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How do? Kind of a nostalgia threat.

Not intended as an ‘everything was better in my day’ type thread. Arguably discovering gems such as Jason and the Argonauts is easier than ever. Online chit chat, YouTube rabbit hole diving, and streaming services give us near instant access. Add in physical copies from Amazon or eBay and you’re pretty much golden.

But I was born in 1980, when in the U.K. we had a mere three channels, which grew to 4 before I really knew anything.

In those days, telly wasn’t 24 hours, and even then due to the expense involved in making programmes, gaps in the schedule needed filling, especially during school holidays.

That, Dear Reader, meant cheap to air films, such as Harry Hausen masterpieces were shown during the afternoon. Tiny wee me was rapt. Even saw such oddities as Doug McClure films (Warlords of Atlantis remains a firm favourite), and Atlantis, The Lost Continent.

And once I was older, I’d sometimes stay up at night, when meant late night horror movies I was almost certainly too young to be seeing. And we’ll, Channel 4 late night movies? You sick little pervies.

So Young was I, that it wasn’t until I mastered Google I could track down many of these films, based on dim but enraptured memories that I found out what they were called.. And yes, I am one to buy them when I finds them.

Now that’s a very specific era. Add in the advent of video stores, and I found many wonderful films (and far too many awful ones), when trying to fill that ‘3 for 2’ offer. Always two you really wanted to see, so the third was the wildcard. If you were lucky, it was the best of the lot (Arena was discovered that way. Ivanova, Quark and Gul Dukat, TOGETHER AT LAST!). Same with Robotjox and Guyver.

What was your journey to movie awareness, Dakka? Genre doesn’t matter. Wanted to clear that up as mine are all very much of a taste, and didn’t want people to feel limited!

I am old so many classic movies I saw at the cinema etc

Others just used to be on the tv all the time, many are still better than the more modern versions

I enjoy The Longest Day vs Saving Private Ryan
1968 Dunkirk vs new one

Watched Alien when I was about 12 and that was scary... but otherwise pretty much same as you

Cable. We discovered so many under-the-radar classics through cable and Saturday TV movies. My parents also rented some classics to show us, like Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still. When we went through our little kid dinosaur phase, they rented pretty much every low budget dinosaur movie from the 60's and 70's. But mostly cable.


Who needs Jaws when cable has Orca and The Loch Ness Horror?

As a side question, do you feel the general lack of entertainment options might’ve given you a better appreciation for the ropier movies?

I’m not talking truly god awful tripe. Just stuff that was sort of middling at best. I shan’t provide examples, because chances are I might tread on someone’s childhood. And that’s a Richard move.

I remember in my early to mid teens BBC2 went through a period (likely between TNG seasons) of a 6 o’clock SciFi movie. Stuff like War of the Worlds and that.

Saturday afternoon tv.
In the 70s, we had 3 commercial stations and a national broadcaster (capitol cities had 3+1, regionals were lucky to get 1 local (which would often have a combination of stuff from the big 3 plus the national). In the 80s, we gained another, to cater to the large non-skip* demographic.
Saw all of the "classic sci-fi" films that way, in addition to the Harryhausen stuff.

Most of the time, we had the TV on as background noise while we played with toys or board games or whatever. We had video games and ...what's that stuff called that's outside the house?...and Lego that was not based on franchises. There were fewer genre books available and video games were in their infancy, so TV was a source of new ideas to spark the imagination.

My stepfather watched a lot of movies. In the era before cable tv was a thing over here, he would regularly hire movies from the video store and make copies of the ones he liked. There would be a movie on most nights after the news, either a new hire or something from the collection, which wound up spanning a fairly broad range, from old westerns and musicals through to modern (at the time) stuff. As a result, I've seen Ring of Bright Water, High Plains Drifter, Gone with the Wind and Singin' in the Rain almost as many times as Empire Strikes Back (which I've watched a lot)...


After leaving home, my friends and I slowly worked our way through the sci fi and horror shelves at the local video store. Fake blood and dodgy rubber suits were a staple of our weekends for some years.

Hmm. That's sounds slightly dodgier than it actually was. Ahem.

In the old days, it was the local FLVS (Friendly Local Video Store) that had all sorts of B-grade goodies on the shelves.

This was also helped by Sunday and Saturday morning movies that would play the same crappy movies once or twice a year. I have probably seen The Final Countdown more than any sane person should.

Then, MST3K came around and I would try to find the movies from them without the Bots to help me out.

Finally, now you can find plenty of low grade schlock on streaming services such as Tubi, Roku, and other "free" ones that can only afford to get the low-grade schlock on them! I love me some low grade schlock!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
How do? Kind of a nostalgia threat.

Not intended as an ‘everything was better in my day’ type thread. Arguably discovering gems such as Jason and the Argonauts is easier than ever. Online chit chat, YouTube rabbit hole diving, and streaming services give us near instant access. Add in physical copies from Amazon or eBay and you’re pretty much golden.

But I was born in 1980, when in the U.K. we had a mere three channels, which grew to 4 before I really knew anything.

In those days, telly wasn’t 24 hours, and even then due to the expense involved in making programmes, gaps in the schedule needed filling, especially during school holidays.

That, Dear Reader, meant cheap to air films, such as Harry Hausen masterpieces were shown during the afternoon. Tiny wee me was rapt. Even saw such oddities as Doug McClure films (Warlords of Atlantis remains a firm favourite), and Atlantis, The Lost Continent.

And once I was older, I’d sometimes stay up at night, when meant late night horror movies I was almost certainly too young to be seeing. And we’ll, Channel 4 late night movies? You sick little pervies.

So Young was I, that it wasn’t until I mastered Google I could track down many of these films, based on dim but enraptured memories that I found out what they were called.. And yes, I am one to buy them when I finds them.

Now that’s a very specific era. Add in the advent of video stores, and I found many wonderful films (and far too many awful ones), when trying to fill that ‘3 for 2’ offer. Always two you really wanted to see, so the third was the wildcard. If you were lucky, it was the best of the lot (Arena was discovered that way. Ivanova, Quark and Gul Dukat, TOGETHER AT LAST!). Same with Robotjox and Guyver.

What was your journey to movie awareness, Dakka? Genre doesn’t matter. Wanted to clear that up as mine are all very much of a taste, and didn’t want people to feel limited!

Pretty much this,

I also had a cinema in the next 'not so nice' town over run by a proper film nerd who'd have all sorts of odd films on for a day or two, the place was a bit run down and at some point something or someone had gone through the screen but given the choice of that or Spice World for 8 weeks at the 'nice' cinema the fleapit won every time

also had a minion job at an Arts Centre for a few years so watched a lot of art-farty films due to that (some good some not so good)

The same really. The BB2 sci-fi season (on Tuesdays?) and later the Godzilla series. I also worked my way through the local Blockbuster and a series of b-movie fantasy and sci-fi filler. Somehow the 'sharknadoes' of the modern age don't seem to have the charm of those old eighties 'classics'.

As an 80’s child my early years of discovering films were helped along massively by an uncle that lived with my grandmother.

Watched aliens by the age of 8yrs old along with predator and robo cop being favourite videos on a Saturday afternoon.
Grew up with great films such as platoon, Rambo and hamburger hill. Also had a few cheesy ones such as taps lol.

Mainly from being slightly counter culture. when I was a teenager, I got into older films like Scarface, the Godfather films, and Quentin Tarantinos early works. I know they aren't super old in the grand scheme of things.

Older works like The Great Escape, Cool hand Luke, One flew over the cuckoos nest, I watched because my dad mentioned them a lot.