New Breed of Couch Potato Comes to Light: Video Freaks : Movie Lovers Find Happiness in Heavy Daily Doses of Tape

When Scott Paluski gets off work and heads for home, he almost always stops off at his local video store. Watching movies, he will tell you, is a relaxing and enjoyable way to spend the evening.

That might not seem unusual. But Paluski doesn’t just watch a film or two, brush his teeth and head to bed. The 29-year-old Van Nuys resident, who runs his own delivery company, views as many as five videotapes in one evening. His head might not hit the pillow until 3 a.m. Then he must wake up three hours later to start work.

“I’ve seen just about everything,” he admitted. “I enjoy watching films, studying different styles of acting and film making, and remembering the details of specific movies. It’s definitely a hobby. It’s something I really get into.”

Paluski has plenty of company. Over the last decade, as the selection of videotapes has ballooned and the price of renting has dropped, a whole new breed has been born: the video fanatics. They watch movies before they head to work, at lunch and until the wee hours of the morning. Many watch the same films over and over, and stand in line at their local video store to be the first to rent a new release.

In some cases, they forgo dates, social events, even relationships to stay at home and bask in the cathode rays of Tinseltown’s latest hit. Said Jeff Balin, manager of the Odyssey in North Hollywood, one of the Valley’s largest video rental outlets: “It’s a form of video couch-potatoism, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Basically, these are people who just love watching movies. They come from all walks of life--there are doctors, lawyers, secretaries, you name it.”

The Odyssey, which stocks more than 25,000 titles, has a daily limit of five films per person. But, Balin pointed out, if he knows people well enough, he will allow them to rent additional tapes. He has had people rent as many as 10 in a day. In fact, one customer has checked out 1,800 movies in the last 6 1/2 months; half a dozen others have rented between 1,000 and 1,200.

“A lot of times, people have their favorite section--drama, comedy, mystery, foreign films or action. They really get into it. We have people who know the adult film section so well they could work here. If we put something new up on the shelf, they are right there pulling it off,” Balin said.

At National Home Video in Chatsworth, which stocks about 6,000 titles, the scene is much the same. Several people regularly rent four or five tapes a night, and on weekends it’s not unusual for people to rent 10 tapes. At this family-run operation, half a dozen people have rented more than 1,000 tapes during the last year.

John Flower, a 26-year-old pharmacy technician from Canoga Park, is one of them. He and his wife and two children typically watch three to five tapes a day, three to five days a week. “I have a very stressful job, and after work it’s nice to just sit around and watch films. It’s something the entire family can do together.”

Flower usually stops at the video store at 6:30 p.m., heads home and watches a movie. The family eats dinner at 8 p.m. (“We don’t review a film during dinner unless it’s a new release we’re dying to see”) and then watches two or three more films in the evening. In fact, Flower has three VCRs in his home so that he and his wife can watch separate movies, and the children can have their own entertainment available.

Scott James of North Hollywood, who works for MCA Music, is especially attracted to old classics. He has a film and video collection of about 300 movies, and collects posters and memorabilia.

On Friday or Saturday, he will often rent 10 tapes from Eddie Brandt Video, a North Hollywood shop that allows customers to keep tapes for half a week for $2.50 each. Then he and his wife will watch them between other activities--sometimes viewing as many as four in one night.

The way James looks at it, video isn’t a lot different from collecting baseball cards or art. He often studies books about movies and hunts down specific tapes for favorite actors such as Laurel and Hardy, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart and William Powell. Taking a scholarly approach, he will work his way through an entire body of work by an actor or director. “It’s a hobby that’s fun, interesting and relaxing,” he said.

It’s not unusual for videophiles to spend $25 to $50 a week renting tapes. Yet most see that as a bargain compared to the price of movie tickets, popcorn and soft drinks. And because many video stores feature special prices on certain days--the Odyssey, for example, offers its selection for 99 cents Tuesdays and Thursdays--they can afford to sample a great variety of films.

But do they really watch all the videotapes? “I watch most of them,” said Paluski, who estimates that he has seen 5,000 videotapes in the last five years or so. “If it is a real dog, I shut it off. But I usually try and force myself to stick it out.” Flower added: “Sometimes we will do household chores while the film is going. If you have seen it before, you can usually follow along with the sound.”

In fact, for true fanatics, video viewing is nothing less than a science. Most make heavy use of the scanning feature on their VCR to look for interesting scenes--which they’ll view at regular speed--and skip over parts of the movie that seem unappealing. As Flower put it: “It can save a lot of time and allow you to watch other films you’re more interested in.”

To be sure, all have their favorites. The Flowers have watched “Willow” half a dozen times and such comedies as “Airplane” and “History of the World Part I” several times with friends. Paluski’s favorites include “The Dead Pool,” “Crocodile Dundee II,” “Clean and Sober,” “Platoon” and “Full Metal Jacket.”

“I’ve probably seen most major releases at least twice,” Paluski said. “When you watch a film more than once, you pick up things in the plot that you didn’t notice before. There’s always something new.”

Cult favorites such as “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” “Pink Flamingos,” “Eating Raoul” and old Twilight Zone episodes score high on the list, too. They’re especially popular for video parties, where groups sometimes watch films all night long. “A lot of times it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen the film before. With friends, you can joke around and everyone can join in and say the lines,” Flower said.

Then there are the gourmands of the video world who can watch just about anything. Tom Harvey, a clerk at National Home Video, said customers frequently ask him to pick out their nightly entertainment. “I’ve had people ask me to suggest five good action films. I name a few titles, and they say, ‘That’s fine, I’ll rent them.’ They trust you to make good choices for them.”

Of course, friends and spouses don’t always share a videophile’s enthusiasm for watching an endless stream of movies. One San Fernando Valley woman named Karen recently broke off a relationship with a boyfriend because he watched as many as three videotapes a night an average of three times a week.

“It drove me nuts,” she said. “I couldn’t get him to go out and do anything. It got completely boring, but he would deny that he was spending so much time watching videos. He didn’t think there was a problem.”

Indeed, video viewing “can become an addictive behavior, like food, alcohol or drugs,” said Alan Solomon, a Torrance-based psychologist who has counseled video addicts. “It can interfere with other aspects of a person’s life. In some cases, the technology is controlling the person instead of the person controlling the technology.”

Even Paluski admits that he is subjected to a certain amount of kidding about his hobby. “Some of my friends think it’s kind of crazy to watch so many films, but since most of them watch a lot of videotapes themselves, they don’t say too much.”

But most videophiles don’t mind putting their life on horizontal hold to watch hundreds, even thousands of tapes. Said James: “Not everybody can understand why someone wants to watch so many films. It might seem a bit obsessive. But I really enjoy it, and that’s what counts.”