Analog Netflix

Drawing of a VCR

I love Seinfeld. I’ve watched every episode and in the early nineties, I would tape them on VHS.

I had my own library of Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and SNL.

Before streaming was a thing, I was annoyed that I couldn’t watch what I wanted at any time. That’s why I taped my favorite shows.

But I knew there had to be a better way.

That’s when I invented Analog Netflix.

I envisioned a giant room filled with VHS tapes of every TV show and movie. In that same room would be a wall of VCRs, with each VCR being connected to a specific customer’s cable box.

The customer would use an on-screen menu to choose what they wanted to watch and a robotic arm would retrieve that tape and put it into the appropriate VCR.

And just like magic, the show would play on the customer’s TV.

I was 12 years old at the time, so I didn’t follow through on my idea.

But I’m very happy to live in a world where my vision became a reality so that I can watch any episode of Seinfeld whenever I want.

- Matt

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