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Montage Ends the VHS

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"Join us after the feature for a special bonus program."

One of the most common things Home Video Distributors did with movie and television releases in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s was adding movie trailers, intros, or a compilation preview promoting other VHS or (in earlier years) Betamax tapes they sold. This was because a VHS tape and/or a Betamax tape in SP mode had room for two hours of material; since most movies clocked in at around 90 minutes, and four half-hour or two one-hour TV episodes (minus commercials) last about the same amount of time, the tapes had leftover space.

As the 1980s progressed, trailers and promos began to appear at the beginnings of tapes; commercials for products not directly related to the film or show (i.e. soda) began to appear as well — often if there was some sort of tie-in with the movie or show on the tape. Throughout the 1990s, plugs for products related to the tape's contents (such as soundtracks or books) also began to appear, and in some cases (mostly Disney's) promos for TV shows running on the label's sister broadcast networks or produced by the television wing of the studio (including Recycled: The Series) would appear too. Music videos were also a common sight, typically for a song on the film's soundtrack.

Related to The Stinger.


Examples:

  • Pokémon: The Original Series: The American VHS and DVDs released throughout the Nineties through VIZ Media (then, Viz Video) and Pioneer Entertainment had trailers at the end of the tape to promote the still-young Pokémon Red and Blue games (featuring Rachael Lillis as the voice of Pikachu as well as an evil bus driver — no, seriously), as well as other anime Pioneer was distributing (Kimba the White Lion, Ranma ½) at the time. On some occasions, like prior to the release of Pokémon: The First Movie, they'd air the trailers (mostly just the trailer for Pokémon: The First Movie) first.
    • The Middle East releases of these videos on Megastar had commercials between the episodes, ensuring annoying fast-forwarding.
  • "Walt Disney and You", a compilation trailer seen at the end of Walt Disney Home Video videocassettes from 1982 until a few months before the Walt Disney Classics premiere of Sleeping Beauty, contains clips from various 1950s-1980s Disney films, mostly the live-action ones. (In 1982, only a few Disney Animated Canon titles were available for home viewing; this changed when the Classics line was created in 1984 with Robin Hood (1973) and began releasing films from the canon for the next 10 years.) It comes complete with a 1980s-style title song at the beginning and end as well as TRON-style graphics. Earlier videos just contain trailers for other Disney movies after the end of the actual movie. There was even a standalone release, 1985's The Walt Disney Comedy and Magic Revue, that consisted solely of a half-hour Clip Show of highlights from their library — effectively meaning the Montage IS the VHS!
    • Disney Sing-Along Songs and Winnie the Pooh: Storybook Classics tapes often had these.
    • Many Disney (and its other labels: Touchstone, Buena Vista, Hollywood, Miramax, Dimension, DIC Toon-Time) tapes had music videos, trailers and/or featurettes at the end. It was especially common on a majority of the Masterpiece Collection releases and titles from the late 1990s to early 2000s. Then there were the often-seen trailers at the beginning, which would often promote ABC programming following Disney's buyout of that network in 1996; in some cases (mostly kids videos), shows on the Disney Channel or, following its purchase, ABC Family would appear too.
    • The Buena Vista reissues of the Max Fleischer's Cartoon Capers and Paddington Bear releases featured a promo as well, after the Buena Vista copyright screen.
    • The Rocky and Bullwinkle videos released by Buena Vista Home Video in 1991 and 1992 featured a promo for the collection at the end of the videos. The promo was expanded when two more videos were added following the original six volumes, but when four more videos were released, the videos continued to end with the 8-volume promo, as opposed to adding the four new ones to the promo.
    • The VHS releases of The Crow and its sequel The Crow: City of Angels ended with Brandon Lee's last interview and a tribute to him, respectively.
  • A lot of MGM/UA's 1980s videos end with a compilation trailer that is similar to the "Walt Disney and You" trailer, except it is set to various songs and promotes MGM and United Artists films on video.
    • Earlier, when MGM/UA was called MGM/CBS (a joint venture between MGM and CBS), its tapes just contained movie trailers at the end.
    • The 50th Anniversary VHS of The Wizard of Oz had one consisting of a movie trailer, the Academy Award film, the MGM Newsreel, and three cut songs (in order: the Buddy Ebsen version of "If I Only Had A Heart", "The Jitterbug" and the complete version of "If I Only Had A Brain").
  • Family Home Entertainment did this with its early 1980s tapes. Depending on the feature attraction, they added a bunch of intros for anime dubbed by ZIV International, promos for other tapes in a series (The Transformers, Gumby, etc.), and/or previews for thematically similar programs. If the "feature" had less than a half-hour running time, F.H.E. would often pad the tape out to an hour with previews, public domain Golden Age of Animation shorts and/or, in the case of some of the Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears specials, storybook segments derived from tie-in book lines. Similar companies such as Children's Video Library (a Vestron Video imprint) and Wonderland Video often used previews and/or shorts to fill out their tapes as well.
