Simitar Entertainment were the most prolific distributors of budget VHS tapes. Their bread and butter lay in repackaging public domain cartoons, sports bloopers compilations, videos about Big Rig Trucks, Dad videos like “Golf Lessons from the Pros,” nearly all of which have not been released on DVD or streaming. The Internet Archive thankfully uploads and preserves these VHS treasures, particularly “Centerfold Photography,” as well as “Nonstop Crashes,” and “America’s Dumbest Crooks.” They also imported a lot of foreign films with cheap and easy to obtain rights, and Simitar at one point released both Jackie Chan’s Kung Fu movies and the Godzilla films into North America, not to mention the BBC’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Tragically, Simitar went out of business due to a lawsuit from the WWF in 2000, just when the switch to DVDs took place, meaning that the company’s logo is associated entirely with the discount VHS era. Their library is currently owned by their old rivals and foes, former VHS distributor, Brentwood Communications.
You’ll find this surprising, but one of the most soothing and relaxing activities activities is to get on YouTube look up and watch compilations of old VHS company logos, from Media to Vidmark.
Invader - 1998
Directed: Mark Rosman
Featuring: Ben Cross, Daniel Baldwin, Nick Mancuso, Sean Young
Tested - Used VHS - 95min.
Vidmark - 1991
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