Love this show to death with Happy Days, Incredible Hulk (1970s :D), The Wonder Years, etc. Does anyone know where to get the original broadcasts unaltered and uncensored when they aired with commercials? Does anyone have some they are willing to share? The ones available are syndicated censored ones or cropped to fit tv screens today. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I grew up on the original it would be nice to see it as it was broadcasted again :-)!

You might also want to put this request on the trading post board

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=168

You'll be pretty lucky if you can find some of the original broadcasts of the show. VCR's were out but were expensive and not made affordable until around 1983-ish.

You'd be hard pressed to find anybody having recorded full entire TV episodes with commercials intact, when I recorded my favorite shows on VHS in my youth I always had my hand on the pause button for when commercials started as that was the whole purpose of having a VCR to have collections of shows without the hindrance of commercials.

^^ A lot of people would set their VCR to pre-record their favorite program because they couldn't be there for whatever reason. So when you did that you got the commercials.

I still think the main problem is the average person didn't own a VCR at that time (1977) even though they were out.

^^ A lot of people would set their VCR to pre-record their favorite program because they couldn't be there for whatever reason. So when you did that you got the commercials.

I still think the main problem is the average person didn't own a VCR at that time (1977) even though they were out.
So true. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood and when our my friend's family got a VCR in 1983 we viewed it as flaunting their wealth :lol:
We got one at JC Penney 2 years later with my mom's 15% discount and we moved up in the social class LOL

I have a few episodes recorded from original broadcasts with commercials. I have to check, but I think I have about 5-6.

that was the whole purpose of having a VCR to have collections of shows without the hindrance of commercials.

We got ours so we could watch shows that were on when we were gone or asleep. It had nothing to do with commercials. Probably 90% of the time we recorded something there was no one watching to pause it.

My family was probably the last on the block to purchase one in 1987. We were always spending 20 dollars (twice a month to rent one at the video rental store). And when we finally got one it was used as a VCP (video cassette player). My family had crummy antennae reception. It wasn't until 1990 that my dad agreed to PAY for cable tv.

My family was probably the last on the block to purchase one in 1987. We were always spending 20 dollars (twice a month to rent one at the video rental store). And when we finally got one it was used as a VCP (video cassette player). My family had crummy antennae reception. It wasn't until 1990 that my dad agreed to PAY for cable tv.


Oh wow that’s cool, how many days would the $20 get you ?

How many days?

We always got in on Friday. The Video store ran out of machines by 6pm. Everything had to be returned by 10 pm on Sunday or they would charge another 20 dollars if returned on Monday.

I think they also had an early week special for Monday through Thursday. As a rule, my mom would never permit any movie rentals because of school nights and no distraction for doing homework.

I think 20 rented the VCR and one new release or two older videos. I think new releases were 3 dollars or 2 for 5$. My mom used to rent a lot of older stuff~ Charlie Chaplain, Laurel & Hardy, Abbot & Costello. Those were dollar rentals.

Three's Company was long over and being the youngest, I didn't figure out how to record TV shows until 1993. Remember that you had to first learn how to set the date and time on the VCR machine and then learn how to program it to record. People in my house routinely unplugged both the TV and VCR to run the vacuum cleaner.

Yes that answered my question. Good stuff. Sounds a lot like my Mom.

I remember the VHS vs Beta debates. I didn't live in a very big town in the early 80's so our two video rental stores pretty much dictated what we got. They would always opt to buy the VHS tapes over the Beta movies because VHS was cheaper. So when we bought our first VCR , it was a VHS. I'm glad we did because Beta faded away. It seems like still today people debate over which one has the best picture.

One thing I will say about VHS tapes vs DVD's is that VHS tapes do not freeze up or get scratched up. And when the rental stores started carrying DVD movies it was always frustrating to get movies that froze up and wouldn't play.

Yeah the freezing up sucked. Seemed like it always happened when the store didn’t have any other copies of that movie available.

I used to love the VHS tapes back in the day. I would tape the Three's Company reruns and had no idea that scenes were cut from the original broadcast.

When the seasons were first being released on DVD, it was the first time for me seeing new Three's Company scenes. Great times!

Three's Company was long over and being the youngest, I didn't figure out how to record TV shows until 1993. Remember that you had to first learn how to set the date and time on the VCR machine and then learn how to program it to record. People in my house routinely unplugged both the TV and VCR to run the vacuum cleaner.
In the 90's newer model VCR's started to integrate what was called VCR Plus to make recording easier for folks that didn't stay home, basically it was simply to input a five digit code on your favorite TV program which were listed in the TV Guides of which you had to buy as well.

Don't know how long it lasted but I'm assuming they were phased out when DVD's became more popular.

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..Mostly complete