THE MOVIE CHANNEL November 1981 Promo Bumper Block - Great Memories

My family got cable television back towards the end of October 1981, so this material aired about two weeks later.

I recall fond memories of life back then, with friends in the neighborhood coming over after school and on the weekends, and family life around the house while promos like this were on in the background as white noise.

This was also back during a time when everything centered around fanfare and presentation, and where all television was by appointment only. Unlike today, cable television only had about 35-50 channels. So, most of them would put more effort into grabbing your attention to get you to watch, because it was a big deal when the movies came to pay television (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, HTN and Spotlight), and the only way for most people to see movies back then (if you didn't have cable) was to either go to the movie theater or drive in or see it edited on network tv (ABC, NBC or CBS). Back then, there were no neighborhood video stores, since that phenomenon was just on the horizon a year or two later, and there was no pay per view or HBO or Showtime multi-channel offerings.

So, these pay-tv promos were exciting to me as a kid, because it was a gateway or bridge to a whole new world of movies. I just consumed them like a sponge.

Unfortunately, these days are long gone, and these channels are now all owned by 3 - 5 soulless corporations. There's little to no fanfare now in the way of promotion or presentation, it's just "here's your movie", and they crank them out like an assembly line, or present them in some way so that you can't really enjoy the experience the same way you could back then. I remember when Showtime used to show their logo several times during whatever movie they were playing (for anti-piracy reasons, I'm sure), but it drove me crazy. Now it's the norm on every channel, and we have to be reminded what we're watching it on what's coming on next. These channels are all just hollow shell of their former selves now. I consider 1981-'85 to be the golden era for pay TV.

For example, I believe that this was greatest logo for "The Movie Channel", compared to the ones that were used later on, such as tmc logo, which in my opinion, gutted the whole spirit of the channel entirely throughout the 90's. Now all we have are the memories of simpler time.

Note: I do not own this video. I am posting it for entertainment, nostalgic and historical purposes only.

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