Videomate: Men was a VHS tape released in 1987 featuring 60 single men pitching themselves as dates to women on the other side of the TV screen: āThe love of your life could be on your TV tonight!ā the box reads. In retrospect, Videomate: Men is a bizarre and hilarious time capsule, but at the time it was one of many manifestations of what was known as video dating. To find out how anyone thought this was a good idea, Decoder Ring examines the weird and forgotten world of video dating in the 1970s, ā80s, and ā90s to find out why video dating once seemed like the futureāand if that future is still yet to come.
On this episode, originally released in 2019, we talk to the creators of the Found Footage Fest, VHS collectors who unleashed Videomate on the internet; ask the creators of video dating services like Videomateās Steve Dworman and Great Expectationsā Jeffrey Ullman what they were thinking; and talk to participants who used these services but not necessarily in the way that was intended. Weāll also discuss the future of video dating with Coffee Meets Bagel co-founder Dawoon Kang and former host of The Longest Shortest Time Andrea Silenzi.
This episode was written by Willa Paskin and was produced and edited by Benjamin Frisch. We had research assistance from Cleo Levin. Decoder Ring is produced by Katie Shepherd, Max Freedman, and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.
If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at
[email protected], or leave a message on the Decoder Ring hotline at 347-460-7281. We love to hear any and all of your ideas for the show.Ā
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