Chiller, early 70s Los Angeles in Monster Kid Memories Forum

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Chiller, early 70s Los Angeles

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TheCreep		#21	[-]
Aug 18 09 4:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Glen Manning wrote: How about The Channel 5 Movie Theater!! This was a Los Angeles, 70s thing. They would show "WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS" 5 NIGHTS A WEEK!!! Also they would show "KONGA" five nights a week, and many others. What a dream., Gargantua five nights a week!! Then after the movie they would have a show called "Second Look." The host would sit there and show a clip of the movie that was just on, and he would ask questions and they'd give a phone number and you could call and win! Very fun stuff. On the East Coast, channel 9 (WOR out of Secaucus, NJ) showed the Fay Wray King Kong all day on holidays (mostly Thanksgiving) and some other movie all day long on Christmas when I was around 5 in 1970. WOTG is a fave of mine, a big fave, because it stands out among Toho's efforts in some unique ways. Mostly, the moral conflict between the creatures, Sanda being his brother's keeper, and the stark contrasts in appearance of the creatures (to call them monsters does them injustice.) Morally guided monsters are not what Toho movies are about. Mostly, what I appreciated was ability of the makeup\masks to leave the actors' eyes open and free to move..much of the Gargantuas uniqueness comes from their ability to show emotions, and the look in their eyes greatly accentuated the facial expressions and made them believable. The scene where Sanda's face flares up with anger when he raises the tree branch against Gaira was a perfect example.
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DocZilla	Re: KTLA Channel 5 Movie Theater	#22	[-]
Aug 25 09 11:21 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hi, newbie here (and hope I'm not breaching any veteran's protocols...). I joined after years of reading and it was this topic going here that finally pushed me over the edge to join "Chiller" was on KTTV 11 until September 1974 on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 pm following "The Outer Limits" at 2:00. It was then moved to Saturdays at 3:30pm and became "Creature Features" using the late night opening they had for C-F with the little wailing rubber critters interspersed amongst the (plywood? cardboard?) C-F letters, while explosions and lightning added to the hellish landscape. Prior to this (when I first moved to the area in May 1973) "Creature Features" was KTTV's primetime Sunday evening horror/sci-fi showcase at 8:30 pm. Saw stuff like "From Hell It Came", "Atragon" and "The Brain From Planet Arous". Quite a mix. "The Channel 5 Movie Theater" was yet another treat for starved eyes. The week of July 16-20, 1973 was when they stripped "War Of The Gargantuas" for the five nights (plus again on Sunday to boot!) Now to the question of the theme music for C5MT. Don't know the title for this steaming slice of jazz-rock-funk fusion, but it does exist in an accessible form. Namely, the 1977-78 "Saturday Night Live" dvd box-set. The music was used for one of SNL's commercial parodies, the "Meat Wagon Action Track Set". It was on only one episode, the 12/17/77 show with the "Anyone Can Host" contest winner, Miskel Spillman (remember her?). This show was noteworthy not for this schtick so much as it was supposed to be the first live U.S. TV appearance of....THE SEX PISTOLS! But to my (and many of my friends) dismay, this skinny-tied & bespectacled nobody ridiculously named Elvis Costello was the musical guest. Whatever happened to him? Anyway, track down the "Meat Wagon Action Track Set" and there is the C5MT theme. Last Edited By: DocZilla Jul 29 11 12:44 AM. Edited 6 times.
DocZilla		#23	[-]
Aug 25 09 11:24 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Oops. meant to say extra heapin' helpin's of WOTG on Saturday and Sunday (afternoon).
