THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PUBLIC DOMAIN VHS (PART ONE)

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The time is finally here! I knew I was babbling about this one a lot and I really put a lot of time into this little two part project focused in specifically on the oddity of mainly 1980s public domain cartoon VHS releases: the companies that distributed them, the horrid quality of the content released and, mainly, the sketchiness of pretty much the whole entire enterprise. In this piece I take us back to the good old days where, if you wanted to appease your kid, you went to a store in town and picked them up a little half hour VHS tape with, usually, four cartoons on them. It was simple, but I doubt very highly that many of the parents purchasing this content knew what was really going on behind closed doors regarding the various distributors they may have been buying from.
This nearly hour piece is broken into multiple sections all going all in to the history of how these public domain companies came to be and why many of them went the direction of releasing old public domain cartoons. There's lots behind it and a lot of problematic behavior to be dissected in relation to these companies and their actions. It's a truly intriguing and bizarre, yet troubling at the same time, little piece of media history and nostalgia.
And this is only part one!
0:00 Intro
2:32 My Childhood with VHS
4:50 How the Public Domain Game Started
10:58 The Distributors
15:11 Good Quality Stuff
29:28 The Dark Side of Public Domain VHS
50:29 Ending?

[@dariosmagata8481]

By the way, The Analog Archive was me. I took the channel down because I got sick of Warner Bros' incessant copyright claims for material that has been established as public domain for close to 50 years. I have a new channel "The New Analog Archive" up now, but it concentrates more on commercials and tape openings than cartoons.

[@jordanhowell7798]

I was a kid who had both high-end and public domain VHS tapes of Looney Tunes, most of the high-end tapes were released by Warner Home Video (now known as Warner Bros Home Entertainment) and I also had some high-end VHS tapes of Casper The Friendly Ghost from Castle Vision and WorldVision Home Video with permission by Harvey Comics. Most of these cartoons from Looney Tunes and Casper were from the 1950s so they were still copyrighted cartoons on these tapes. Cartoons from the 1940s were under the public domain like the first three Casper cartoons which were The Friendly Ghost (1945), There's Good Boos Tonight (1947) and A Haunting We Will Go (1948).

[@MrParkerman6]

23:20 Actually I found out from a KZbin commenter that worked as an artist for public domain cartoon VHS covers that the reason for all the hand drawn/painted Covers was not for the reason you said- but because Legally you could show anything on the FRONT cover, but not actually use an actual screen cap of the cartoon- thus they had to draw or paint cartoon artwork that resembles the actual cartoon without actually showing it.

[@TacomasterStudios]

That doesn’t really make sense, given that the images of the cartoon are public domain too

[@GaryTongue-zn5di]

@TacomasterStudios .Parkerman6 here under a different account. Ummm.... YES it does! Then how do you explain why there is never screen caps on the FRONT Cover? 🤔 Because it is against the law for some reason. Doesn't matter if they are Public Domain or Not. It is illegal to use actually Screen caps on the front, even if you are a copyright holder, that's why you never even see Disney Vhs's with The Screen caps on the front. It is illegal, 'Cuz Reasons!

[@TacomasterStudios]

@@GaryTongue-zn5di”cause reasons” is not a valid answer

[@stevennorthrup5790]

In 1984 at Rahway, New Jersey, someone decided that they wanted to cash in on the sudden renewed popularity of Alvin and the Chipmunks. However, the Chipmunks cash in failed. Also that year, Amvest released a record album called “The Happy Chipmunks Sing Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits,” which featured ‘chipmunk’ style of various Michael Jackson tunes. Unsurprisingly almost immediately after release, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., owner of the Chipmunks name, issued a cease and desist order. The record was quickly renamed “The Happy Hamsters Sing Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits.” Another record was released shortly after, which was called “The Happy Hamsters Go Ghostbustin,” which actually pokes fun at the lawsuit.

[@MrParkerman6]

The joke of "Fresh Hare"'s ending is supposed the be that Bugs wishes himself in Dixie instead of being in front of the Firing Squad. That is his final request before Execution!!!!!

[@MrParkerman6]

*to be.

[@richardgadberry8398]

14:45 Ben Minotte warned us of this.

[@oldradios09]

I’m more of a mid 90s to very early 00s kid (core millennial) and even I remember watching many of these tapes as a child. (Especially at my grandparents house) I have weird nostalgia for these tapes along with those 3 stooges tapes that usually contain Brideless Groom and Disorder in The Court. Don’t forget Castle Films and other companies before the VHS era cartoon releases on super-8 and 16mm. Many of this stuff was probably Castle films prints someone had dubbed to tape.

