This item we have here in front of us is very interesting. Do you know what it is?
Yes, it is a tape. But specifically, it’s a copy of an original episode of a series called “Antiques Roadshow” that was sent out to American television critics for review in the early years of the third millennium.
I said, “television critics.” You look puzzled. They were people who, believe it or not, got paid actual salaries to watch television programs, which they would then write about for newspapers. We could chat for a whole ‘nother hour, of course, about what happened to newspapers.
But as you can see, it’s a VHS tape, a seriously flawed recording format that nonetheless enjoyed a brief window of extreme popularity in the late 20th Century.
And “Antiques Roadshow” was an antiques-appraisal program that, for a time, was the most popular on the old Public Broadcasting System in the United States of America. You’ve heard of “Sesame Street,” which is still running on the digiview? Yes, it was even more popular than “Sesame Street.”
This particular episode first aired in the Chicago area at 8 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 12, 2004, on WTTW-Ch. 11, the PBS station. Interestingly, it was the second of a three-episode series filmed in Chicago at a former tourist destination called Navy Pier, which was, of course, submerged in the Lake Michigan flood of ’46.
People on the program typically brought to tapings musty things from around the house in the desperate hope that the show’s experts would deem them unrecognized treasures.
It was said to have been most entertaining to watch their surprised faces, despite a tendency to windiness from some of the experts. It is also said that as the series progressed, it became harder and harder to shock people, and many seemed to walk away disappointed that their scrawled autograph from a Civil War figure wasn’t worth 25,000 United States dollars.
But the tape is quite an intriguing cultural artifact, indicative of a people who had too much time on their hands and way too much storage space.
You say you got it for next to nothing, on eBay III? That’s very interesting. Do you have any idea what it’s really worth?
Well, there’s a huge collectibles market for these VHS tapes, especially ones produced by American television outlets in the days before the Great Consolidation. Assuming the images are still visible, it’s worth — and please brace yourself for this — between 400 and 500 Interplanetary Fiscal Units. Congratulations!