DocZilla	KHJ-TV 9's "Action Theater" Theme	#24	[-]
Aug 25 09 12:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Oh, and to add to the general theme of L.A. TV "Name That Tune", does anyone here remember KHJ-TV 9's "Action Theater"? It was a daily mid-afternoon (varied between 2 & 3 pm during its run) action/adventure/sci-fi/wrestlingwomen movie show that aired from at least '73 to '76. The very afternoon when my family and I arrived in '73, I went immediately to my cousin's family's "TV Times" and found, to my 10-year-old heart's joy, that "Action Theater" was, within the hour, to air "Son Of Godzilla"! A "grail" film for me at the time, to be sure. "Action Theater" had a driving instrumental jazz-rock version of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" as its theme. Its graphics were a super showing "Action Theater" and in the background were little snippets of genre films within sprocket-holed "film frames". A highlight was of course the scene from Pal/Haskins' "War Of The Worlds" when the Martian disintegrator ray blasts away the L.A. City Hall. Inside joke back then, maybe. So, does anyone know the artist/group who performed the "For Your Love" instrumental? Last Edited By: DocZilla Aug 25 09 5:09 PM. Edited 2 times.
rvoyttbots		#25	[-]
Aug 25 09 7:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	So, does anyone know the artist/group who performed the "For Your Love" instrumental? Last Edited By: rvoyttbots Mar 1 10 9:24 PM. Edited 1 times.
DocZilla		#26	[-]
Aug 26 09 9:04 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Actually, it's this little ditty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0hLBhyv194 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Your_Love
Prop Medjai		#27	[-]
Sep 12 09 1:28 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	DocZilla! Big Thanks! This is the first lead I've ever had in finding this tune. I will be going to Amoeba Music tomorrow to find the correct SNL DVD. Once in hand, I'm sure my iPhone will finally give me the title of this elusive tune. I'll post the title as soon as I can find it. ~Ron Last Edited By: Prop Medjai Sep 12 09 1:41 AM. Edited 1 times.
Prop Medjai		#28	[-]
Sep 12 09 8:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I went to Amoeba Music this afternoon and bought the 3rd season of SNL. The music used during "Meat Wagon Action Track Set" commercial is indeed the same tune used for the Channel 5 Movie Theater opening! The music recognition program on my iPhone isn't helping much. It can't identify the title, probably because the guy narrating the commercial is louder than the music. Getting really close though... ~Ron
DocZilla		#29	[-]
Sep 13 09 6:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hey, that's cool. I immediately knew it was the tune, even though by that time ('77) I'd since moved to Houston. Over the years, I had always wondered if it was maybe a library track or something. Glad to have been of help to this mystery.
DocZilla		#30	[-]
Mar 1 10 10:32 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	DocZilla wrote: Oh, and to add to the general theme of L.A. TV "Name That Tune", does anyone here remember KHJ-TV 9's "Action Theater"? It was a daily mid-afternoon (varied between 2 & 3 pm during its run) action/adventure/sci-fi/wrestlingwomen movie show that aired from at least '73 to '76. The very afternoon when my family and I arrived in '73, I went immediately to my cousin's family's "TV Times" and found, to my 10-year-old heart's joy, that "Action Theater" was, within the hour, to air "Son Of Godzilla"! A "grail" film for me at the time, to be sure. "Action Theater" had a driving instrumental jazz-rock version of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" as its theme. Its graphics were a super showing "Action Theater" and in the background were little snippets of genre films within sprocket-holed "film frames". A highlight was of course the scene from Pal/Haskins' "War Of The Worlds" when the Martian disintegrator ray blasts away the L.A. City Hall. Inside joke back then, maybe. So, does anyone know the artist/group who performed the "For Your Love" instrumental? Sorry to dredge this one back up with all of my unresolved stuff, but maybe a jolt to my own consciousness this morning may bring forth some results. The KHJ movie showcase was ADVENTURE THEATER not "Action Theater", as my faulty memory circuits so adamantly spewed forth back in September. Just listened to a long since forgotten audio tape I had made back in 1976 of their premiere presentation of YOG, MONSTER FROM SPACE recorded the day after their premiere of GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER. There was announcer Wayne Thomas in all his glory with the music bed of a jazzy instrumental of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" and all that. But it was definitely ADVENTURE THEATER. Any other vague recollections out there? How about the CHANNEL 5 MOVIE THEATER theme? Last Edited By: DocZilla Mar 13 10 1:18 AM. Edited 1 times.
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DocZilla		#31	[-]
Mar 11 10 2:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	After a little bit of work, I came up with this virtual "screen cap" of the iconic scene from the ADVENTURE THEATER intro: Does this ring any bells or fire off a few synapses?
