It's moments like these that make me truly regret giving away my VHS player and cassette collection. Especially my MST3K tapes from Rhino. ;_;
There are some things about VHS/Betamax (had both players until my family fully conformed to VHS) I don't miss; mostly the tracking (had one player that needed to be done manually) and rewinding the tape (anyone ever own a VHS rewinder?). In fact, when I graduated to DVD, I never wanted "pan and scan" movies ever again (I got spoiled). Plus, finally getting a complete collection of a TV or film series is finally a reality. Having the entire Three Stooges shorts on DVD is way better than hunting down one VHS tape after another with only 3 episodes per tape.
But, good gravy, I have some excellent memories of popping in those black tapes into the machine.
My older brother had Betamax recorded copies of the original Star Wars trilogy (long before Lucas went special edition insane in the membrane), Commando, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Susan Surandon's Janet getting intimate with Rocky while singing Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me practically drop-kicked me into puberty overnight). I had copies of Looney Tunes cartoons I'd watch all the time (Foghorn Leghorn and Daffy Duck were my favs). I even owned Tim Burton's Batman, Batman Returns, and Batman Forever (which I watched many, many times growing up). I did have some anime movies and series on VHS like the original Guyver OVA's. Dad owned a lot of John Wayne movies and, while I'm not a big fan of the actor, I liked some of his movies; Big Jake being one of them and it was my introduction to the Duke. Mom was more into the Disney movies than I was but I did enjoy Robin Hood (had a copy of it but a friend of the family borrowed it and never saw it again) and Aladdin very much. Speaking of animated movies, my late cousin owned a copy of Heavy Metal and he allowed me to watch it with him. First time I ever saw an adult cartoon before and, much like Rocky Horror Picture Show, it definitely messed with me on a mental and hormonal level. ^////^
Perhaps the best part of the VHS era was going through the multiple video rental stores in my area and finding anything to rent for the weekend. I watched a lot of comedy videos like George Carlin stand-up shows. I slowly got into horror titles like Friday the 13th and Halloween plus the other odds and ends (Wes Craven's Swamp Thing, The Toxic Avenger, and The Howling to name a few). I was big into Full Moon Entertainment after discovering Puppet Master (that and Subspecies are still the best series imo). However, there were moments where I got suckered into watching A LOT of bad movies. Keep in mind, this was pre-Internet. No information about lesser known movies was readily available to the public. Unless you were a massive film buff, the only thing you had to go on was the box art. Black Scorpion 2 still stands out in my mind as the worst movie I ever saw and this is coming from a guy who saw Batman & Robin in theaters... twice (I was in denial and tried imagining a better version of that movie)!
All in all, it was a fun and memorable ride during the VHS era. To those who still hold onto their VHS collection or are avid collectors, I salute you.