There was a documentary over here a few years ago about people obsessed with shopping channels and a lot of them are old women who don't know how to use the internet and lonely people who leave the channel on all day as they feel like friends are visiting.

@MistaSpookie

8 жыл бұрын

Bundy Jr! Of course you watch Oddity Archive... Wicked videos lately by the way.

@ScumSookar

8 жыл бұрын

+Weegee The Famous Larry is literally everywhere, no matter how obscure.

@jameslaidler4259

8 жыл бұрын

Christ, I'm lonely, though not THAT far gone.

@jameslaidler4259

8 жыл бұрын

EAS TONES careful kid, might cut yourself on that edge.

@ScumSookar

8 жыл бұрын

EAS TONES What's your beef with Larry? Your free to your opinion, of course, I just find it strange. It's very hard to hate him.

I know you say in the show that people don't like the history segment, but honestly it's my favorite part

@norbertoniebres1615

6 жыл бұрын

Warped Logic I also love the history segments.

@ChuckD79

4 жыл бұрын

Same here...it's always fascinating, and more often than not, I end up finding out something I didn't know before on the subject in question!

@louiseogden1296

3 жыл бұрын

Mine too.

@robertcarldecker

3 жыл бұрын

Same

21:17 Just in case anyone doesn't know, the QVC pitchman is Mike Rowe, decade before his "Dirty Jobs fame.

@cbehr91

8 жыл бұрын

So is the guy on the box.

@MrWolfSnack

8 жыл бұрын

cbehr91 2.0 Yeah,he took a screenshot from that section.

@crabbyoldgamer3028

8 жыл бұрын

I copied Mike Rowe's pitch from this video in an audition for QVC. They didn't hire me.

@Fuzy2K

7 жыл бұрын

I heard they fired Mike Rowe three times. :P

@artistwithouttalent

7 жыл бұрын

I read that in the credits and was thinking, "THAT Mike Rowe?"

Given how Ben introduces the history lesson, I must be among a minority who actually enjoys them on OA.

@frankcabanski9409

3 жыл бұрын

Everyone enjoys them.

@daftoptimist

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, we all like them. Self-deprecating humor is Ben’s shtick.

I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention one of the more interesting things about QVC: that they moved into the former headquarters of the Commodore computer company.

Got curious about QVC so I went to search to see what KZread will turn up. Right at this moment, they are having a live stream with 35 people watching. Yeah, they ain't going away anytime soon.

@ABCEasyas--

4 жыл бұрын

Seriously, I’ve seen youtubers with 4-digit subscriber counts pull in more viewers in their live-streams,

@BlackFlagHeathen

2 жыл бұрын

Just looked them up and their stream has 336 watching right now. Probably all old ladies and Karens.

At 7:01, suddenly vaporwave.

"while you order my pickle" i was dead

11:26 As Marty McFly once said, "All the best stuff is made in Japan"

@Launchpad05

3 жыл бұрын

Like manga, which continues to kick DC, and Marvel's ass in comic sales.

1. Baby Ben (?) at 1:37 seems fussy. 2. I think I want the rabbit. 3. In the later years of her life, my mum kind of got hooked on QVC and just left it on the TV when there was nothing on she liked. She didn't buy a lot of stuff, though. My impressions of it were a. This stuff is crap; and b. It's overpriced and c. I would be more inclined to find the same thing locally and keep my money in town. As a result of this exposure when I'm programming my TV (no cable), I block out all the shopping channels. 4. Ben you've not made a terrible episode yet in 105 tries. Thanks always for your hard work.

I lost my shit laughing at the hair stylist announcing that he "fell on his booty"

Using the old support number for DIXV in your Home Shopping spoof was a nice touch.

@JonesMediaMan

7 жыл бұрын

meansquaretech You better believe I jist called it to see what would happen. As expected, it's disconnected.

@8bits59

6 жыл бұрын

I suppose that you mean DIVX?

John & Johnny are legitimately entertaining.

To bad America's Auction Network didn't get included. It was always super creepy watching those guys try to auction off jewelry at 3am with no one calling in to place bids. The auctioneers would sometimes get pissed and start talking down to the audience to get them to call. Sleazy sales guys. Ah well, keep up the good work!

