Thanks to a post from the Found Footage Festival, I just rediscovered this ancient workout tape my elementary school gym teacher would make us do in gym class in the 90s.
I'd been wonder what this video was for YEARS. The only thing I remembered was spandex and "stretch like a tiger, 1, 2..." (and also having a vague childhood crush on the girl lmao). But searches for stuff like "aerobics video stretch like the tiger" or "workout video stretch like a tiger" resulted in NOTHING. I even considered signing up for some workout tape enthusiast forum I found and asking there...
But THIS IS IT!!!
Y'know, kids really liked gym class in elementary school, cuz it was kinda like a 2nd recess, right? When the homeroom teacher said it was time to line up for gym class, there was a chorus of tiny "yessssss!!"es, and everyone was excited to get to run around and have fun and play games.
But THIS... this was not fun, and it was also not games.
So you can imagine the sinking feeling of walking into the gym and seeing the TV-on-a-cart, because you knew today was going to be a day with The Tape. This tape was a staple of our gym class experience from 1st grade through 5th; the threat of which always loomed overhead.
In later years, the cool kids would stand in the way, way back of the gym and phone it in, but usually the teacher would yell at them to come forward because there's no way they could make out the video on that 30 inch tube (if that). But essentially everyone (particularly the boys) would phone it in with this tape. Cuz it SUCKED.
Apparently this tape was released in 1985!!(??!!)... so my gym teacher had this thing in rotation for well over a DECADE. God... well, at least he got his 30 bucks worth out of it.
By the late 90s, he finally retired the tape (...I think) in favor of the hot new craze... Tae Bo.
That was a little better.
Maybe.
But anyways, I'm very happy to finally have this ancient elementary school mystery of mine solved. I think I'll force my old friends to watch it and partake in it next time we get together.
(Now if I could just find that one kids paint program we had on our fancy new Windows 98 PCs that replaced the old IBMs from the 80s...)
