CLASSIC HBO

so some guy on youtube has a channel of classic (ie circa carter-first term reagan) hbo. instant time warp. for some reason i'm watching this right now (some great promos before the main attraction):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksw0dqLICQQ

anyhow this thread is for discussion of 'classic' hbo i guess (ie pre-larry sanders). watching this my first thought is 'jesus christ - ppl paid for this???' but then i remember that home video was nonexistent for most ppl and there were only three networks (plus pbs and some uhf stations if you were in a large metro area) and that it could take years for movies to end up on tv (and then they'd be edited obv). weird as fuck programming strategy going on, some typical niche (cavett, concerts) and some just standard 'this is cable' (comics who work blue) and then a significant amount of pitching to a much older demo - hello red skelton, hello rich little.

lindsey buckingham pops up in this one -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYKNLH9_uZo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQkYdfS0MPQ

Around 1980-81 I spent a lot of time at a friend's house whose family subscribed. I remember a lot of odd short films/animation in between the main featured programming.

Looking back, so much early cable programming in general was just kinda weird. For instance, ESPN is such a massive franchise nowadays, but back then they really seemed to struggle to fill up the programming day, so that you had full contact karate, australian rules football, and other stuff that you couldn't imagine the average american "sportsfan" giving much of a shit about at the time.

yeah alot of ppl (ie me) mourn that era of espn, they eventually segued into exercise shows (which had its pleasures) and reruns of x-games and now it seems a heavy focus on morons shouting at each other. i love pti but man the consequences. i remember nickelodeon had pinwheel (which was 80% secondhand stuff from europe) and today's special and at 7pm or show would turn into a&e which was still vaguely highbrow then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCMguzzoX1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLCg1kb1sA0

yeah I feel like a lot of that early nickelodeon programming just annoyed me more than anything, but for some reason when I was home school from sick I would invariably torture myself by watching it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qgBjoL_auM

heh "home school from sick"

a&e which was still vaguely highbrow then.

totally, I was gonna mention how they used to show ballet and opera and stuff (ARTS and Entertainment Network). I think the "Entertainment" part was like, reruns of the Buffalo Bill sitcom or something. Or maybe that was Bravo.

Fraggle Rock was the shit. My parents wouldn't have paid for HBO but we had a neighbor who got us this black box that gave us free HBO somehow, thus leading me to the path of media piracy at an early age.

Early ESPN also had "Vic's Vacant Lot" which someone on some sports website describes as follows: "The premise here was to send a fiftysomething guy (tennis guru Vic Braden) out with a group of young children to show them how to organize competitive sports in busy streets or places that looked like abandoned contruction sites. Gee, I can't imagine why that one was cancelled."

From what I remember that's a pretty accurate description. Like, he'd be hanging out with some kids riding bikes in a subdivision somewhere and they would invent a game that would be some kick-the-can/bicycle polo hybrid and then he would have them discuss safety issues

I remember so vividly the times my family would be on a road trip to visit relatives and we would stay in motels with HBO; I would STUDY the little pocket schedule on the night stand and sit there glued to literally whatever they were showing until I passed out.