Carpenter's classic on television for the first time in October of 1981.THIS IS A NEW COLUMN HERE AT CAC. I was fixing the roof on one of my grandmother's storage buildings and I came across a few boxes of old TV Guides and other vintage magazines. My dad kept everything and when he died, my grandmother threw out lots of things including a bunch of boxes of said TV Guides and other collective paraphernalia. These few boxes survived and I brought them home and dusted them off. Browsing the pages and the antiquated ads within has brought back a handful of additional memories as well as provided a look back at a time when television was a much different place than it is today.
"Hey, Hey, Hey!" Remember these?Back then, Saturday mornings had the coolest cartoons, wrestling was on TV on the weekends at least six different times throughout the day, monster and kung fu flicks were on frequently during the entire week and TV stations "signed off" during after hours at around 2 in the morning backed by the National Anthem. The following are a slew of ads for various theatrical movies making their TV premiere (and maybe a repeat, or two), TV movie premieres, After School Specials (remember those?), Cartoons, Holiday Specials and various popular TV shows and a bunch of shows whose lifespan was terribly short-lived (and a bunch I scarcely remember at all).
1976 ad for three shows. Two I remember fondly and one I don't. You can probably guess the lesser of these three here. Needless to say, like every kid and adult male at the time, I had a serious crush on Lynda Carter most notably in her sexy attire decked out as WONDER WOMAN. I was nearing two years old at this time, but I vividly remember watching this show in the late 70s/early 80s.Movies on TV in October of 1976
THE BLACK TORMENT (1964)--British Gothic horror thriller.
DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (1971)--Al Adamson's ultra cheesy Clash of the Horror Titans.
FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR (1968)--Naschy gnashes his fangs.
SCREAM, PRETTY PEGGY (1973)--TV terror flick with Bette Davis.
NIGHTMARE IN WAX (1969)--Trashy Cameron Mitchell horror flick.
TWISTED BRAIN aka HORROR HIGH (1974)--Reviewed HERE!
BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (1959)--Ishiro Honda's classic sci fi epic.
THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG (1939)--Karloff horror.
IT CAME BENEATH THE SEA (1955)--Giant octopus attacks San Fran!
THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943)--Vintage Bela Lugosi vampire flick!
TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964)--Corman Poe with Price.
NIGHT OF TERROR (1933)--Lugosi, spooky castle, family heirs bumped off...
HORROR AT 37,000 FEET (1973)--Chuck Connors, William Shatner, Buddy Ebsen aboard a plane with a demonic force in this TV horror flick.
DEATH WISH (1974) makes its network television premiere in November of 1976.
Remember Nell Carter in this TV hit? I liked it mainly because Kari Michaelsen from SATURDAY THE 14TH (1981) was in it.
I never watched THE FALL GUY, but looking at it now, it's a cool concept for a TV show. Late October, 1981.
"Believe it or not", I used to watch this one and even dug the catchy main theme song.
"Knock Three Times" if you remember Tony Orlando and Dawn! Check George Carlin bottom right!
I don't remember this movie, but it's Farrah Fawcett! The image above with her torn outfit strategically open just enough to show off a portion of one of her breasts is worth posting the image.
From 1976 comes this After School Special I never saw, but I do remember Lance Kerwin from SALEM'S LOT (1979).
The Network Television Premiere of the thriller THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975).
Charlie Brown was always on TV at some point or other throughout the year.
The Network Television Premiere for Mel Brooks' magnificently funny comedy, BLAZING SADDLES (1974). What's memorable about the airing of the film on TV is that there was a number of additional scenes put back in to make up for what had to be edited, or clipped out.
Remember these? I do. David Copperfield was cool back then and even more so to me after seeing him the same year in TERROR TRAIN (1980). Image from October 1981.
I vaguely remember seeing an episode or two of THE SONNY & CHER SHOW, but this was a nice ad with The Jackson Five during better days back in 1976.
The 1976 TV premiere for this John Travolta tearjerker, THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE.
The Network Television Premiere of this classic Made For TV horror film. I recall seeing it that Saturday night and me and my friends talking about it at school the following Monday. I also remember what I was doing the following year when this was repeated. My mom had taken me out trick r treating (I was decked out in a Cornelius PLANET OF THE APES costume) and I remember wanting to hurry up and rush home to see it again.Movies on TV in October 1981
Terror Out Of the Sky (1978)--TV movie sequel to the TV Movie hit, THE SAVAGE BEES (1976).