Prop Medjai		#32	[-]
Apr 3 10 12:09 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hi Doc! Still haven't gotten anymore info on that C5 Movie Theater Theme. I had a friend contact the folks at SNL for the information but the lady (in charge of their records department) never responded after the intitial phone call. I tried going through the entire 1987 KTLA 40th anniversary special on You Tube but no mention of the Movie Theater. I think I may have the graphic of that opening from another special, perhaps it was during the inauguration of Willie Williams as the Chief of the LAPD... Still searching... ~Ron
DocZilla		#33	[-]
Apr 3 10 10:28 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Thanks for the update, Ron! I wish I could add more myself to the search.
adamostern	CHILLER	#34	[-]
Apr 4 10 6:40 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	For better or worse, I'm blessed with a good memoery for trivia...and I can still remember, almost verbatim, the opening for KTTV's "Chiller" presentations... (clock ticking) NARRATOR: It's five o'clock...time for...(sudden burst of menacing music) "Chiller". The program that takes you on a perilous journey into the world of the unknown...through the fringes of space...into other times and other places where unspeakable monsters roam, and terror is the order of the day. In the coming weeks we'll be seeing such disturbing motion pictures as (list of two or three titles)...and others guaranteed to give you that uneasy feeling. Today, (brief synopsis of the day's offering). You have but a moment to prepare yourself. (commercial break, then the movie began) ________________________________ There were many movies that I watched and remember fondly, such as "Caltiki, the Immortal Monster"... "Attack of the Crab Monsters"..."House on Haunted Hill"...and my personal favorite, "Target: Earth", about an invasion of Earth by robots from Venus. At the time I first watched them (when I was about five or six years old), these movies seemed like the last word in frightening stories and superb special effects; now, when I occasionally encounter them, I can only laugh at how naive a film-appraiser I was at that age. And yet, some of those movies still hold an appeal, even if it's mostly a sentimental one...
Mike Mariano		#35	[-]
Apr 5 10 11:02 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	adamostern wrote: For better or worse, I'm blessed with a good memoery for trivia...and I can still remember, almost verbatim, the opening for KTTV's "Chiller" presentations... (clock ticking) NARRATOR: It's five o'clock...time for...(sudden burst of menacing music) "Chiller". The program that takes you on a perilous journey into the world of the unknown...through the fringes of space...into other times and other places where unspeakable monsters roam, and terror is the order of the day. In the coming weeks we'll be seeing such disturbing motion pictures as (list of two or three titles)...and others guaranteed to give you that uneasy feeling. Today, (brief synopsis of the day's offering). You have but a moment to prepare yourself. (commercial break, then the movie began) ________________________________ There were many movies that I watched and remember fondly, such as "Caltiki, the Immortal Monster"... "Attack of the Crab Monsters"..."House on Haunted Hill"...and my personal favorite, "Target: Earth", about an invasion of Earth by robots from Venus. At the time I first watched them (when I was about five or six years old), these movies seemed like the last word in frightening stories and superb special effects; now, when I occasionally encounter them, I can only laugh at how naive a film-appraiser I was at that age. And yet, some of those movies still hold an appeal, even if it's mostly a sentimental one... Wow, that is awesome! As with a lot of topics here, some of the monster memories can only be found on this board among the entire Internet. A friend recently e-mailed me, saying he had done a google search on "Chiller Los Angeles" and the only thing that came up was this thread! He sent me a lot of info that I'm pasting below (with his consent, natch). I also sent him the intro you posted. "I just put "Los Angeles Chiller" into Google and the first thing that came up was a post from you on the Classic Horror board asking about Chiller. Chiller started in the Sixties and was on Channel 11 in Los Angeles on Saturday nights. Later