Horror Hosts!

[lhb412]

In honor of Svengoolie's monthlong showcase of Godzilla movies (starting tomorrow with Godzilla, King of the Monsters!) I thought to make a thread dedicated to arguably American television's greatest invention: the horror host. Despite the common wisdom that they are a feature of yesteryear, I realize I've been watching horror hosts in some form my whole life.

Now, if I'm to understand correctly, horror hosting took off in the late '50s when Universal made a syndication package of their horror and thriller movies called 'Shock' available to local stations nationwide. Some brave souls from those local broadcasters (weathermen, radio announcers) donned monster makeup, assembled crude dungeon or mad scientist sets, and began hosting the movies, often supplying goofy humor to make the scary movies more palatable for the kids watching.

I grew up in the '90s, but I really didn't watch Joe Bob Briggs' MonsterVision all that much. I was terrified of horror movies, but if he was showing something like Godzilla or King Kong I was there. I'll never forget watching Joe Bob host Godzilla vs. Monster Zero while on a trip. I begged my parents to leave the TV on while everyone else slept, putting the volume down low enough to not disturb anyone. Of course, I was flummoxed when Joe Bob said "most Godzilla fans hate this one because it's got so little monster footage." Wha?



Around age 11 I started liking horror movies, and was introduced to many of them via AMC's Monsterfest, which screened so many Universal/Hammer/AIP classics. They'd often have guests hosts for that particular year, and they even had a kind of permanent, weekly Monsterfest for old sci-fi movies called EFX, hosted by Stan Winston which often showed kaiju movies.



By the early to late '00s these had all faded, but I still managed to occasional catch Macabre Theatre, a bottom-rung syndication thing that showed Deep Red a lot and aired on a small local channel owned by an eccentric former reporter in the next county. When the digital switchover happened and the former UHF lineup was joined by another half dozen channels of mostly reruns I caught Wolfman Mac's Chiller Drive-In a few times, but the biggest advent of the digital switchover was MeTV acquiring Chicago's long-running (since the '70s!) horror host: Svengoolie! I dig his old-fashioned comedy shtick with intentional cory jokes (some out of date by an order of lifetimes), bad puns, and other assorted groaners that eventually elicit him to be pelted with rubber chickens. Sven (real name: Rich Koz) is also great with trivia, giving the movies some serious coverage and not just jokes.



Of course, horror hosting is also a key influence behind my favorite TV show: Mystery Science Theater 3000, although I agree with Joel Hodgson's appraisal that they aren't actually hosting movies, but merely using movies as raw material to build a variety show on top of.

[jellydonut25]

For the most part, Joe Bob is "MY" horror host. I saw a lot of his stuff, and to this day I think my most vivid memory of him is when he hosted Howling VII: New Moon Rising, and he was absolutely FLUMMOXED by the movie.

You can watch a lot of his movies hosted on YouTube, sometimes just the host segments, sometimes the whole movie with it; it's like a whole THING now, where you can do that with a lot of horror hosts.

Other than Joe Bob, I think I was a tad young for Elvira and some of the other prominent ones, but I actually remember Paul & Annabelle hosting Dinner and a Movie, which wasn't restricted to horror, but had host wraparound segments.

And other than that (and obviously MST3K) I remember a local "Off Beat Cinema" which had the hosts all dressed like beatniks in black & white host segments doing like spoken word poetry about the movies and stuff. They showed a lot of cheesy B sci-fi and horror movies.


But yeah, Joe Bob is my boy. And because of this thread, I just now realized that he hosted a screening of Howling 3 (one of the most insane movies ever) and I am trying desperately to resist the urge to fall into the rabbit hole.

[mr.negativity]

[Jinzo Ningen]

Growing up in the 70's, I was lucky enough to have a couple of local stations with hosts. Both out of Detroit.

Sir Graves Ghastly was my first & foremost "go-to" guy for decent (mostly Universal b&w monster) movies, ripe with the usual spooky host shtick package. The Ghoul was the other one, (still active today!), who ran Saturday nites on UHF station TV50; (God, do I miss those days!). Later on in the early 80's we had a late-runner, in the form of Count Scary. He did a handful of primetime horror specials, including an awesome 3D airing of Gorilla At Large, back when that fade was trying to make a comeback. Count Scary even had one special where he and The Ghoul had a "who's the best horror host?" battle/contest, while airing Night of The Living Dead. Lots of great, groan-inducing memories.

Of course, for 80's late-comers there was also the Goodtimes Video VHS party tape "HORRIBLE HORRORS" that was hosted by 'Cool Ghoul' Zacherly. (This tape recently got a nice re-issue as an extended Special Edition on DVD.) Another cool hoster nugget.

[lhb412]

[mr.negativity]

Hosted by Gilbert Gottfried & Rhonda Shear.

[O.Supreme]

Living in California all my life, my father indoctrinated me with Creature Features (RIP Bob Wilkins) and later-John Stanley. Heck, my dad was ON the show twice in the mid-70's. Its funny I moved to Sacramento as a teen and didn't know until much later he actually started in Sacramento, before moving and doing split duties between Sacramento and San Francisco. Unfortunately as was common, most of those shows were taped over as they were reused extensively before film became less expensive (and now everything is digital of course)...Still I have obtained a few DVD's and clips of shows over the years, mostly thanks to the retired John Stanley who was able to obtain some of his stuff, also to August Ragone, who was very close with Bob Wilkins way back when. Also Bob was one of the few horror hosts who also doubled as a show for kids (Captain Cosmic) host. This is how I was introduced to Ultraman, Spectreman, and Space Giants...ahh good times.

[mr.negativity]

[lhb412]

^ At 30 years old is that the oldest article you've linked to? I wanna see some contemporary reviews of 1930s Universal Monster movies!

[mr.negativity]

[lhb412]

I stand before you a man humbled...

[DannyBeane]

A friend of mine interviewed Joe Bob Briggs and wrote a fun article https://25yearslatersite.com/2018/06/13 ... ob-briggs/

[The Shadow]

I remember Elvira, mostly from her other appearances; I was too young to watch her show when it was on. The only regular horror host I watched was Joe Bob Briggs on TNT's Monstervision, I was older and could stay up late Saturday nights; I was disappointed when Monstervision went hostless, it was never quite the same. I do remember Grandpa Munster on TBS Super Scary Saturdays, but I'm not sure how often I could watch -- by the time it was on my family was frequently on a weekly trip somewhere (to the mall, maybe see a movie, etc. I grew up on military bases so the trips were for things not necessarily available on base).

[Gwangi]

I didn't have cable in the 90s. So I am afraid I have to go back to the 1970s, and for us in Southern California, it was the one and only Sinister Seymour (Larry Vincent). Seen locally here on both KHJ Channel 9, and then later on KTLA Channel 5. However, I don't recall if he ever played a Godzilla movie (or any kaiju films for that matter). When he was at KTLA, that was the home of the Universal horror and sci-fi features, so of course, those would be shown aplenty.



Sadly, he passed away from cancer in 1975, and come to think of it, his was the first celebrity death that affected me. It was truly shocking to hear that he died (I heard it from my uncle who gleefully told me, as he despised monster movies!).

[lhb412]

[Gwangi]

Trust me. He was just one of several relatives who loathed Godzilla movies and creature features in general. Luckily, my folks were very tolerant of my love for G-films and the other related features, eventhough my mom, to this date, refuses to see anything with fangs in it!