The Sentinel (1977)--Bizarre devil movie with all star cast.
Son of Frankenstein (1939)--Karloff, Rathbone, Lugosi, Atwill together.
Theater of Blood (1973)--Priceless Price horror spectacular.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)--Old B/W horror thriller starring Claude Rains.
Legacy of Horror (1978)--Andy Milligan trash.
Hold That Ghost (1941)--Abbott and Costello comedy caper.
I used to love Disney as a kid, but it's the one thing I've grown out of save for one or two of their movies. Still, this is a nice Halloween ad for some Disney spooky toons.
I never saw this TV movie sequel to Polanski's classic devil worshipper movie, nor do I recall seeing THE PAUL LYNDE COMEDY HOUR. More to come!UNTIL NEXT TIME.....
Great first installment of old TV Guide ads, venoms5! The reproductions look to be in good shape, and it's cool to look at them in a size bigger than the original pages!
ReplyDeleteLove the Dark Night of the Scarecrow ad; Larry Drake looks like a demented "Dennis the Menace"! Did you make it back home to see the repeat? :o)
Seen today, the two formats of Wonder Woman are pretty cool, but I always preferred the "WWII" version, including the pilot movie where Lynda Carter beat the snot out of Stella Stevens!
It's been several years since I've seen that Afterschool Special! Many of them have actually made it to DVD, and several have been posted on YouTube. (If you want to watch another special with Lance Kerwin, look up "The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon"; that one is a riot!)
David Copperfield was OK, back in the day. I liked the late Doug Henning, another magician that did a lot of TV before Copperfield; he was a "hippie" type whose slight-of-hand was smooth as silk!
Beyond the appearances of KISS and Margaret Hamilton, the Paul Lynde Halloween special was pretty wretched stuff! Why? Because it was produced by Sid and Marty Kroft!
What a flood of memories these old, slightly browned pages bring back! I await more postings of these!
There's a lot more where this came from, Fang, and I hoped/thought you at least would get a kick out of seeing these. The trouble was figuring out which ones to scan first. I still have a few dozen more to go through.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I did make it home in time to catch the repeat. The year prior on the premiere, I missed the first 15 minutes.
I remember watching lots of Sid and Marty Krofft stuff, but Paul Lynde escapes me.
Did you ever see the first WONDER WOMAN pilot movie with Kathy Lee Crosby as Wonder Woman? I remember seeing it around this time.
I recall seeing Cathy Lee Crosby's WW pilot as a rerun many years after its premiere. As the account goes, it reflected the comic book stories being published at the time (right down to her radical costume), which is why it's such a "foreign" movie in more ways than one! The worst Lynda Carter episodes are better than that pilot, even though it's got Ricardo Montalban as the bad guy!
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact Crosby had the right body type for the part, I don't think coloring her hair black and putting her in the more familiar costume would've made her Wonder Woman!
Today, Paul Lynde's more remembered for being "Uncle Arthur" on Bewitched and his scripted "ad libs" on Hollywood Squares. Generally speaking, I'd say he was one of those "proven" character actors who made the mistake of trying to be a "top banana"! Often, he wasn't so much a funny man as he was a man who said things funny! (The guy had great comic timing.)
Fantastic post venom! More memories than I can even handle.
ReplyDeleteHad to laugh at the Paul Lynde Halloween special ad. That is truly scary.
Man you just brought back tons of memories! I miss looking in the guides and checking off what I needed to see, the ads alone and the way they were displayed made you watch stuff that you never heard of. The best was the "First time on network television", you had to catch it because there was not repeat showings later that night like on cable now!
ReplyDeleteGreat read as always!
@ Fang: I only saw it the one time, and I mainly recall her costume that was noticeably different from the comic and Lynda Carter's interpretation.
ReplyDelete@ Fazeo: Thanks, man, I got a bunch more coming! It brought a lot back to me, too, perusing through them all.
@ Skeme: I know, right? The memory floodgates were opened for me, too, going through various issues. I notice towards the end of the 80s the ads got less extravagant and just less period. Yeah, sometimes you had a wait a year or more to see a movie again unless you recorded it in one of those then state of the art pop top VCR's. Thanks, Skeme, I hope you enjoy the other ones I got coming up, too!
definitely looking forward to more 'Vintage TV Ad' posts :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Maynard! Glad you are enjoying them!
ReplyDelete