@linkrulezall

8 жыл бұрын

I can't decide whether this or that one Sonic livestream is the most spectacular live audio fuckup of all time

@JL-sm6cg

2 жыл бұрын

I used to remember the Telephone Auction Shopping Network. That guy blew through products. Thankfully, unlike HSC/HSN, just write down the item # and call in and you had a chance to get the product.

what do you mena "gotta" do the history lesson? And that you gotta keep it "brief"? Um, History Lesson Time is the BEST PART

@procommentr

6 жыл бұрын

Yet you call yourself Riff Chick. gg

In South Korea there's a Home shopping channels owned by the CJ E&M We called O shopping (Based in Seoul South Korea)

I will always remember the Home Shopping Network as the company that took over my beloved U68 (a very low-budget music video channel here in the metropolitan NY area that used to be subscription-based WHT back in the early 80's.) But I can't say the random "toots" the on-air personalities gave callers wasn't bizarrely amusing.

@JL-sm6cg

2 жыл бұрын

I remember that goofy shit, too.

apparently "wearing your pickle" is frowned upon at the local shopping mall.

You missed such a obvious joke with the pickle. "You can use this hole right here to tickle your pickle" I now need said pickle to throw at people and say that XD

I was half-expecting the phone number to be a phone sex line.

Live, from some nondescript building in downtown Eugene, Oregon, it's the KZread Shopping Network, where you can buy crappy stuff you don't even need at ridiculous prices from the comfort of your own iPhone!

That ladder-guy...... a legend!

The guy breaking the sword is my all time favorite clip. Thank you, Benny Boy!

All those crass shopping channels not only plague Cable & Satellite TV, but also on Digital TV as well. It's only a matter of time those channels will accept Bitcoin.

Fun fact: The co-founder of the Home Shopping Club/Network went on to try and create a "family friendly" television network. But that's a discussion for another episode.

@AtlantaCommercials96

7 жыл бұрын

Yes, it's called the PAX Network. I personally grew up with it and while it had some pretty cheesy shows I thought it was better than the re-run farm that it eventually became. But at least that shows some decent movies every once in a while.

@atomic7196

7 жыл бұрын

The same PAX Network that ran the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon?

@newstarcadefan

7 жыл бұрын

Yup that's the s ame PAX, who also had Supermarket Sweep, and Shop till you Drop.

@TimelordR

7 жыл бұрын

PAX Network became extinct soon after, it became Ion Television.

@newstarcadefan

7 жыл бұрын

TimelordR Yup...between Pax, and Ion...they were branded i: Independent Television.

I have 7 lava lamps. Yes, they do get extremely hot at the aluminum base.

Why does he have a ceramic pickle... that sounds like something my mom would have

I believe Home Shopping Networks are still alive because of the areas where people has trouble with high speed internet. Also my favorite blooper although not shown was the horse bit. Where they printed off a picture of a butterfly and thought it was a picture of a horse at first.

"How to get Pregnant- Step by Step" is one of the Up Next videos. Dear lord.

@JayDee284

8 жыл бұрын

the Ceramic Pickle doesn't help much lol

@otaking3582

8 жыл бұрын

It's either they learn it from their parents or from the internet. The internet is far less awkward.

@norbertoniebres1615

6 жыл бұрын

Svinja I would like to see that. Me and my female avatar (s). :)

11:48 The number for DIVX.

Great episode...the clips were hilarious, as were the "ASC" wraparounds, and am impressed you actually gave a nod to the Home Shopping Game (which is largely unknown nowadays, except among hardcore game show fans like myself!).

Got to admit that watching the bizarre products and even more bizarre actors on these kind of channels was a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, they really are very strange!

I can remember watching HSC on channel 60 in the Chicago area back in the 1980s, it was interesting when there was nothing else to watch. I can still remember those Capadimonte (?) vases.

The best shopping channel is definitely Precious Roy's Home Shopping Netwerk. "Precious Roy, Precious Roy, Making lots of suckers out of girls and boys!"

@AirknightTails

8 жыл бұрын

Sifl and Olly FTW!

@RedBlackGlass

8 жыл бұрын

I miss Precious Roy!

@TeeVeeGames

8 жыл бұрын

The mannequin hand - often times mangled in some awful way - was the best.

why always so down on the history lesson? i love the history lessons, it's the best part!

