The Past: If You Were Dumb Enough to Blink, You Missed It

From Chuck Klosterman's latest, THE NINETIES.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “didn't you point this phenomenon out over a dozen years ago?"

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did - well, KIND of, what I talk about here is from the 1980s, but still valid:

...watching tv has really changed, ain't it? Remember when you were a kid, and if you missed a special or a movie you had no idea if you'd ever get to see it again? "Well, that's that!" you pictured the tv execs saying after the movie was over as they loaded it into a cannon and shot it to Saturn. When I was in 8th grade my friend Ryan told me that he had "Rock n Roll High School" on VHS at his house - I hyperventilated for days, counting the seconds til I could get over to his house for a viewing. Of course I get there and...had been taped over. Devestated. My one chance ever to see my gods on film for 2 hours, gone forever.