Pining For Creature Features
With Halloween coming up in just two short weeks, I've noticed a few cable channels have started showing more horror movies than usual. The Sci-Fi Channel is heavily promoting their "31 Days of Halloween" concept, while the Starz movie channels are advertising something similar for the week of Halloween. But I'm not here to shill for the Sci-Fi Channel or Starz (though I totally will if they're willing to cut me a paycheck). What I really wanted to talk about is how much I miss creature feature shows.
Even though I pride myself in being a so-called "child of the '80s," I never got to watch Elvira's Movie Macabre. I totally would have, if I'd been born ten or fifteen years earlier, but the sad truth is that I was an infant during the show's run. Instead, I grew up watching the USA Network's Up All Night with Rhonda Shear and Gilbert Gottfried, and TNT's MonsterVision with Joe Bob Briggs. I never got the opportunity to enjoy Elvira's Movie Macabre, but I like to think that Up All Night and MonsterVision made up for it.
I have to say that I enjoyed Up All Night and MonsterVision in completely different ways. I have to admit that I never watched Up All Night for Rhonda Shear. With a decade of hindsight, I can definitely see how she could bring in viewers. Instead, I loved Up All Night for the movies. It was the only place I could go to see Troma movies like Class of Nuke 'Em High and the first three Toxic Avenger movies. And though Up All Night showed a multitude of other cheap and sleazy B-movies, it was always the Troma stuff that brought me in. So maybe I should accuse the USA Network circa 1994 for making me the weirdo I am today.
But while it was the movies that drew me to Up All Night, it was the host that made me a loyal fan of MonsterVision. Sure, MonsterVision showed a lot of awesome movies, but it was always the incomprable Joe Bob Briggs that brought me back every weekend. As much as I liked and enjoyed the movies they aired, the segments coming back from each commercial break - along with the "drive-in totals" before each movie - were priceless. Joe Bob was an incredibly funny host, and even when they retooled the show and started more mainstream flicks, Joe Bob was consistently funny and entertaining.
My favorite memory of MonsterVision, though, was the marathon of Friday the 13th movies the show ran on Halloween night in 1998. The interstitial segments where it appears that Ted Turner is picking off members of the show's cast and crew are some of the funniest television that I personally have ever seen. The marathon ran for twelve hours, from dusk til dawn, and I was glued to the television for all of it. That's the kind of show MonsterVision was.
I'm bummed that not only were Up All Night and MonsterVision were both cancelled at least a decade ago, but that no network has started up a similar show in all that time. The Sci-Fi Channel or Chiller would make perfect places to run a new show in the vein of Up All Night or MonsterVision. It wouldn't even have to share a name or a host with the old shows; I'd just like to see something new along those same lines. And with Halloween on the way, this would be the perfect time for some new creature feature show to start up. Hey, Hollywood, are you listening?
Even though I pride myself in being a so-called "child of the '80s," I never got to watch Elvira's Movie Macabre. I totally would have, if I'd been born ten or fifteen years earlier, but the sad truth is that I was an infant during the show's run. Instead, I grew up watching the USA Network's Up All Night with Rhonda Shear and Gilbert Gottfried, and TNT's MonsterVision with Joe Bob Briggs. I never got the opportunity to enjoy Elvira's Movie Macabre, but I like to think that Up All Night and MonsterVision made up for it.
I have to say that I enjoyed Up All Night and MonsterVision in completely different ways. I have to admit that I never watched Up All Night for Rhonda Shear. With a decade of hindsight, I can definitely see how she could bring in viewers. Instead, I loved Up All Night for the movies. It was the only place I could go to see Troma movies like Class of Nuke 'Em High and the first three Toxic Avenger movies. And though Up All Night showed a multitude of other cheap and sleazy B-movies, it was always the Troma stuff that brought me in. So maybe I should accuse the USA Network circa 1994 for making me the weirdo I am today.
But while it was the movies that drew me to Up All Night, it was the host that made me a loyal fan of MonsterVision. Sure, MonsterVision showed a lot of awesome movies, but it was always the incomprable Joe Bob Briggs that brought me back every weekend. As much as I liked and enjoyed the movies they aired, the segments coming back from each commercial break - along with the "drive-in totals" before each movie - were priceless. Joe Bob was an incredibly funny host, and even when they retooled the show and started more mainstream flicks, Joe Bob was consistently funny and entertaining.
My favorite memory of MonsterVision, though, was the marathon of Friday the 13th movies the show ran on Halloween night in 1998. The interstitial segments where it appears that Ted Turner is picking off members of the show's cast and crew are some of the funniest television that I personally have ever seen. The marathon ran for twelve hours, from dusk til dawn, and I was glued to the television for all of it. That's the kind of show MonsterVision was.
I'm bummed that not only were Up All Night and MonsterVision were both cancelled at least a decade ago, but that no network has started up a similar show in all that time. The Sci-Fi Channel or Chiller would make perfect places to run a new show in the vein of Up All Night or MonsterVision. It wouldn't even have to share a name or a host with the old shows; I'd just like to see something new along those same lines. And with Halloween on the way, this would be the perfect time for some new creature feature show to start up. Hey, Hollywood, are you listening?
posted by Matt Sutton at
1:29 PM
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