@talesfromthelotuspodcast

4 жыл бұрын

I like them too

@ChuckD79

4 жыл бұрын

Same here...always fascinating to get the backstory on whatever the episode's about!

this was the oddest oddity archive yet and I like it

@TimelordR

7 жыл бұрын

I'm sure had Ralph & Norton form The Honeymooners been around when the AVN was in business, they would have tried to sell those "Kitchen Handy Helper" gizmos on that very channel & still fail.

Good archive. I wish you could do one on Shop@home exclusively featuring Don West. I used to watch him every weekend between 3 and 5 Am.

I used to use these channels in my bedroom at night muted to read books with

That was the best intro Ive ever seen one one of these episodes. Nice work!

I love that Mike Rowe was on QVC back in the day.

As a kid...I thought a lot of the Home Shopping Networks had a ton of stuff I wish I had...for example those 100-1 game consoles, the NES, etc. Now it's all clothing, jewelry, hardware and etc. Interestingly enough, J.C. Penny (yes that J.C. Penny) had their own shopping channel in the late 80's early 90's. However, it got folded in. Also the 90's QVC had two branch channels then, QVC 2 (rebranded Q2, and QVC Fashion that was a thing in the mid 90's).

@JL-sm6cg

2 жыл бұрын

I recall seeing a lot of things like that, like the Commodore SX-64 (the portable C64) which was being sold for $683 or something. God, I wanted that thing!

The porcelain pickle also has applications as a sex aid. Ben was clearly too classy to go down that road, but I'm not.

I like the way you smack that pickle.

7:00 A E S T H E T I C

@ScumSookar

8 жыл бұрын

Glad I'm not the only one who felt the V A P O R flow through me.

@goatprince1

8 жыл бұрын

C A N C E R

@TheGamerWithMore

8 жыл бұрын

Very aesthetic!

@ibrahimorhan2215

7 жыл бұрын

Sawbones Quad A R C H I V E S T H E T I C

@8bits59

6 жыл бұрын

7:00 is exactly 420 seconds. Coincidence? I think not.

The inTV network was the precursor to PAX TV or today's ION Network.

19:08 And I think to myself... That was the funniest shit I ever seen

Was Jessica Simpson drunk??? and Did that lady seriously just ask Liza Minnelli that she has overcome so much DIVERSITY??? hahaha and I want that percussive pickle :-(

@LoveusSlothus

5 жыл бұрын

“Thank you so much, you’re my mentor too” 🤣🤣 Ah, there’s nothing better than watching a drunken Liza slurring her way through a HSN gig Were Mariah and Jessica (wow...what a airhead! 🤦🏽‍♀️) both drunk?! Seeing former pop stars frm my childhood up there with the Susan Luccis n Joan Rivers’ hawking there “special collections” on QVC or HSN make me feel old...👵🏽 I also laughed too hard at those jumper cables on fire 😂 And I’d totes buy the shot glass, earless jackrabbit, and ceramic pickle ! 🛍 🛒

That old show Talk Soup, then later just The Soup, RIP, used to show insane clips from home shopping on cable TV. There was some reeeeal wacky stuff on those networks. The Soup was such a damn good show

I don't remember if Oddity Archive has covered Crazy Eddie, but even if it has, he's still worth a mention in this episode. I used to watch him in the early 1980s just for pure entertainment. Among the millions of home shopping shows mentioned, does anyone remember "Greensheets?" It was a no-budget home-shopping show done by a satellite installer named Shaun Kinney and his assistant Lolita (a dark-haired lady who wore huge glasses). He was a huge advocate for satellite TV (in the 80s) that wasn't so regulated. The show was on satellite someplace and my dad used to watch just to see what Shawn was selling that week. Shaun and Lolita were funny together, since she would always get mad when he dropped prices on things he wasn't supposed to. I assume, anyway. Anyhow, Shaun died during the run of Greensheets when he fell off a roof, and that was the end of the show.

@Yeen125

7 жыл бұрын

Ben briefly covered Crazy Eddie in the Local TV Volume 4 (Local Commercials) episode.

John and Johnny were genuinely funny and entertaining. I'd have watched them.

@chrysanth.5700

8 жыл бұрын

I think I would have watched them too. They seem like real upstanding individuals who know how to entertain the masses in the best of ways.

It's been two months, and I'm still saying "Do you love my plump and thick?" and "I fell on my booty!" So well done on that catch-phrase thing! Other suggestions from this episode: "Whoopie-ding!" and "But seriously, just order my damn pickle already!"

