The Last Ever VCR Is Going To Be Manufactured This Month, RIP VCR

CNN - Japan’s Funai Electric, which claims to be the world’s last VCR manufacturer, says it will cease production of the machines this month. Funai started manufacturing video-cassette recorders in 1983, and at one point was selling 15 million units a year. Alas, the clunky VCR has since been replaced by an array of new technologies: DVDs, Blu-ray, and now, streaming video services. Last year, Funai sold 750,000 units, and found it was getting harder to find the parts to make VCRs.

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The VCR is incredible. People my age lived in a weird time where we were using the VCR in college, because there was this dead area between VCRs and everyone having DVR. Everyone had DVD players instead of VCRs, but the DVD players couldn’t record like VCRs. But at the same time you just had a regular Comcast cable box, which didn’t have DVR capabilities. So unless you were still using a VCR, you simply couldn’t record anything. And the VCR was always there for us. It didn’t care new technologies were taking over, it sat there and recorded it’s ass off, day in and day out.

So many of us have so many fond memories of the VCR. The best thing about the VCR as apposed to the modern day DVR is nobody knew what you were recording. I wouldn’t be who I am today if I didn’t have a VCR in my childhood room hooked up to my 400 pound, 13 inch TV. So many episodes of Howard Stern and Wild On on the E! Network were recorded on that thing. Remember old MTV Spring Break? It was basically soft-core porn on MTV. Looking back on it, I cannot believe the stuff they showed. Being able to secretly tape that…I certainly learned a lot about the world.

I have no idea how they sold 750,000 VCRs last year, but I assume it’s because it’s so simple and affordable. You will be missed, VCR. Gone but never forgotten.

PS: Anyone have a friend who had one of these bad boys? Lucky ducks.