[@2ndPyleOfVinyl]

25:10 I do, but fun fact: Sharp VCRs from the 1980s actually used video heads there were optimized for EP/SLP! SP recordings always seemed grainy on those decks (such as the popular starter two-head unit, the VC-6846U).

[@PlutoPebble]

I remember a Tom and Jerry cartoon on a genuine cassette called 'His Mouse Friday'. At the time I was too young to see how on earth it made its way on to a 2002 cassette.

[@2ndPyleOfVinyl]

The horrific working conditions at Vidtape sure explains a lot in terms of their quality control. Amvest...wow. Creepy. I did know about the reused tape but I was lucky in my encounters of budget tapes with no pron or anything weird at the end, just excerpts of old cartoons and movies that the companies would have issued normally.

[@JMFabiano]

Holy crap I used to work blocks away from that address Amvest got kids'pictures at. Not coincidentally, go down the same avenue far enough and there's a go go club there.

[@Eomma2023]

My grandma used to buy these alot when I was little...shows my age...and my dad would buy them too, for Christmas gifts. And I remember my dad telling me that he grew up watching these cartoons too. Which I believe. I got my love for Betty Boop thru these Public Domain videos. The quality never bugged me as a kid.

[@2ndPyleOfVinyl]

Strangely though, I have a few black friends that love All This and Rabbit Stew. They start guffawing and mocking "I's gawn git me a rabbit hmm hmm!" I am part black myself. The TV edit of Fresh Hare I believe is just better as a whole in terms of comic timing. I always thought that the original "joke" just went on too long and was awkward.

[@bartsimpson83]

As a kid, I had a couple of PD cartoon tapes, but for the most part my mom actually had standards. Like, if she was gonna spend money on a tape, it was gonna be a GOOD tape like a Disney movie or a more legit cartoon collection (I had a few tapes from MGM of the better public domain Looney Tunes). That's probably why I have standards now.

[@Metlhd313]

I dont think that Celebrity Home Entertainment was a PD company. Most of what they distributed (animation-wise) were tv cartoons from various companies (Dic, Filmation, Ruby-Spears, etc), foreign cartoons, or redubbed and edited anime titles.

[@80sDisneyFan]

The main label was probably mostly PD though. Their Just For Kids division released the more professional stuff (correct me if I'm wrong).

[@jbbrown4472]

I have a Super Mario vhs tape and it had a commercial then it goes into a few seconds of some kind of movie

[@HollywoodofSuburbia]

We have a cabinet of VHS tapes still. I personally like to get the old commercials out of them, and make compilations of those said ads. I have a few. I started doing that in 2020.

[@2ndPyleOfVinyl]

Thank you, Steve. That was a fantastic video. An eye-opening hour of a subject that I enjoyed but...there was so much that I had no idea about. Especially with the working conditions at Videotape and the creepy details of the other distributors.

[@autumnmissepic8498]

this documentary is so cozy, I love it, feels like a frend rambling about there neche interest (: you have a wonderful voice

[@AutisticJoker88]

10:11 - Famous Studios was Paramount, dude lmfao

[@LifeinAnalog]

That was a lot of fun, looking forward to part 2. Whenever I would get a tape from Burbank Video, I would just wait for the alterations they would throw in to make it a "derivative work," so they could claim copyright on the public domain material. GoodTimes was my jam, they put out a LOT of great, rare stuff. The quality was usually poor, but just having the content was the thrill.

[@sweetwater156]

This unlocked some memories for me. My mom bought tons of these 4 and 6 hour compilation videos for me and sister in the early-mid 1990s. I’ve been on the hunt for one particular cartoon short from one of these public domain tapes but with only one clear scene in my memory it’s becoming nearly impossible.

[@StevetheAmateurHistorian]

Yeah I remember that too from my childhood in the early 90s. Every so often my parents would just come home with another tape of cartoons. I was definitely interested in this niche History but it also bright on a lot of nostalgia as well.

[@jacksonteller3973]

@@StevetheAmateurHistorian Yeah I had one that was spread across two tapes called "50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time" it had Popeye, Fleischer Superman, Gabby, Little Lulu, Felix the Cat, Terrytoons and Looney Tunes(including the Censored 11 shorts Jungle Jitters and All This And Rabbit Stew) I wore one of those tapes out as a kid. I'd love to see you do more videos like this about media history(as i'm not really into true crime stuff).