LOVED The Archive Shopping Channel. Great episode!

its an old king coal shotglass, very rare, very valuable. ive seen these go for over 3000 dollars at auction.

Another great episode! :) I've always enjoyed the history lessons as I find them interesting and informative and the celeb section was funny and cringe worthy in turn with Liza and Marie being the standouts of this section.

I work for a cable company and I am asked why we have 2 shopping networks in our smallest cheapest package of 24 channels. Because we get paid for every customer who we deliver the service to. We also get a small percentage commission on all sales (split based on relative customer counts between every cable company and the dish companies covering our areas).

I do enjoy watching QVC just to have some background noise. Also Country Cason is freakin' cute.

I still need to archive an old VHS tape I have where it was a late night shopping show that sold knives, swords and other weaponry from the late '90s. I just remember it for being absolutely bizarre even for a HSN rip-off.

@JoshCraver9000

8 жыл бұрын

I think I've seen something like that before recently.

@superorangecat6937

8 жыл бұрын

Its from Adult Swim. They do some awesome fake infomercials sometimes at 4am. Its probably on KZread.

@HappySnoutHour

8 жыл бұрын

No, what I have on VHS is real and I know it is because my brother actually bought stuff from them back then. I seen that thing on Adult Swim before that you were talking about and they were parodying those late '90s sword infomercials that I referenced earlier.

@HappySnoutHour

8 жыл бұрын

Just remembered it was called The Cutlery Corner Network and they have a YT channel and they do livestreams all the time.

@akaihys

8 жыл бұрын

there's a very low production value thing called Cutlery Corner that pops up late at night. I've recorded a couple clips of them hawking assorted knives in bulk with names like Fists Full of Blades and Christmas Shopping Done. hilarious.

Ben? Let go of your pickle!

@TimelordR

7 жыл бұрын

Looks like a prop from a Japanese lesbian porn movie.

The liza ones are AMAZING!

21:05 Jeez Ben! If somebody wants to order your pickle, wouldn't that hurt? 😂

7:27 is this proto-vapourwave?

@SailorMaxie

5 жыл бұрын

Yes. Much yes.

Mike Rowe is awesome. Even in his QVC days, he was still awesome.

@cityhawk

3 жыл бұрын

He’s a lying, disingenuous con artist.

@bunnybismuth

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, too bad he's a right wing Shitbag

Ben this was the funniest by far. good work on those bloopers! Poor aspiring salesmen!! Loved the ladder and vacuum that was not aspiring at all!

@markanderson350

7 жыл бұрын

I agree, loved those bloopers. A salesman is the most un handy person.

7:01 ""Thank you for calling!" "We appreciate your patience." "Please stay on the line for the next available representative." "This call may be monitored or recorded." Para Espanol, marque neuve.

With the pickle figurine, you could do a twist on the Christmas tradition and hide it around the house and give a special gift to whoever finds it.

ben: While you order my pickle me: Ewww

Oh man, that ska pickle was pretty tempting! I'd buy one!

my parents told me that ads calmed me down so they recorded a tapeful of as seen on tv ads we re recorded Winnie pooh on it I watched the tape a lot when I was little

You left out the most infamous shopping show of them all---"Telephone Auction"!

I called your 888 number, and DIVX had no clue what I was talking about.

I'm SO not kidding when I say that I WOULD LOVE to work for one of these channels... it would be the most cheesy, yet entirely FUN job on the planet!

Ben forgot that there were earlier non-shopping, non-ad TV shows where merchandise was shown to the camera; KTLA-TV (channel 5) used to have this late-night parade of goods in the 1950s where they would go to an appliance store and show off the fridges, washing machines, TV sets, radios, etc. that the store had for sale, and it would change locations from week to week. I'm guessing the program filled a hole and trained the crew in doing live location video broadcasting.

@MrJohndoakes

8 жыл бұрын

Forgot to add that this was in Los Angeles. KTLA later gave us the "Movies 'til Dawn" format.

7:00 to 8:25: Try Playing that at half-speed.

@henryjohnson1071

8 жыл бұрын

Even more A E S T H E T I C

@DanTheMan1985ful

3 жыл бұрын

That's the kind of music I expect to hear while being put on hold on the phone.

hearing some good vapor wave in the background...and if you look up AVN now, you will find something completely different :p.