it moved to late Saturday afternoons. I still have a scrap book I kept as a kid which has all the ads from TV Guide for Chiller. The show premiered with The Giant Behemoth. At first they showed Allied Artists films exclusively but later films from other companies as well. I’m pretty sure I have ads for the following movies: The Giant Behemoth House on Haunted Hill World Without End Attack of the 50 Foot Woman The Atomic Submarine Attack of the Crab Monsters Caltiki the Immortal Monster War of the Satellites Not of This Earth The Cosmic Man Frankenstein 1970 From Hell It Came The Disembodied Queen of Outer Space Macabre The Hypnotic Eye The Cyclops Daughter of Dr. Jekyll Cape Canaveral Monsters Beast of Hollow Mountain Curse of the Faceless Man Voodoo Island Terror in the Haunted House Brain from Planet Arous Chiller was on at 8:30 pm on Saturday and only ran 90 minutes. Immediately afterwards on Channel 13 was Jeepers Creepers which showed Universal horror movies that hadn't been included in the original Shock Theater package. The series premiered with House of Dracula and I completed my Universal viewing with movies like Ghost of Frankenstein, House of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Curse, and Jungle Captive. Around this same time period on Sunday at 6:00pm Channel 7 premiered the AIP black and white horror and sci-fi films. It was just called The Sunday Night Movie but all they showed was AIP horror stuff. I have the ads for all of these too. The Chiller ads in TV Guice usually featured the original ad art. I went to the garage this morning and unearthed my scrapbooks. Here are the TV ads that I found in them: Channel 9 Movie Theatre (at 5 and 9 pm nightly...and 2:30 on weekends) Face of Fire, Hunchback of Notre Dame (1957), The Thing, Enemy from Space, The Crawling Eye, Hound of the Baskervilles, Satellite in the Sky, Rodan, King Kong, Beginning of the End, Son of Kong, The Unearthly, Mighty Joe Young, Godzilla, Bluebeard's 10 Honeymoons, X the Unknown, Sword and the Dragon, Hercules, Man Beast, Phantom of the Rue Morgue, Fabulous World of Jules Verne, House of Wax, Things to Come, Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Riders to the Stars, It the Terror from Beyond Space, Man from Planet X, Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, Cosmic Monsters, 1984, The Maze, Flight to Mars, Uncle Was a Vampire Chiller (Channel 11 at 8;30 pm Saturday nights) The Giant Behemoth, Frankenstein 1970, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Queen of Outer Space, The Disembodied, World Without End, Hideous Sun Demon, Beast of Hollow Mountain, House on Haunted Hill, Brain from Planet Arous, The Bat, Indestructible Man, Curse of the Faceless Man, The Cosmic Man, Terror in the Haunted House, Cape Canaveral Monsters, From Hell It Came, The Hypnotic Eye, Voodoo Island, War of the Satellies, Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake, Atomic Submarine, Target Earth, Forbidden Planet Sunday Night Movie (Channel 7 at 6:00 pm Sunday nights) The Amazing Colossal Man, Killer Shrews, How to Make a Monster, Attack of the Puppet People, Terror from the Year 5000, The She Creature, War of the Colossal Beast, The Spider, Giant Gila Monster, It Conquered the World, Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, The Tingler, Day the World Ended (how did The Tingler get in there?) I also noticed that the host on Jeepers Creepers (Jeepers) changed to Ghoulita after a couple of years. The only ads for that show were for House of Dracula and Ghost of Frankenstein. On Channel 5 they had Shock Theatre and it later changed to Weird Weird World. I have TV ads for Dracula's Daughter, The Invisible Ray, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Dracula, Son of Dracula, and the Invisible Man. In San Diego we had The Scary Show which was 11:30 pm on Saturday nights. So I could watch Chiller at 8:30, Jeepers Creepers at 10, and Scary Show at 11:30. No wonder I am so obsessed by this stuff! Also in San Diego we had Science Fiction Theater at 4:30 on Saturday afternoons. It was hosted by Cosmosina. Addition: Two movies I forgot were Not of This Earth (on Chiller) and Invasion of the Saucer Men (on Channel 7 Sunday Night Movie). Some of the newspaper movie ads in the scrapbook with the TV clippings are The Haunting, Comedy of Terrors, Madmen of Mandouras, and Captain Sindbad so it must have been 1962-63 when I first saw them."