[@jacksonteller3973]

@@StevetheAmateurHistorian The original Night of the Living Dead ended up in Public Domain because it had no copyright notice and the whole reason the remake came out was to finally secure the copyright.

[@jacksonteller3973]

@@StevetheAmateurHistorian I had the same reaction to the Fresh Hare ending that you did LOL, as I kid I had no idea what was going with those stereotypes and wouldn't learn about blackface until I was in high school.

[@jacksonteller3973]

@@StevetheAmateurHistorian Personally I won't attack companies for releasing those offensive cartoons regardless of the stereotypes as I think it's a mistake to pretend like they never existed, it's like the disclaimer on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs says "those stereotypes were wrong then and they're wrong now but pretending like they never existed is dishonest" and I do firmly believe the Censored 11 should get an official release if only for historical purposes(apparently remastered versions of the 11 were done in the early 10s and there was a DVD release planned but WB decided against it).

[@schuszter4280]

Another quirk of these PD companies was frequently including several cartoons not actually in the public domain, some common examples included "Hollywood Steps Out", "Fin 'n' Catty", "The Unruly Hare", "Crowing Pains", and "An Itch in Time"

[@dariosmagata8481]

These companies relied on a set of actual books called the Film Superlist, which listed the copyright status of pretty much every film released in America up to that point. With thousands of films being listed, I guess it's not surprising that there were a few mistakes. There were definitely a few companies that didn't care to even check, though!

[@noahbossier1131]

I found that several looney tunes from the late 40s and 1950s(lumber jerks, the lions busy, swallow the leader, which is witch, etc) that are still under copyright. I found several fleischer Popeyes still under copyright. I even saw a fleischer color classic tears of an onion that’s still under copyright. Heck even she sick sailors a Popeye from the 40s appear in public domain tapes. It’s a mess

[@dariosmagata8481]

18:40 The strange thing with Star Classics (well, one of several) is that they used such awful quality 16mm prints as their sources, but the tapes themselves were usually duplicated in good quality and packaged decently. Vidtape, in contrast, didn't care at all - they were mastering their tapes from copies of copies of copies, and finding ways to save a few pennies even on the boxes. One thing I can say in Star Classics' defense is that that static helicopter sound is probably not from the tape, that seems to be introduced during the digital capture process if things aren't set just right. I have the same Vol. 6 tape and it doesn't have that issue.

[@2ndPyleOfVinyl]

3:16 You two did a pretty good job replicating that scene at least. I am a vintage VHS VCR collector and yeah, it did make my stomach churn. However, I heard that those Fisher/Sanyo units were not exactly prime decks. When new, they would clog up service centers with one issue or another. From faulty mechanics to diodes in the power supply that would short and cause small electrical fires (was more prevalent in the "higher end" units from Fisher/Sanyo around 1984). I wonder if you two worked at the post office that day when I ordered a 1983 Quasar VH-5335 as it arrived to me in pieces. Now that deck was really a decent one. I salvaged the rubber parts out of it to repair a Panasonic PV-1220.

[@theretroshack7864]

This was a very awesome series series of these Public Domain oddities, I was always wondering if anyone would do an in-depth look on these video distributors and you basically granted my wish! While I didn't grew up with Public Domain Cartoons on VHS, Instead I had the DVD equivalents that were released by Digiview through there "Cartoon Craze" series. (And even then they still were far from perfect) Keep up the amazing work!

[@2ndPyleOfVinyl]

6:20 In reference to my previous comment, that is the exact deck that I restored using parts from the destroyed Quasar!

[@greentree68]

My older cousin had some tapes from Goodtimes and one had a commercial for a washing machine at the end of it and another one had part of an I Love Lucy episode on it.

[@johnstrano636]

Used to see this just all the time at the Dollar Store. 99 percent of the time easy to skip. I one was given to me..I just put tape on it and re recorded over it It made better fodder tapes for recording pro wrestling or cartoons on tv on

[@geoffreyrichards6079]

The ending gag of “Fresh Hare” was random, but that’s kinda the subversive tone that a lot of cartoons from that era of animation had. While I agree that it hasn’t aged well, I am a preservationist at heart and of the opinion that a cartoon ought to be presented as it originally was and not be subject to censorship.

