I would also add that if you had a neighbor or relative that had HBO, you’d be able to record on VHS a set of movies playing at that time. For many of us this may have been only a few months/years of movies. That set of movies would grow on you because thats all you had to watch on demand. Genre, theme, high budget, low budget, it didn’t matter. Someone close to you popped in a 6 hour tape one day and pressed “record” before they went to work. You got the one movie you were hoping for and whatever came afterward.
I remember HBO used to have a new movie on at something like 6:00PM every Friday. But I didn’t know what the movie would be ahead of time. So I would start the VCR recording as soon as I saw that screen at 6:00, then would wait patiently to see what the movie was that I was recording, hoping it was gonna be something good
I would also add that if you had a neighbor or relative that had HBO, you’d be able to record on VHS a set of movies playing at that time. For many of us this may have been only a few months/years of movies. That set of movies would grow on you because thats all you had to watch on demand. Genre, theme, high budget, low budget, it didn’t matter. Someone close to you popped in a 6 hour tape one day and pressed “record” before they went to work. You got the one movie you were hoping for and whatever came afterward.
And it probably started with this
It did and it was magical!
I remember thinking about how amazing the animators were that made the HBO logo spinning into frame toward the end. Turns out, they actually build a big chrome logo and shot it with practical photography as detailed in this Behind the Scenes program..
The method of creating the lights inside the O knocked me out. I miss the ingenuity behind practical effects.
I remember HBO used to have a new movie on at something like 6:00PM every Friday. But I didn’t know what the movie would be ahead of time. So I would start the VCR recording as soon as I saw that screen at 6:00, then would wait patiently to see what the movie was that I was recording, hoping it was gonna be something good