDs offer more storage space than analogue tapes?

Or that the transition from physical media is all but complete?

It’s a brave new world soldier.

JonG97  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, that is true. I still like the tactile nature of physical media, though.

user-inactivated  ·  2422 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You and me both. The only time I ever purchase digital media is if it's the only option (or if it's a book in the public domain that I know I'll pretty much never find scouring bookstores high and low). There is something really special about looking at your shelves and seeing your collection. Even more so, there's something special about taking something off your shelf and giving it to a friend.

JonG97  ·  2422 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Plus box sets look really cool on your shelf! There's something satisfying about owning a complete series on DVD or Blu-ray, in my opinion.

steve  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

and y'all thought I was playin'

JonG97  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My dad used to love that show! He'd watch it on DVD quite often, though I never really got into it.

Actually, Quantum Leap has two actors from Northern Exposure in one episode, called Catch a Falling Star. Janine Turner and John Cullum (thanks, IMDB, for that last one.)

steve  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    My dad used to love that show

I can't decide if I should feel old because of the fact that your dad watched the show... or that he watched the show on DVD... those are both generational oddities that I am on the other side of.

ugh.

JonG97  ·  2425 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm actually young enough to say that Northern Exposure is before my time (I was born 2 years after the show ended). Guess that would make first run viewers feel old.