Anatomy of an Entertainment Center

I saw posts similar to this on some other blogs and had to take a stab at it myself!This is my entertainment center! To me, the focal point of it is my video collection. I have been an avid collector of video since 1987. At one time my video tape collection consisted of 2,400 different movies and programs spread out over close to 900 tapes. After changing my address a few times in the early 2000's, I thinned out the collection a great deal but I've never lost my love of VHS...and then DVD. I've tried to reel it in a bit over the last few years but I still have enough DVDs and tapes to open up my own Blockbuster store!


The photo above does not represent my entire video collection, nor is it where I do most of my film and TV watching. This is the former Playroom of the house, that I shared with the kids toys. We recently moved the Playroom to an upstairs room and we've made some additions to our living room that make it the prime spot for viewing. The TV here in the playroom is a 20" RCA that I got for Christmas when I was a senior in high school....19 years ago. The set still works great! However, now the screenings happen on a 42" widescreen set in the living room. Just a few weeks ago we dropped Comcast cable in favor of DirecTV with HD, plus we got an HD DVR in there. I topped it all off with a new HD-up conversion DVD player and surround sound. Yes, it's all pretty sweet! But let's take a look at the movie collection...

This is the main portion of my DVD/Video collection. (I refer to it as "the archives") I'm all about sorting titles into different categories. I worked at four different video stores in my younger days, it's ingrained in me. Let's dig in: Top Shelf is Disney Parks VHS (easily my favorite tapes to collect) and some other older Disney clamshell videos including the original 1990 Little Mermaid box with the naughty cover! Also up there are a collection of Disney Parks DVDs. Some of them you can get for free from the Disney World website, others are souvenirs from the parks.

The next double-layered shelf features all the Walt Disney animated features in order of theatrical release. After that I have the majority of the theatrical films produced by the Walt Disney television animation department, as well as some classic Disney shorts compilations and a few other odds and ends from Disney. On the end are the complete set of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures and the first volumes of DuckTales and Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers. The line of videos stacked on top are the (almost complete) line of Direct-to-video sequels that Disney churned out over the last decade and a half. There's also some space up there to stash new DVDs that I haven't officially put into the archives yet.

Moving down to the DVD rack, the top rack is filled with the Walt Disney Treasures line. I have 27 out of the 28 volumes released. I'll get that last one soon enough. (For fans of the series, Yes - I have all the tins the sets came in. I've got them all in a box down in the storage room. I tend to dip into these DVDs quite a bit and got tired of messing with the tins everytime I wanted to watch one.) After the Treasures is a collection of Walt Disney's work on television and the entire slate of Pixar movies (minus The Incredibles).

Next is an entire shelf of Disney live-action pictures, starting with 1950's Treasure Island and moving all the way down to Herbie Fully Loaded from 2005. Under that collection I have my very favorite (non-Disney) films that I have on DVD. As you can tell, I obviously collect Disney - but I try to be a little more selective when it comes to non-Disney fare. But, here is where you'll find all of my favorite movies from A to Z. Well, actually A to L, the next shelf down has M to Z.


The bottom shelf in the DVD rack houses some animation titles, Muppets, television, documentaries, and the Peanuts collection.


This space is in the actual entertainment center, which I've devoted to television series and animation box sets. I've got the whole run of ALF, The Flintstones and Sledge Hammer. I'm keeping up with The Muppet Shows seasons as they are released. Behind these DVDs, are some older VHS tapes - some rare like Big Bands in Disneyland and The Hanna-Barbera All Star Comedy Ice Review.

Here's more DVDs and videos that haven't found a home yet. They are stacked on top of my DVD recorder and a surround sound system from 1994 that still kicks. It's got 40 year old speakers connected to it! Underneath you can see some homeless VCRs, a DVD player and -thank you very much - a laserdisc player. It still works if you have 25 minutes to kill getting the player to read a disc. Oh, and there's a crate full of laser discs just out of frame. (That's another post!)

In another section of the room, I have this shelf full of Disney VHS tapes. I love hunting at yard sales and flea markets for good ol' Disney tapes - and this is where I keep them. The bottom shelf has got some real rare stuff like Disney Educational Productions and a copy of the never released to video Song of the South.

Out of sight, under my TV is relics from my original video collection. Most of this stuff is taped off television, but I've got some real gems hidden in these tapes. This collection goes four rows back on both levels. The less organized side has some move VHS and also some DVDs that I just don't have room to display. It took me a long time to realize that all my movies didn't have to be visible all at once. Baby steps....

Eight drawers full of more VHS. There's some good movies in here that haven't made it to DVD yet, and a bunch of old stuff I got off the Disney Channel before they started airing Zach and Cody 14 times a day. I've also got in here my own personal contribution to the entertainment world, every episode of my public access cable show plus a couple of short films and video tapes of plays I wrote and produced.

One more shelf....some more good ol' VHS. More of my favorite movies, most of which I haven't upgraded to DVD but there's a few in there that I just can't seem to part with even though I've got digital copies.

In conclusion: No, you can't borrow any of them. It's doubtful I'll ever get around to making a copy of anything for you. Yes, you can come over whenever you want and watch something!