The Vault of Horror: Joe Bob Briggs

Showing posts with label Joe Bob Briggs. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Tuesday Top 10: Horror TV Hosts

Ah, for the days of those groovy ghouls who welcomed us each week to their cheaply decorated and garishly lit studio sets, introducing classic horror films while cramming as many hackneyed puns as possible into every sentence... The TV "horror host" phenomenon was once a big part of local television, particularly in the 1960s, '70s and '80s--before the days of infomercials, when many networks and syndicated channels populated their program lineup with old movies and such.

Alas, although a handful do still operate, the horror host is largely a thing of the past. It seems, in these days when "content" is so compartmentalized on TV into a myriad of specialized channels, and movies are readily available on home video or computers, that those folks who traipsed around in Halloween-store garb while doing Boris Karloff impressions with varying degrees of success, have become moot. Yet for many of us, and many more who came before, these were the people who sparked our interest in horror, introducing us to movies we might never have otherwise seen.

And so, this week, I give you a look at some of the most memorable of the TV horror hosts...

10. Rhonda Shear
Ms. Shear was the host of "Up All Night" on the USA Network in the 1990s, and even though some of the films she hosted were not horror, the late-night program she hosted was very much a basic cable version of the old-school, late-night movie showcases. And the voluptuous Shear, although less goth than many of her female predecessors, nevertheless embodied much of the same vampy aesthetic.

9. Count Gore de Vol
A true renaissance man amongst horror hosts, the Count is best known for his Washington D.C.-area show from the 1970s and 1980s. But in 1998, he truly broke new ground and crossed over into a brand new medium by becoming the first classic horror host to kick off a weekly Internet show. He is also the man behind the Horror Host Underground, whose official website is this year nominated for a Rondo Award.

8. Dr. Morgus
One of the most widely syndicated of the classic horror hosts, Morgus' programming was most prominent in the New Orleans and Detroit areas during the 1960s and '70s. In the 1980s he became exposed to a wide array of markets across the nation, including New York, where I remember seeing him as a kid. For the past five years, Morgus has been back on the air with a cable show in New Orleans.

7. Ghoulardi
One of the most high-profile and beloved of the "golden age" horror hosts, Ron "Ghoulardi" Anderson was an icon for monster kids growing up in the Midwest in the 1960s. His character was more of a groovy hipster than the typical "mad scientist" type, and remains a camp favorite to this day. He left his home base of Ohio in the late '60s and went on to become the major ABC voice-over man of the 1970s. His son is film director Paul Thomas Anderson.

6. Svengoolie
A Chicago institution, the original Svengoolie, Jerry Bishop, hosted a very popular show during the 1970s. His protege, Rich Koz, started carrying on the tradition in the 1980s, and continues to do so to this day--first as "Son of Svengoolie", and now simply as the new Svengoolie. Ironically, he has played the character for much longer than his mentor.

5. Joe Bob Briggs
One of the most recent individuals to keep the horror host format alive, Briggs--a.k.a. John Bloom--is a bit more down-to-earth than his funkier and creepier predecessors. He gathered a rabid fan following as a genre aficionado thanks to his shows on The Movie Channel and TNT in the 1990s, and today works mainly as a straight-up critic, with many books on genre cinema under his belt.

4. Elvira
The Mistress of the Dark, and quite possibly the most famous of all horror hosts. Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson most certainly was the one who became the most mainstream, even getting a motion picture dedicated to her on-screen character. She also had her very own line of VHS horror releases, that predated and prefigured the MST3K phenomenon. She loses a point or two for originality, since her entire persona was largely cribbed from an earlier female horror host soon to be mentioned...

3. Chilly Billy
Chilly Billy Cardille was a Pittsburgh fixture for a couple of reasons. Not only was he the immensely popular host of the Steel City's version of Chiller Theater from the 1960s to the 1980s, but he was also one of the premiere TV announcers in the 1960s and '70s for the WWWF (now known as WWE). He can be seen in Night of the Living Dead as the on-the-spot TV reporter, and his daughter is Day of the Dead's Lori Cardille.

2. Zacherley
Yes, I'm probably biased for having grown up in the Northeast, but Zacherley--a.k.a. The Cool Ghoul--is considered by many as something of a patron saint of horror fandom. He hosted a variety of horror movie showcases on TV in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey in the 1950s and '60s, and even inspired a young boy in Brooklyn who would one day become the father of the writer of this blog. He is also something of an honorary master of ceremonies for the bi-annual Chiller Theatre convention.

