Gather round, young ones, here’s a tale of a time before streaming. In the olden times of the mid-1990s, we had to endure moments away from our couches to venture to stores like Blockbuster to rent DVDs — small discs we would feed to machines to show us movies. While these stores were brimming with delicious candy, they also had gatekeepers — or clerks — who would shame us for enjoying the antics of an often forgotten talent named Pauly Shore.
But all of this changed in 1998 when a company called Netflix allowed us to remain on our couches and create an online “queue” of DVDs we could consume at our leisure.
For 25 years, Netflix has allowed us to watch whatever trash we want 24 hours a day on-demand and without shame (just so long as it’s available on the platform).
Matic Grmek via Getty Images
Thanks to Netflix, we could have movies like “Bio-Dome” delivered to our mailboxes. Then streaming came along and for one flat subscription fee, we were able to watch multiple films in one day, over and over, without shame or the need to leave our couches.
So, the concept of DVDs (and Blockbuster) eventually became obsolete.
But we still have Netflix and to celebrate its 25th anniversary on Monday they provided users with a few interesting tidbits about the company.
- The first DVD that Netflix ever shipped was “Beetlejuice,” Tim Burton’s quirky 1988 comedy starring Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder. Netflix mailed the movie on March 10, 1998.
- Netflix originally had a placeholder name of Kibble — like the dog food. The company included a mockup of what the Kibble label would have looked like. The company’s original idea for its signature sound was a bleating goat noise, but opted for the more soothing “tudum.”
- The service’s earliest envelope was white and not red.
- The most popular profile icon used around the world is the “Boss Baby” icon — which is used in a whopping 11 million profiles.
- The show on Netflix with the most MyLists Adds is “Money Heist.”
Netflix also asked Monday in a follow-up tweet for old-school users to share the DVDs they “forgot” to return back in the day — promising those who participated would not get in trouble.
Some Twitter users were initially suspicious of the streaming giant’s possible motives for the request.
Other brave users decided to bestow upon the masses some of the cinematic treasures they never returned. To see what films people are still holding on to years later, just scroll down, buuuud-dy.