You may have noticed that I've been busily adding new material to Video WatchBlog all week. And with good reason! My sudden show of industry was all building up to today, when I can remind my followers with some sense of accomplishment that it was 10 years ago tonight that I first launched this eclectic blog - which now
extends to 1,172 postings that have enjoyed well over 1,165,000 page
views.It was also 30 years ago this month that Video Watchdog itself was first launched as a regular column on the last page of the October 1985 issue of VIDEO TIMES magazine. Illustrated at left is that very first column, which was inspired by a coincidental viewing of HERCULES with Steve Reeves on home video and a cable television broadcast. "Tipper," a goof on then-self-styled media watchdog Tipper Gore and Nipper, the RCA Records mascot, was dreamed up by someone on staff at the magazine and did not tag along for the idea's subsequent residences at OVERVIEW, GOREZONE or VIDEO WATCHDOG.
Due to the construction of the Digital Archive and subsequent digital editions and books, it's been a couple of lean years for the print magazine. We're not happy about it, and we apologize - two-person operation, and all of that. I have now edited nearly all the contents of VIDEO WATCHDOG 180, which has shaped up to be an issue of concentrated quality, much like 179, as we've been able to cherry-pick from a rich accumulation of material. We intend to be at the printer by the end of the month.
In closing, if you follow this blog, if you enjoy the material I freely post here, please consider investing in some of the amazing products at our website! Thank you.
Years 11 and 31 start here.