    • This was also done by U.S.A. Home Video, a non-family-friendly subsidiary of Family Home Entertainment which eventually overtook FHE, evolved into International Video Entertainment / IVE, then LIVE Entertainment (acquiring Vestron Video around this time), and finally Artisan Entertainment before being absorbed into Lionsgate, by adding movie trailers in its early tapes. All of their "Thriller Video" programs hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark ended with her introducing trailers for two or three other tapes in the line before end credits rolled.
  • This was a common feature on UK and Australian rental tapes.
  • CBS/Fox Video had a whole-series preview follow each installment of Faerie Tale Theatre. Their Playhouse Video subsidiary would do the same thing with Jim Henson's Muppet Video (a series of clip shows drawn from The Muppet Show) and "The Shirley Temple Collection" (her films).
  • All of the Arthur VHS releases from Random House Home Video and Sony Wonder end with a crapload of funding promos and Arthur video promos. This also happens on the rare early DVD releases of Arthur as well.
  • In the mid-1980s, Thorn EMI Video and its successor company Thorn EMI-HBO Video, had a habit of capping off tapes with a series of trailers; before HBO was added to the company's name, this usually ended with an extensive scroll listing a bunch of Thorn EMI tapes as easy listening music played. This habit was abandoned by the time it became HBO/Cannon Video and then simply HBO Video.
  • The UK VHS releases of Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II both managed to fit in an episode of The Real Ghostbusters after the film.
  • RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video tended to put previews at the end of their tapes in the mid-80s; by around 1989, they'd switched to putting them at the beginning, which carried over into their subsequent identity as Columbia Tristar Home Video/Home Entertainment.
  • Sanrio:
    • Some Hello Kitty to Issho tapes end with a preview for the entire collection of tapes in that series (which is just the theme song "Itazura Tenshi" set to clips from the videos as their names are shown) and a preview for Sanrio Puroland.
    • During the early to mid 2000s, various Sanrio DVDs starring Hello Kitty alongside anime starring Sanrio characters (such as My Melody, The Jewelpets, and The Sugarbunnies) would follow a similar approach by either beginning or ending with an advertisement for Sanrio Puroland and Harmony Land.
  • Speaking of that, this trope is very common for most Japanese VHS tapes, mostly ones for children's anime from Shogakukan Video.
  • Tapes distributed by Lyrick Studios often ended with ads for other tapes by the company. There was usually a bumper that would announce this beforehand.
  • Every Nickelodeon branded VHS release distributed by Sony Wonder in 1993 ended with a series of previews for various other Nickelodeon tapes that opened with Stimpy shouting "Hey! Wait! Don't rewind the tape! There's more stuff to watch! For YOOOOOUUUU!" over a black screen.
  • Videotapes released by Modern Times (a Greek company that released DVDs and VHS of animated TV shows and children songs) and their subsidiary, Nextworks S.A., had a trailer for other tapes released by the company. DVD releases had trailers for them, as well as CDs and audio tapes for earlier releases, as special features.
  • Likewise, Greek home video company Joconda Video showed trailers of their releases not only on their videotapes, but most of their DVDs as well (they were also available as special features, either as choices or a montage).
  • On VHS tapes and DVDs that come packaged with toys such as the Play-Along lineup of Care Bears toys, the program will usually end with ads for another product from the toyline it comes from. This occasionally happened on other companies' VHS tapes that were not bundled with toys like those based on Barney & Friends and Bananas in Pajamas, but in most of those cases, they played at the beginning of the tape.
  • Sesame Street VHS tapes from Sony Wonder often had a trailer reel at the end. It would be preceded by a bumper that says, "Look for these great products from Sesame Street." It was followed by one that says, "Only from Sony Wonder, wherever children's videos, CD's, cassettes, and book-and-tape sets are sold." These bumpers would use either the classic harmonica closing theme of the show or an instrumental of the song "Count With Me". The VHS release of Elmo's World: Head to Toe with Elmo just says "Only from Sony Wonder," and omits the rest of the line, and later tapes replaced that bumper with the Sony Wonder website bumper.
  • Some VeggieTales VHS tapes ended with exclusive content:
    • Some of the Lyrick Studios releases ended with previews for other episodes of the show.
    • Jonah Sing-Along Songs And More! ended with a sneak peak of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.
    • Many early 2000's VeggieTales tapes ended with a promo for the Super Fantastic Veggie Fan Club.
    • The Classics re-release of Lyle, The Kindly Viking ended with the story reel for "My Share".
    • Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie ended with Hilarious Outtakes and a preview of The Ballad of Little Joe.


Alternative Title(s): Closing VHS Montage, Closing VHS Trailers, Trailers End The VHS, Montage After The Movie, Montage Closes The VHS, Trailers Close The VHS, VHS Stinger

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