13 Comments

DVD actually stands for Digital Versatile Disc. Eventually, so many people mistakenly said it's Digital Video Disc that it kind of stuck and the people behind the technology gave up.

Expand full comment
Sep 30, 2023·edited Sep 30, 2023

I snort-laughed out loud and startled my cat at the dial up sound you made! I HEARD that vividly!! 🤣 Well done today, this was a fantastic read and I really needed the laugh. I never patronized BB, only mom & pop video stores. Glad I did now too.

Expand full comment

In my 20's I worked for Wherehouse, which started out as Wherehouse Records and ultimately morphed into mainly video rental before they went down the drain. I don't remember if BB ran them out of business or if they just weren't very good at keeping up with the times. Anyway, one day I got there for my shift and found out I couldn't actually go in, because during the night some drunk heehaw had driven his truck into the adult video section. Through the outside wall. We were only kept out of the building for a few days, but it was quite a lot longer before we could let customers into the adult section again. If you ever want to find the quickest way to piss off a beer-swilling family man on a Friday night, tell him there's no adult videos for the foreseeable future.

Expand full comment

Never used BB. But mybrother is getting his last Netflix disc, The Banshees of Inisheren. He's sorry it's the last one. I wonder if they would care if he didn't send it back.

Expand full comment

I'm pretty sure they officially announced that people should keep them.

Expand full comment

That's a good thing.... thanks

Expand full comment

They might care, but I doubt they'll bother to go looking for him either...

Expand full comment

I'll be sure to let him know. I'd keep it.

Expand full comment

I remember as a 11-12 year old going into the local video store (not BB. You're right. They sucked. I'm talking mom and pop) and they would always have a back room with like an "adults only" sign on the door and wondering what that's all about. Lol.

Expand full comment

I remember going to Blockbuster as a teen in the UK. They had a distinct 18+ section. Brits might seem like prudes, but Blockbuster must have given in to their needs...

Expand full comment

They won't want it back. From what I've read, they're letting folks keep the DVDs.

Expand full comment

I never knew that about Blockbuster. We used to enjoy browsing the aisles looking for a movie to rent.

I've had Netflix for so long that I did start that as a DVD rental subscriber. I canceled the DVD part several years ago. I did not know they were still doing that until today.

Expand full comment

Interesting. I guess I never really made the connection, but it does seem that Blockbuster's rise roughly coincided with the demise of the teenage sex comedies (Porky's, Revenge of the Nerds, etc.) that seemed to come out every few months in the 80s.

Expand full comment