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Welcome! Like the book of the same name, this blog is an eclectic collection of Sherlockian scribblings based on more than a half-century of reading Sherlock Holmes. Please add your own thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter @DanAndriacco and on my Facebook fan page at Dan Andriacco Mysteries. You might also be interested in my Amazon Author Page. My books are also available at Barnes & Noble and in all main electronic formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iBooks for the iPad.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Sherlock Holmes on Tape


Do you remember VHS? It's what came after Beta - eons ago in technology time.


I was forced to remember VHS recently when we cleaned out a room and discovered quite a few of the old tapes. You can see where this is going - many of them were Sherlockian:
  • Four tapes for kids: Chip 'n Dale SuperSleuths, Sherlock Undercover Dog, Wishbone's Hound of the Baskervilles, and an episode of the Japanese steampunk classic, Sherlock Hound.
  • Without a Clue, the comedic masterpiece starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley.
  • Ian Richardson's The Sign of Four.
  • The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, starring Arthur Wontner and Ian Fleming (not the author), based on The Valley of Fear.
  • Four episodes of Ronald Howard's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes TV series from the 1950s.
  • Four tapes of Basil Rathbone movies - three of which were the same one (Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon)! 
  • Elementary, My Dear Data, one of the two Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes in which the android goes into the Holodeck as Holmes.
That list was in no particular order, so I can't say that I saved the best for last, but Data does make a cool Holmes as I recall the episode.

I have to recall rather than revisit because I no longer have a VHS player. I do have about half the titles on that list in DVD form, but Elementary, My Dear Data isn't one of them.

The VHS format didn't last long. How many more years will DVDs be viable? I don't know what's going to happen to e-readers, either, but I'm confident that as long as my eyes and brain are in working order I will be able to read the books on my shelves. I take a lot of comfort in that.

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