I SAW IT ON TAPE - Doc Hollywood

I'll use the fact that this innocuous Rom Com was released (theatrically) 35 years ago today as an excuse to talk about videotape, playback heads, and VCRs (or, as people now call them, "VHS Players").

Doc Hollywood wasn't necessarily a movie I personally would've sought out and rented for myself, but that's probably true of 90% of the movies I saw on tape in the 80s and 90s, so I'm thankful to've been surrounded by a network of people who knew better (or were just more flexible when it came to rental options). In those days it wasn't uncommon to watch a New Release at home, and then see it again several more times in other people's homes over the course of the next couple weeks - back then, we knew what was "trending" by counting the number of aunts you watched burst into tears at the end of Ghost. When Doc Hollywood came out on video (closer to the end of 1991) I'm pretty sure I saw it three times in three different households, and I'm pretty sure the first time I saw it was in the most chaotic environment of the three; kids playing in one room, adults talking in another room, a stereo playing Mariah Carey somewhere, and on a tiny TV in a darkened bedroom, a fuzzy, nearly indiscernible Doc Hollywood with serious tracking issues played to an audience of me (because nothing held my interest more than movies, even when they were visually compromised by shit VCRs).

I don't know how much this memory would've stood out to me had it not been for the brief sense of nudity that I knew I was missing. There's a scene early on in the film where Julie Warner emerges naked from a lake after skinny-dipping, and I knew this because no amount of TV static could distort the presence of boobs from the keen eyes of an 8-year-old. The scene is definitely meant to shock (in a giggly playful way) and even with the impediment of tracking fuzz, just the implication was a surprise in a PG-13 Michael J. Fox movie. And yes, in the coming weeks I would actually see the movie two more times, on different tapes in better VCRs, and (uncomfortably) with different relatives. (I had to wait for HBO to finally experience it privately and unblemished). 

Today I have Doc Hollywood on Blu-ray in all its 2K or 4K or WhateverK clarity, and so I'm reminded of a time when picture quality was compromised and inconsistent, and yet we often pressed on through entire features, undeterred by technical difficulties. Nowadays I find myself abandoning HD Streaming Content 5 minutes in because it suuucks. That reality references a lotta talking points, but mostly I'm just pointing out how committed we used to be to a Video Rental; "This is my plan for this evening and I paid $3.95 for it and I only get one goddamn Friday night a week!" Home Video felt more celebratory and ritualistic even, as opposed to the convenient novocaine of digital platforms. Let's normalize planning on what we're watching tonight far in advance, getting excited about it, and then seeing it through to the end. Also, let's normalize bullying people who say "VHS Player".

- Paul