"1979 was when VHS started to hit this country big time. Very few people had VCR's back then. When we got ours in 1980 our friends were amazed by it. I think the 1982-86 timeframe is when most people bought their first machine."
I can't really remember for sure the years, but 1982-1986 sounds about right. While I have heard of videophile types and gadget freaks having videotape in the late 1970s, I don't recall anyone I knew having it until the early 1980s.
I first saw video tape in my school. I have no idea when they bought into the technology. By the 80s someplace, it was clearly the rising technology. Regular "films" were still used--but they mostly a legacy product from the pre-video era.
My family got the first--and, as it turned out, last--VCR a little about 1988. I feel it's safe to say that video tape was well established by that point, simply because I know my family: we were never the first to have new technology. Indeed, a lot of stuff that people took for granted was never bought by my family. We never had a microwave oven, and the family audio system remained nothing but a record player, receiver, and speakers until the bitter end. We might not have had a VCR either, except my mother received regular catalogs that sold books, audio recordings, and video tapes (often clearance items). She studied the video section one night, and was sold on the idea of video tape. There were several movies she was interested in seeing. As she commented to me, she'd thought video tape was nothing but exercise videos.
