The Friday Flashback: Halloween Television

By Chuck Sudo in Miscellaneous on Oct 31, 2008 1:00PM

For as long as I remember, I've loved classic horror movies. I can remember (during my early grade school years) walking home in the afternoon after class was dismissed, dropping my backpack at the back door, grabbing a grape drink and hot corn chips and heading to the living room to watch the afternoon movie on Channel 7 before doing homework. Channel 7's afternoon movie was almost always a Hammer horror flick, known as much for their cleavage-baring Victorian sexuality as their shock value. Now, Christopher Lee is the definitive Dracula, but the Hammer adaptations paled compared to the classic Universal horror flicks.

Then there was "Creature Features" on Channel 9. The show never had a live host, just a disembodied voice doing announcements and a cartoon version of Lon Chaney in London After Midnight as the show's "host." The show's intro, however, is seared in my brain for Posterity.

Speaking of definitive characterizations, two generations of Chicagoans have been born knowing only Rich Koz as Svengoolie. His adaptation of the character actually started out as the "Son of Svengoolie." Jerry Bishop was doing the behind the scenes voice of Sven for Channel 32's "Screaming Yellow Theater." Eventually, WFLD decided to put Bishop in some greasepaint and put him in front of the camera. The rest is local television history. Bishop's version of Sven was more of a burned-out hippie, compared to Koz's portrayal. One of the features during Bishop's run as Sven was to have a guest "censor." In this clip, the guest censor was burlesque queen Tempest Storm.

Physical appearances aside, both the Bishop and Koz versions of Svengoolie trafficked in cornball humor, musical parodies and frequent potshots at Berwyn (Burr-WINN!). Both shows also cut into the movie at select moments to interject a well-timed joke, a precursor to "Mystery Science Theater 3000. Koz was handed the mantle (as "Son of Svengoolie") in 1979 with Bishop's blessing after new ownership at Channel 32 failed to bring in audiences with a horror movie showcase called "The Ghoul." In this clip, Koz gets his licks in on that decision.