Key Video -- a look back

For those too young to remember, back in the 1980s, 20th Century Fox (long before their purchase by Disney) had a home entertainment division co-owned with CBS, called CBS-Fox Video. Around 1984 or so, they started a couple of sub-labels. Playhouse Video handled kids and family releases and it was obvious as to what it did.

Key Video, on the other hand, was a curious mix of titles. It seemed to be oriented towards competing with Vestron, USA Home Video and the other various home video companies of the time that subsisted on low-budget B-movie shlock (basically, anything cheap). The difference was, unlike those companies, Key could rely on CBS-Fox's larger distribution pacts and access to titles from major companies -- Fox of course was a major contributor of titles, though nothing "major" in terms of new releases; the bigger Fox titles tended to be older films, often released in collections themed around their stars or directors; cult films, including Zardoz, Shock Treatment, and Mel Brooks movies, were also a frequent sight. CBS contributed some of their own theatrical product, as well as some Tri-Star titles as they were a partner in that venture at the time (other titles went through RCA-Columbia and HBO's various video labels). Other deals provided stuff from Lorimar (both their own produced films and stuff inherited from Allied Artists, which Lorimar had purchased in 1979), MGM/UA (mostly UA archive titles, from a deal struck in 1980 by CBS-Fox predecessor Magnetic Video, the original home video company), ITC (also a Magnetic-era deal) and various independent/minor pickups.

In the earlier years of the label, their titles, regardless of content, could be easily distinguished by an array of colored lines wrapping around the box design, though in terms of layout it wasn't that much different from standard CBS-Fox releases (with credits on the front and additional stuff on the back). When you lined up multiple releases, their spines lined up in a pleasing, uniform way. By around 1988, however, this type of packaging had been phased out for generic boxart with little differentiation from regular CBS-Fox titles (some of the collections had already been using different artwork to begin with).

1990 seemed to be the end of the line for both Key and Playhouse -- both were phased out, partially because of a changing marketplace (Key in particular had mostly subsisted on stuff from outside of Fox -- most of the companies involved had started their own labels or gone to other companies, while the amount of crap flooding the market was dwindling) and because CBS was being increasingly sidelined -- 1991 saw a reorganization as Fox took over their own releases as FoxVideo (CBS-Fox remained until late in the decade, but was relegated to CBS stuff and other third party product, mostly BBC Video).

Key, however, managed to make a small comeback during the 2000s. For whatever reason, Fox revived it on a very small scale, mostly for (again) releases they didn't want their name on, primarily horror films and Goosebumps release (a leftover from the days of Fox Kids). There was little effort put into this version, as titles swapped out Fox and Key with no rhyme or reason, and it was completely forgotten by the 2010s.

While Key Video is long gone, for us VHS enthusiasts. it still occupies a place in our hearts as a label that exceeded expectations -- while heavy on B-movie fare, thanks to their connections it also provided a wealth of titles that, for many people browsing the stock of their local video store, would've probably rented out of curiosity.