[@martindavis6115]

Thanks for this really fascinating upload. You did a really great job. It is clear that these video companies had little to no quality control and no two copies of any one Public Domain tape are the same. I'm the person who owned the Cartoons R Fun tapes with the abript endings and the one taped on a recycled Thomas Video (and fyi that was the same tape as referred to in the Wikipedia article). Have had a few where the tape has run out a little way into the start of the 4th cartoon. On the majority of these the name of the 4th cartoon has been crossed out on the back of the box. Have also had a few where the tape has ended abruptly about 10-20 seconds into the start of the 4th cartoon. I got a couple more that were on recycled tapes recently. One taped over the top of a video about boxing and the other over the top of a Transformers style cartoon.

[@tookeydookey]

Awesome documentary! Why this doesn't have more views is beyond me! I always had a guilty pleasure for liking these tapes, just because they had different cartoons on them that I never seen before, let alone new to me Looney Tunes cartoons. I still buy one on occasion just because I love how bizarre they truly are!

[@AutisticJoker88]

To be fair, not all, but a handful of Public Domain things are niche and don't really hold much interest in the eye of the average person (kind of ironic when said average person buys something public domain due to affordability)

[@michellelangdon5134]

Great video Steve! If these video manufacturers were running a sick pagent scam, I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that the porn wasn't so accidental!

[@Firecracker66]

I can so relate to your videos! But without the VHS how will kids learn to stick Pizza in their TV?

[@retropre-certstrikesagain666]

*THAT'S ONE THING YOU CAN BE SURE OF WHEN YOU GET A PUBLIC-DOMAIN DVD, YOU WILL NEVER ENCOUNTER ANY PORN AT THE END! (though apparently one DVD cartoon catalog contained two porno releases on it, but that's just to do with the company's catalog.)*

[@retropre-certstrikesagain666]

*AND IT WASN'T UNTIL 1989 THAT THE HAPPY HAMSTER'S FULL COSTUME WAS REVIELED~ THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO MAKE HIND-PAWS (feet) FOR HIM, INSTEAD HE IS JUST SEEN WEARING A PARE OF WHITE SOCKS!*

[@randomfamilydavenport]

I LOVED this one! You did an amazing job. Can't wait for part 2

[@thehernandezmediacorporation]

17:27 What was edited out was the logo from Associated Artists Productions, NOT a public domain label but a TV distributor that bought the rights to about 90% of the pre-1948 Warner Bros film library in 1956.

[@peanutbutterjeff5364]

I have a Playhouse Video tape (Playhouse was a subsidiary of Fox) of Man From Snowy River that was tapes over a movie called Teachers (I think). The snowy river label melted off after I played it, and the Teachers label was underneath.

[@DVDandFilmBloke]

They were so cheap they couldn't even buy a strong magnet for erasing the second hand tapes.

[@dannyspelman1468]

This is awesome!

[@inaciosthirdstudio]

To be fair, I did make my own VHS videos on KZbin and I got comments saying that I recapture the feel of old cartoons and VHS very well.

[@SgtBilby]

I was a PD VHS kid too but my childhood was different from yours back when i was a kid in Manassas, Virginia (aka Prince William County) - my parents had a VHS player and a Betamax player Cable back then in Prince William had the shittiest reception so we mostly rented videos from Errols (a once popular chain of video stores before being absorbed into Blockbuster) and those we rent we record onto a Betamax for keeps [yes really]* but i bought some PD tapes, mostly as an impulse buy Yes, i can admit the quality of the tapes blow but it did introduce me to the Looney Tunes and other oddities I was mostly a VHS kid because of the circumstances i had (* the Betamax player has long since died on us and the recordings of those VHS rentals are gone now, pity - most of what's on those tapes are treasures too - don't know what became of them) UAV was a decent company, they are not a PD company par say - they do license their content from Filmation, MTM (back when TVS [Television South/ITV] owned it), Perennial Pictures and alike Celebrity Home Entertainment/Just For Kids isn't PD either Burbank Video was a weird experience, They add goofy sound effects to PD cartoons which makes watching all the more weird and humorous Kid Pics was something else... Happy The Hamster was nightmare fuel (ask Ben from Oddity Archive, he got the creeps from him too)

[@PlutoPebble]

Better than the UKs Bevenfield trash even when the films that had really good voice actors

[@DoraemonFan-ww3jm]

Looks like The Video Bancorp wasn't the only public domain cartoon distributor to accidentally include porn on their cartoon tapes.

[@PlutoPebble]

Awesome history and great music

[@consciouscoma85]

soooo much material for making video art.

