Our UK independent podcast recommendation of the week heads towards the 80s: it’s the brilliant Betamax Video Club.
Ahhh Betamax. The infamous loser of the VHS vs Betamax videotape format wars of the 1970s and 80s (if you’re unsure, ask your folks!). Developed by Rich Nelson, the idea for Betamax Video Club came from discussions with friends about movies. Originally he wanted the podcast to be purely James Bond or Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, until the realisation that was a massive limitation in the number of movies he could cover. This drove him to the discussion of movies of the 80s; the decade in which he grew up.
The movies Rich loved as a child gave him that feeling of nostalgia and a want to talk about them with friends on a podcast. Through the medium of Betamax Video Club Rich has been introduced, not only to other movies from the decade that he’d never considered beyond their genre before, such as Dirty Dancing or Blade Runner (because his guest has recommended that they be covered on the podcast), but also to a wide variety of people he’d never meet in real life, all of whom have contributed to the rich variety of episodes on offer.
The name Betamax Video Club, was suggested by a friend, because there’s nothing more quintessentially 80s than renting a Betamax tape.
Betamax Video Club therefore, is purely movies from the 1980s, but otherwise they’ve covered a wide variety of genres so far. Not just the popular 80s movies everyone knows and loves, but also famously ‘bad’ movies like Death Wish 3 and Garbage Pail Kids. Nevertheless there’s always a fondness for the movies that are covered and Rich and his guests always give a positive point of view to each movie covered (maybe not so much with Garbage Pail Kids, but otherwise they do try!)
Betamax may have lost out in the videotape wars, but Betamax Video Club is always a winner.
Recommended episode: Episode 43: Airplane! – 7 March 2019 – http://bit.ly/betamaxairplane
Betamax Video Club can be found at https://betamax.podbean.com/
Followed at:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/BetamaxPod/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/BetamaxPod
Instagram – https://instagram.com/betamaxvideoclub
All episodes of Betamax Video Club are available to download from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from.
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