Episode 439: Borked By Blockbuster

What the HELL Were You Thinking?

Episode 439: Borked by Blockbuster

This week Host Dave Bledsoe gets in a drunken row with a fellow barfly on the artistic merits of “Jiggly Juggs Volume 7” versus “Jiggly Juggs Volume 8” insisting 8 was repetitive trash until the bartender tossed them both out. (Again) On the show this week we tell you about the time a Supreme Court nominee’s video rental records gave us a whole new law! (But had nothing to do with keeping Bork off the bench.)

Along the way Dave goes on Old Man Rant ™ about how tough it was before corporate video chains took over the video rental market. Then we dive right into a brief history of home video rentals and how capitalism killed the mom and pop video stores. (It is somehow relevant, we swear) before finally getting to the main story about Robert Bork. (It’s OK if you don’t know who that is, we didn’t either.) We explain how the guy who did Dick Nixon’s dirty work gets nominated by Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court and everyone gets super pissed by the end of the story. (It really is a wild ride on this one!) Finally we explain why all of this resulted in politicians feeling safe when they rented their hard core porn at their local video store. (You know the stuff behind the swinging doors in the back, you dad went in there while you were looking for Star Wars movies.) Finally we explain why you still have privacy at The Last Blockbuster but not on Netflix. (Say it with us: CAPITALISM!)

Our sponsor this week is Mondo Fast Eddies Home Video back again because they still got tapes. We open with Randall from RST Video and close with Datarock who are waiting for you at the video store.

Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense

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Citations Needed:

The Silicon Underground: How much did VHS tapes cost in the 80s?

https://dfarq.homeip.net/how-much-did-vhs-tapes-cost-in-the-80s/

A Tight Squeeze at Video Stores

https://web.archive.org/web/20200414084654/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/01/business/a-tight-squeeze-at-video-stores.html

Wikipedia: Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork_Supreme_Court_nomination

THE BORK TAPES SAGA

https://web.archive.org/web/20071009144531/http://www.theamericanporch.com/bork2.htm

PUBLICATION OF BORK`S VIDEO RENTALS RAISES PRIVACY ISSUE

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1987/11/20/publication-of-borks-video-rentals-raises-privacy-issue/

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