[@WindowshadeCure]

Yeah, when I was 3 my middle class parents usually got me officially licensed Disney, Peanuts, and Muppet videos, as well as a few of those Golden Book videos like "Sing Giggle and Grin" and "See Sing and Play"

[@TheVideoMaker1999]

10:12 Paramount, not Universal

[@retropre-certstrikesagain666]

*BOTH COMPANIES RELEASED BY "CIC VIDEO" IN THE UK!!*

[@TheVideoMaker1999]

@@retropre-certstrikesagain666 well... that was unnecessary

[@retropre-certstrikesagain666]

*HOW SO?*

[@TheVideoMaker1999]

@@retropre-certstrikesagain666 please don’t use all caps, it makes you look like a desperate try hard

[@stew3822]

The hamster mascot thing was very upfront in what he wanted 😂

[@alexyocum593]

Most kids Klassics tapes have the black screen of death and the end of them

[@ethanrocket430]

4:54 how the public domain game started

[@ethanrocket430]

20:45 cover compilations

[@ethanrocket430]

26:42 fresh hair airing in the 2000s

[@ethanstute8414]

21:20 Elmer Fudd Pog

[@PlutoPebble]

Look behind the happy hamster freak at 38:58 the video in the background shows how bad their quality is

[@jacksonteller3973]

Ah Sterling Entertainment, i've got several of their DVDs.

[@mr.d5247]

I’m currently building a collection of public domain cartoon DVDs! So far I have 20 or 21.

[@leet7489]

I remember the Disney compilations more than the public domain ones

[@TheBoringTiger]

Great video! I grew up watching these public domain tapes in the early 2000s when I was little. Unfortunately like a lot of these tapes, they include racist cartoons which I didn’t understand what’s so bad about that when I was 5 years old because I didn’t know what’s blackface or racist caricatures are like. I was disgusted to know about these tapes having porn in them, leaving the kids and parents horrified and also encouraging kids to send personal information for their business.

[@PlutoPebble]

I've seen shameless Jungle Book rip offs by a company called Dream Town here in England with Good Times junk on them.

[@JaxTheEpic]

Popeye is a comic strip by King Features Syndicate.

[@LivelyInnactiveD]

Don't You mind if I use some information for a video of the same topic for spanish audience?, I got interested on the topic and I would give credits :P

[@StevetheAmateurHistorian]

Yes that would be just fine!

[@krmiistudios2479]

Remember, if you want the best LT shorts like Rabbit Fire, Rabbit of Seville, Long haired Hare, Bully for bugs, knighty knight Bugs, What's Opera doc, Ali Baba Bunny, Show Biz Bugs, Duck amuck, Duck Dodgers, Robin hood Daffy, the Scarlet Pumpernickle, and All the Sylvester, Road runner and Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn, and Yosemite Sam Shorts, Buy the legitimate LT Dvds That are Actually Warner Bros, since every third Party cartoon DVD only has The Same Puplic Domain Shorts that also Feature non- Warner Bros Cartoons like Felix the cat and Popeye the Sailorman.

[@pap3rw8]

An electromagnetic tape degausser (erasing machine) is neither expensive, nor complicated, nor time-consuming to use. You press the button and wave it over the cassette. Goes to show that these distributors would cut every single corner they possibly could.

[@nbguyrandomchannel]

33:28 That one that you mentioned is actually in Dutch Not German

[@joshuaturner2043]

Joshmnm3o joshmnm2 😂😅😊❤

[@retropre-certstrikesagain666]

*IF THERE'S A PUBLIC-DOMAIN TAPE THAT CONTAINS CARTOONS THAT HAVE BEEN REPEATEDLY ACCUSED OF "RACISM" AS WELL AS CONTAINING SOME LEFT-OVER PORNOGRAPHY AT THE END, {preferably porn between one man and one woman} THEN I'VE GOT TO HAVE IT! (and by the way, you forgot to mention the April 15th 1993 case in regards to an old Popeye tape entitled "The Best Of Popeye" put out by a company called "The Video Bancorp".)*

[@retropre-certstrikesagain666]

*BELIEVE IT OR NOT, BUT THAT HAPPENED WITH A CAMP VIDEO RELEASE OF "DEATH-ROW DINER"! (except it was a fag-porno that leaked through, yuck.)*

[@GaryTongue-zn5di]

8:57 Fleisher is pronounced *Flesh-er, not fly-sure!

[@retropre-certstrikesagain666]

*TRIVIA: CARTOONS R FUN (VIDTAPE INC.) TAPES ARE PROTECTED BY MACROVISION!*