Here's a quick look at several horror hosts who were on the air in the 80's...I travelled a bit back then and actually saw a few of these hosts' shows - I always loved that...
Thankfully there are still horror hosts working today - though most are now found on the internet - in fact, let's have some more horror host fun with my old buddy Daniel Roebuck and his character Dr. Shocker...
And a clip featuring a few other horror hosts featured at HorrorHostGraveyard.com....
I love horror hosts - have even contemplated perhaps coming up with my own character one day...hmmm...
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Excellent stuff Craig, I enjoyed these clips, especially the mega mix reel. The Horror host is a real American phenomena - I can't vouch for other territories but the concept never colonized UK or Irish TV, although it was road tested with the short-lived Deadly Earnest Horror Show (which is not to be confused with an Australian Horror host of the same name!), which ran on an early incarnation of Sky (the biggest cable broadcasting company in these parts) in around 1989. I suspect this was part of a strategy by Sky's producers to push more American style product into the program stream, but the show was canned after a year or two. I was around 12 when the show first aired, right around the time I was getting into Horror films, so I caught quite a few installments. The setup would be familiar: in a mist-shrouded graveyard the Draculaesque Deadly Earnest along with his toothsome bride, Scarlet Aorta (played by a former topless glamour girl) would rise from their coffins, do a few comedy routines, drop a few cringe-worthy double entendres, occasionally get menaced by some paranormal opticals, before finally introducing the night's film - among the few I remember catching were Son of the Blob, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, and one film which I particularly remember, which starred the A-Team's Dirk Benedict as a man who becomes increasingly consumed by a tattoo. I later discovered this to be an episode of the Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense series, entitled Mark of the Devil. I mentioned it in another post but I believe I saw Blood Beach in this slot as well... Worth saying that hosted film seasons were often seen on TV here albeit of a more mainstream flavor. The well-known UK film critic Derek Malcolm presented films during the mid-80's in a program known as The Film Club, and most memorably Repo Man director Alex Cox introduced cult movies for a long-running series entitled Moviedrome which was a veritable film school for guys like me coming of age in the early 90's and getting serious about Cinema... But getting back to the topic at hand, I'm wondering if the Horror host appeared on the major American networks, or was it confined to the local, regional channels ?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, is Hallowe'en widely celebrated on American TV ? I just checked the listings here for next week and there's very little on across the board - a Rec sequel, the Fright Night remake, Paranormal Activity 1 and a token classic in the shape of Witchfinder General...
No horror host appeared on a major network with any regular shows - Elvira started making appearances on shows like Bloopers and Practical Jokes; and The Fall Guy in the 80's; and she might have hosted a special of film clips somewhere along the way on a network - but her national show otherwise was syndicated - and all of the other hosts were syndicated, local and regional hosts. I have seen Seymour, Baron Von Crypt, Elvira, Dr. Paul Bearer, Sammy Terry, Svengoolie, Misty Brew, a group out of the Pittsburgh area about 7 or 8 years ago whose show name I've forgotten - and Wolfman Mac and his Chiller Drive-In - who is one of the best old school new horror hosts - recommend checking out some clips of his stuff on YouTube.
DeleteHalloween is a big deal on American TV - American Movie Classics does a 15 day Fear Fest - with edited movies with commercials - so I don't watch anything there. Turner Classic Movies dots horror in all October, then turns the entire schedule over the last couple of days. Other cable movie channels up their horror quotient. A lot of the fiction shows - drama and comedy - do Halloween episodes - ABC ran an two hour block of them Tuesday - four sitcoms all with Halloween party plots. And of course The Simpson just aired their 25th (!) Treehouse of Horror episode - which sits ready to watch in the DVR Friday night!