LordNordhoff		#36	[-]
Jan 13 11 6:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	You're probably refering to "Sinister Cinema". It debuted in the fall of 1975 on LA station KCOP 13 and was hosting by a character named 'Famous Morris'; he was a sort of talent agent for spooks and monsters. The actor who played him was a guy named Don Sherman, who's best remembered as the bar tender in the first Rocky film.
vayapues		#37	[-]
Feb 18 11 1:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Chiller was always on then-KTTV, channel 11 until its demise. Not sure of its original early-60s graphic opening, but I seem to remember the loud clock ticking, "It's 8:30 & time once again for...CHILLER!," followed by a surge of music & an ominous intro, accompanied by nothing more than a kind of starfield/galactic visual. I remember sort of a clay face being pushed into dark water, but think that was the 70s opening. Anyway, the following words constitute Chiller's aboriginal 1962 intro -- which I will swear is 99% accurate even though I haven't seen or heard it in nearly 50 years (making me some kind of wacko savant, I guess): "CHILLER! The program that takes you on a perilous journey into the unknown, thru the fringes of space, into other times & other places where unspeakable monsters roam & TERROR is the order of the day! CHILLER! In the coming weeks we'll be seeing such disturbing motion pictures as --" Then fill in the missing spaces with, in the main, titles from the Allied Artists late-50s package, i.e., FRANKENSTEIN 1970, FROM HELL IT CAME, DAUGHTER OF DR JEKYLL, NOT OF THIS EARTH, etc etc. Finish up with ". . . & other titles calculated to give you that . . . uneasy feeling. Tonight we present Gene Evans & Leigh Madison starring in . . . THE GIANT BEHEMOTH." BEHEMOTH was Chiller's initial offering in something like summer 1962. Parenthetically, I remember seeing one of its original ad mats reproduced in the LA Herald-Examiner to trumpet Chiller's debut, & not having the slightest clue as to what a "Behemoth" was, I was happy & relieved to find that it was to be nothing less than an always-welcome favorite, the urban dinosaur. Chiller's announcer, Larry Burrell, was a long-time KTTV guy probably up to the day that Metromedia sold the station in the 80s; probably best loved as the voiceover that tries to glue together the narrative disjoints of THE CREEPING TERROR. Strange irony: Tom Duggan, one of the co-stars of FRANKENSTEIN 1970, had a 1962-63 KTTV talk show Saturday nights at 10PM immediately after Chiller, causing me some grief that I could no longer distinguish fantasy from reality when that particular film happened to air. Last Edited By: vayapues Feb 18 11 1:56 PM. Edited 1 times.
DrYesdoctor		#38	[-]
Feb 18 11 2:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	vayapues wrote: Chiller was always on then-KTTV, channel 11 until its demise. Not sure of its original early-60s graphic opening, but I seem to remember the loud clock ticking, "It's 8:30 & time once again for...CHILLER!," followed by a surge of music & an ominous intro, accompanied by nothing more than a kind of starfield/galactic visual. I remember sort of a clay face being pushed into dark water, but think that was the 70s opening. I remember that Chiller opening as an afternoon show in the early '70s. "It's 3:00 & time once again for..." etc. And as Doczilla said, it was eventually replaced by Creature Features with the ridiculous little rubber figures writhing in agony. The problem in my house was that the afternoon show conflicted with any number of sports shows or games. And, as usual, the monster kid gets shoved aside by the family jock...even if it was "Twenty Million Miles to Earth" and you had to wait another year or more before it would air again!!!! I'd rather watch "Death Curse of Tartu" than a Dodger game. "Impossible? Unbelievable? Fantastic? But I tell you - it could happen" http://animjerk.blogspot.com
vayapues		#39	[-]
Feb 18 11 2:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Somehow I bypassed admostern's Chiller intro before. But hey, great minds (almost) think alike!
Sid Terror		#40	[-]
Feb 26 11 4:35 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	If I am remembering right, the rock�music introduction was an instrumental. It was called "Haunted Castle" and was released by THE KINGSMEN on the Wand imprint in 1963. It was the flip-side of the much more famous "Louie, Louie".� Let me know if this sounds familiar.... ---TERROR "I still think that the only reason we didn't get flying cars is because the chance that drunk drivers would fly into a school or hotel would make the insurance premiums too high."
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Chiller, early 70s Los Angeles