ForgotPassword?
Sign Up
Search this Topic:
Forum Jump
Sep 11 08 12:55 AM
I totally remember WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS running at 8pm every night for the entire week in the 70s. I think they also ran, in the same format, KING KONG (the original), MONSTER ZERO, and later things like the hillbilly drive-in flick PREACHERMAN. If you missed the beginning of the movie on Monday, you could always tune in the next night to catch it!
I loved Famous Morris on Channel 13. He was on around 1975/1976, a pudgy guy who wore a hat with little devil horns sticking out at the top. As E-gor's site notes, he never acknowledged the films he showed, but he was always doing "agent-to-the-stars" schtick, talking on the phone to "Frank" and "Drac," trying to get them work and arguing with them. His show used the "Hurray for Hollywood" song (to open, I think), and in the middle or end he used, as you say, Marshall, War's "Why Can't We Be Friends!" Famous Morris ran lots of Spanish horror like HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, BELL FROM HELL, WITCHES MOUNTAIN, as well as other things from the Avco/Embassy TV package like DEAR DEAD DELILAH, DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER, and HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON. He also ran the Blood Island films (under their TV titles--ISLAND OF LIVING HORROR, TOMB OF THE LIVING DEAD), and other Hemisphere stuff like TOWER OF TERROR (aka ASSAULT w/Suzy Kendall), INN OF THE FRIGHTENED PEOPLE (aka REVENGE w/Joan Collins), and TORTURE CHAMBER OF DOCTOR SADISM. The nudity was cut for TV, but the films were still suggestive and sexy, at least I thought so. You could tell when something was cut ("Whoa, there's a sex scene!") and they retained scenes of Joan Collins, Angelique Pettyjohn, Ewa Aulin, etc. parading around in low cut night gowns, bras, whatever. The films usually ran 11pm Saturday and then repeated 3pm Sunday afternoon. They used to run spots during the week for upcoming shows, with a male announcer saying in a rushed, lurid voice: "Saturday night at 11:00...a beautiful girl, falsely accused of witchcraft seeks a bloody revenge in NIGHT OF THE BLOOD MONSTER!" [then teaser scenes, then] "See the L.A. premiere of NIGHT OF THE BLOOD MONSTER, this Saturday at 11:00 on KCOP, Channel 13...the station that plays favorites!" It used to crack me up--sure, LA premiere, if you say so! Still, every Saturday night, I'd be right there, heating up some egg rolls in the toaster oven and then sitting down to spend a couple hours watching Beverly Hills and John Ashley on Blood Island. What a blast! Getting back to Chiller, wow, thanks for the detailed description of the opening. It's the earliest TV horror program I ever saw. I knew the opening had some sort of image of something sinking or coming out of water, but my memory was faint. I definitely saw THE DISEMBODIED on Chiller. A friend e-mailed me his memories about it: Chiller was on in the early 60s. I don't think it lasted all the way to the late 60s. It was on Channel 11, KTTV. The voice would say: "It's time for...CHILLER! In the coming weeks you'll see such disturbing motion pictures as...The Disembodied...Attack of the Crab Monsters...Monster from Piedras Blancas...Attack of the 50 Foot Woman...Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake...Four Sided Triangle...The Cosmic Man...Frankenstein's Daughter...Daughter of Dr. Jekyll..." Then it would show some scenes from the movie that was coming up for next week. They didn't show Attack of the Mushroom People. I think they ran all Allied Artists titles. They ran Caltiki a lot. That really scared me!
Share This