1. Vampira
Perhaps the allure of mystery is a big part of Maila "Vampira" Nurmi's continued appeal. Although she only appeared on the air in California during the mid 1950s and almost no footage survives, she is generally credited with being the first true horror host, and the character she crafted has almost become something of a Jungian archetype. She famously appeared in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space, and has inspired a look which endures to this day (most notoriously co-opted by the aforementioned Peterson). Simply put, Vampira is more than a person, she is a pop culture entity.

* I'm indebted to the Rondo-nominated E-Gor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts for being such an invaluable source of precious info in putting this list together.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Small-Screen Revolution: A History of Horror TV, Part 4

With the onset of cable television over the course of the 1980s, horror TV underwent something of a transformation. For some time, the increasing brutality on the big screen had posed a challenge to those working on the little screen, who were bound to far more stringent restrictions. But cable, free of the censoring influences of sponsors, would allow them at last to compete on an even playing field.

As it would a decade later in the area of straight drama, HBO led the way. They had given the public a taste of what they could do with The Hitchhiker (1983), an intriguing cross between Twilight Zone and Hitchcock, but even that wasn't enough to prepare audiences for what they were about to unleash at the end of the decade. While the networks continued to churn out popular yet tame material like the vampire cop series Forever Knight (1989-96), HBO took a gamble by infusing sinister new life into a potent old horror franchise.

With Tales from the Crypt (1989-96), horror fans finally got everything they loved about modern theatrical fright films, right in the comfort of their own homes. Using stories--many taken from the legendary EC comic book of 30 years prior--introduced each week by the grisly Crypt Keeper, the show took full advantage of HBO's wide berth, never skimping on the violence and gore, and relishing every minute of it with typical Gaines-ian glee. It was everything the old anthology series of the past had been, taken to a bold and horrifying new level. Plus, it was funny as hell, which made it HBO's first smash hit series.

There was still horror to be found on traditional channels, to be sure, but the old guard almost seemed to have given up trying to keep up, knowing their hands were tied. Instead, the focus switched to the juvenile, and a mini-phenomenon of horror shows for kids emerged. With series like Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1991-96), Eerie, Indiana (1991-92) and the animated Beetlejuice (1989-91), producers no longer had to worry about pleasing an adult horror audience that had grown tired of TV's limitations. Perhaps the best example of all was the wildly successful Goosebumps (1995-98), based on a line of kids' novels by R.L. Stine that were huge back when J.K. Rowling was still a schoolteacher.

When it did try and deal with more grown-up horror, it seemed like broadcast TV was still stuck in the rut of tried-and-true formulas. You had attempts to feed of the success of the past, such as the ill-fated relaunch of Dark Shadows (1990), as well as made-for-TV sequels like Psycho IV (1990) and The Omen IV (1991).

A spate of Stephen King adaptations made the best of network restrictions with mixed results. While some, like The Tommyknockers (1993), proved largely forgettable, others, like the miniseries It (1990) and The Stand (1994) proved quite chilling, if flawed. Some have even argued that the first of the two, featuring the nightmarish clown Pennywise portrayed by Tim Curry, could be one of the finest adaptations of King's work shown on screens of any size.

After spending years taking a beating against the ropes, conventional broadcast TV finally rebounded in 1993 with its first mega-hit in years. Inspired by Kolchak: The Night Stalker of two decades prior, Fox's The X-Files became a hit of massive proportions, helping to propel the fledgling network to major status, and creating a passionate, loyal fan base. The cryptic, supernatural adventures of Agents Scully and Mulder captivated, with their hints of alien invasions, vast government conspiracy and the thin veil of normalcy that protected the regular world from the perils of the unknown.

The series ran for 10 seasons, and attained a popularity rivaled among sci-fi/horror TV only by the likes of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone (and like them, it also made the leap to the big screen). Best of all, it was intelligently written, providing the genre's first breath of fresh air in decades. Nevertheless, for the most part, it would prove to be the exception.

When it came to boob tube scares, the cutting edge continued to be on the pay channels. Showtime threw its hat in the ring in 1993 by teaming directors Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter for the anthology movie Body Bags, and later by reintroducing audiences to an old property with the vastly underrated New Outer Limits (1995-02), as well as Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996-99). Even a commercial cable channel like TNT was able to get into the act, bringing beloved genre commentator Joe Bob Briggs on board to host a series of theatrical horror films packaged as "Monstervision" (1993-00). Nothing like that had been attempted on regular TV since the heyday of the "horror hosts".

By the middle of the 1990s, the entire continental United States was wired for cable. The rules had changed. But that didn't mean that the lower channels on the dial were ready to give up the ghost, if you'll pardon the pun. Although the future of televised horror clearly lay in pay TV, another one of those fledgling broadcast networks was about to pull off just what Fox had done with The X-Files. But this time it would be a show set even more firmly within the scare genre, and as such would become arguably the most successful and beloved "pure horror" TV series of all time.

Other major shows: