1/14/2008
I haven’t done a blog featuring your messages to me in a while so- let’s unleash the thoughts you’ve been having (at least, the ones I can print here!)
The new book about “Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows: from Shock Theatre to Svengoolie” has definitely opened a floodgate of memories for fans! I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails and messages
From people who’ve read it, and shared their remembrances of my old shows, those of my “dad” the original Sven, and some of the other horror movie programs that aired in the Windy City. There has been some confusion about the title “Creature Features”- there was more than one show with that name. It actually was a kind of generic name for weekly horror movies
on stations all around the country. It was most prominently used, of course, on the late night WGN show that ran the Universal flicks, “Creature Features,” which also utilized that eerie Henry Mancini “Experiment in Terror” soundtrack tune as its theme. In the 70s and early 80s, WFLD had a Saturday show, on at various times, called the “Creature Feature” (most likely named by a TV executive who hadn’t been in Chicago very long, and had no knowledge of the WGN show, or he would have thought twice about naming it that! That’s what I love about today’s imported executives- they usually have no information about the past history in the market they’re moving into, and often have the attitude that “the old history doesn’t matter- I’M creating the NEW history!”) In fact, when they first plugged me, as Son of Svengoolie, into their horror movie- the show was called “Creature Feature!” Anyway, if that doesn’t clear up the whole “Creature Features” name story, pick up that book-it’s a lot of fun, and, as I’ve mentioned before, fills in a lot of the “FAQ” that people usually aim at me!(Not that I mind answering your questions!)
Like this one, from Emily- she asks “Have you ever had to drop a movie from your show because it was so awful?” Ahem- if you’ve been watching fro a long time, you KNOW that never stopped us! Actually, when we’ve gotten some movies from distributors, especially of the ultra-cheap variety, and they’ve been of very bad viewing quality, or so INCREDIBLY boring that we could never have enough production time to add enough stuff to improve them- yes, we have dropped ‘em- but, well before we even started production on them. An example of a really awful one was the “Midnight Movie Massacre”- which we edited the living heck out of, added sound effects, and tried our best to keep it from stinking out loud! A close second was the Full Moon epic “Horrorvision”-complete with a soundtrack song that included obscenities!
More feedback in tomorrow’s blog! Meanwhile, write me at svengoolie@wciu.com…
The new book about “Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows: from Shock Theatre to Svengoolie” has definitely opened a floodgate of memories for fans! I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails and messages
From people who’ve read it, and shared their remembrances of my old shows, those of my “dad” the original Sven, and some of the other horror movie programs that aired in the Windy City. There has been some confusion about the title “Creature Features”- there was more than one show with that name. It actually was a kind of generic name for weekly horror movies
on stations all around the country. It was most prominently used, of course, on the late night WGN show that ran the Universal flicks, “Creature Features,” which also utilized that eerie Henry Mancini “Experiment in Terror” soundtrack tune as its theme. In the 70s and early 80s, WFLD had a Saturday show, on at various times, called the “Creature Feature” (most likely named by a TV executive who hadn’t been in Chicago very long, and had no knowledge of the WGN show, or he would have thought twice about naming it that! That’s what I love about today’s imported executives- they usually have no information about the past history in the market they’re moving into, and often have the attitude that “the old history doesn’t matter- I’M creating the NEW history!”) In fact, when they first plugged me, as Son of Svengoolie, into their horror movie- the show was called “Creature Feature!” Anyway, if that doesn’t clear up the whole “Creature Features” name story, pick up that book-it’s a lot of fun, and, as I’ve mentioned before, fills in a lot of the “FAQ” that people usually aim at me!(Not that I mind answering your questions!)
Like this one, from Emily- she asks “Have you ever had to drop a movie from your show because it was so awful?” Ahem- if you’ve been watching fro a long time, you KNOW that never stopped us! Actually, when we’ve gotten some movies from distributors, especially of the ultra-cheap variety, and they’ve been of very bad viewing quality, or so INCREDIBLY boring that we could never have enough production time to add enough stuff to improve them- yes, we have dropped ‘em- but, well before we even started production on them. An example of a really awful one was the “Midnight Movie Massacre”- which we edited the living heck out of, added sound effects, and tried our best to keep it from stinking out loud! A close second was the Full Moon epic “Horrorvision”-complete with a soundtrack song that included obscenities!
More feedback in tomorrow’s blog! Meanwhile, write me at svengoolie@wciu.com…
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