I was bored and pulled up an old movie I taped from network TV in
1988. Some observations from watching an 18 year old tape:1) Movie: It was a made for TV comedy about the prom "Dance till Dawn". Light stuff. Not much different than what they'd do today for that genre, although I think networks don't bother with that style anymore; they want more "soap" and drama, and far more glamourous kids. Hair and clothes styles obviously different, more 1980s, but not drastically different. Popular stars of the day were in it, some have done well since then like Alyssa Milano and Kelsey Gramar (sp?). Others had had hard times, such as Tracey Gold.
2) Commercials: car commercials looked basically the same. Texaco gasoline had several ads, I don't think oil companies run ads today. In my area, Shell has taken over Texaco stations.One major department store advertised their name and reputation for trust, which was true for them. That store was bought out and soon will change its name to the parent company. So much for reputation.
Teasers for local news were quite striking. One local newsman had dark hair back then and now is fully gray (it is 18 years after all). Another local fellow, very popular, passed away at a young age from disease.
There was clearly less commercials than on TV now. I can't even watch live TV these days because there are SO many commercials, I have to tape it so I can speed through them. I think networks have added 4-5 minutes of commercials per hour, and cable and syndicated shows even more, perhaps only 35 minutes of show per hour.
Some TV shows advertised became classics, like Night Court, others I never heard of "Tattinger's"?
3) Technical: the tape was made on my first VCR purchased around 1985. It had a soft appearance but was ok. I couldn't freeze frame without ad lines, and adjusting the slow tracking didn't help. (My #3 VCR can't freeze frame on tapes made on my #2 VCR either, for some reason I don't understand. All are Panasonic, #2 and #3 are 4 head. #1 started crimping tapes badly and was retired some years ago. #3 came with the DVD player and is brand new.)