"If you get stuck in a dark room with that emerald, you're gonna be able to get out with that emerald" nooooo…. you're not, you'll be missing that emerald by the time you get out, possibly your finger it was on in the process.

15:53 I must be losing it cause I can't stop laughing at a porcelain jack rabbit with toothpicks for ears.

And Remember Use Tootie!!!

That's the Divx number, I want the midevil shotglass

You know what's kinda sad now? HSN and QVC are now owned by the owners of online retailer Zulily (Qurate Retail Group)

HSC even bought a frequency in Chicago to run the first ever over the air shopping channel. I remember the old news report and watched on a black and white TV as it was switched on. The on-air host even "welcomed" Chicago by giving instructions on how to "join" the club!

We got HSN around 1986 or so, though competitor CVN didn't arrive until the following year (and its spot on our cable system was naturally taken over by QVC after the 1989 buyout)...I remember my parents ordering a few things from them, such as a juicer and a set of perimeter lighting for our deck stairs.

I like your history lesson! Keep going!

One of the funniest episodes yet!

R.I.P. Joan Rivers

I am looking at my pair of Ferrari Folding Sunglasses complete with leathertte case, as we speak. These babies are circa 1983-4ish. Gorgeous!

You can use the pickle ash tray as a backup for the bunny toothpic holder if you have too many toothpics. Let's say you're having a lot of street thugs over for cards. They will all want to chew on toothpics as they play. The rabbit doesn't hold all the necessary toothpics. Send in the pickle!

Yeah boy! let's watch these channels!

In the early 90's we got the Cupid Network on our system. It was a adult shopping channel, that sold lubricants, vibrators, panties and other adult stuff. It was fun to watch. Parents taped it on vhs.

Didn't get ValueVision until 1994, when my cable system added Bridgeport, CT station WHAI...these days, it's WZME (formerly a Me-TV affiliate, now carrying Heroes & Icons). UPDATE: At the beginning of 2020, WZME returned to home shopping by switching its affiliation to Shop LC, and this past November, switched to ShopHQ.

Why would short circuit two batteries together? Thats like 500 amps of current and probably going to get hot. Also $40 plus shipping is a total rip off for something you can get for 10 from the store. Idiots!

21:15 is that Mike Rowe from all those Discovery Channel Shows?

@bunnybismuth

Жыл бұрын

It is

Time Warner Cable here in NYC used to (or perhaps still does) broadcast something from the South-at least I think it was from the South- called "The Knife Show". It was basically a 4 hour block of home shopping for knives and swords. The hosts were a bunch of nearly identical guys, who spoke in nearly identical monotones. The most hilarious aspect of the show was that the hosts would more often than not run out of things to say about whatever sharp object they were supposed to be selling at the moment, leaving enough awkward silence to make a viewer think that the network was experiencing 'technical difficulties'. Even more awkward, as well as a bit creepy, would be the sudden appearance of a pair of hands on camera, which would then begin to lovingly, and somewhat disturbingly, caress the sharp object being sold at that moment. How no one ever lost a finger, or at least a fingertip, is beyond me (at least I think no one did!). I cannot tell you how many times I've fallen asleep watching TV, only to wake up at 3am and find "The Knife Show" on. More often than not, I'd just leave it on and wait for it to lull me back to sleep, because in that late-night stupor we're all familiar with, I couldn't be bothered to make the effort to search for something else to watch. I'm now left wondering if "The Knife Show" is still on....looks like I'm going to have to try and wake myself up at 3am one night this week to find out.

I have no idea how people resist the urges of suicide.

I used to work for a Home Shopping TV Network...oh the stories I could tell...

BTW I am stunned you couldn't find the original theme music for HSC. "Happiness is shopping with us."

Me and my cousin used to prank the HSC on the air back in the day.

You forgot about the shortlived JCPenney Channel.

*Four easy payments of $49.95 that you can put on your credit card with low 24.95% APR!* Of course the product breaks before the second payment you forget to pay get a huge late fee and ultimately damage credit paying thousand in interest and security deposits you don;t get back over the years.

I remember when Home Shopping Club, almost aired 24/7 on Baltimore's WHSW Channel 24.

But in Japan (if you watched TV5 In the Philippines you get Japanese hospitality in TV shopping) We called it Shop Japan (which is the Home shopping Infomercials in Japan)