Man, you young whipper-snappers had it easy!
I'm not even sure VCRs were invented early enough for me to watch something hundreds of times
The only thing I had was reruns in the afternoon, before the news but after soap operas. I can guarantee that I've seen every episode of the b&w Superman and The Lone Ranger multiple times, even though it was made well before I was born. As well as Tom & Jerry, Brady Bunch, Beverly Hillbillies, etc. I do remember that I refused to watch Ponderosa and Green Acres maybe?
Eventually in the 80s they started getting some good shit like Starblazers (my favorite show of the time...maybe all time!), but I was essentially at the mercy of the programming director for the local channels. I did get a VCR in my room way earlier than most other kids even had one in their home, but I still didn't have access to much that wasn't on network TV. My parents almost never rented movies, nor did they get anything more than basic cable for years. Shit, during high school I used to have a friend record Hit Parader's Heavy Metal Heroes on the weekend because he got USA network and I didn't.
Now that I think about it, my VCR was almost strictly reduced to spending an hour and a half in front of it, ready to record with pause on because it would start recording faster that way, for the entire duration of Friday Night Videos. And then later, when we got MTV, Headbanger's Ball. And then eventually playing that one porno I managed to get from a guy at school in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep. I can still remember how fucking loud the heads on that thing were whenever you hit play or stop. Or FFW/Rev. Pause was quiet, as was double speed...but if you left it on pause for 5 minutes, it fucking disengaged and made the stop noise!
