“The stroke of twelve…and there is one thing of which I am certain: For the next two hours we will be much, much safer in here than those of you watching from out there.”
The lines above come from the opening intro of a public access show that comes on every Friday night here called World of the Weird Monster Show with hosts Undead Johnny and Dementia. The production is low, the jokes are corny, and the acting stiff, but I still do love it. This week was a repeat of their Halloween episode from last year when the night’s feature was Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, which was also being shown on Turner Classic Movies as part of Rob Zombie’s Underground Movie series. And while I’m sure the print from TCM was far superior, I’ll take my version from Undead Johnny. Below is a photo of Undead Johnny which I took straight off the TV screen on the first night after discovering the show (the movie that night was the horrible Fangs of the Living Dead).
At the end of each show, Undead Johnny declares that “everyday is Halloween”. Check out the Myspace page too!
On Saturday nights, there is another local spook show called Svengoolie that comes on WCIU Chicago. The production on this one is a lot better (everyone is actually mic’d up!) and the jokes are actually funny sometimes. At the end of the show, for whatever reason, the legendary host Svengoolie is assaulted with rubber chickens as he returns to his casket.
The history of the Svengoolie character actually goes back thirty-six years! Check it out.
Wow, that brings back memories. I used to watch Svengoolie growing up in Peoria. His Halloween shows are particularly great. Do they still make fun of Berwyn?
Here’s another Chicago-Halloween treat… Jan Terri performing “Get Down Goblin” — check it out: http://grouper.com/video/MediaDetails.aspx?id=1550829&ml=o%3d7%26fr%3d1551010%26fx%3d
Comment by John Hacker-Wright — October 17, 2006 @ 12:23 pm
YES! i think the local TV there just MAKES the move!
Comment by Jennifer F — October 17, 2006 @ 2:51 pm
Thanks for the link John. That was hilarious!
Comment by Hayden — October 17, 2006 @ 4:22 pm
Actually…our jokes are stiff and our acting is corny, but I’ll let it slide :) Stumbled across your blog while doing a random check of where people came to our site from.
Welcome to Chicagoland! And I’m glad you like the show. Hey, watching our Bride over Rob Zombie’s? I’m touched. Esp as that episode wasn’t even that great, lol. And you thought “Fangs of the Living Dead” was terrible? Well…okay, guess I can’t argue with you on that one. But you’ve got “El Santo vs Dracula Y Hombre Lobo” coming up to look forward to.
But thanks for watching and spreading the word!
Everyday is Halloween (and especially today!)
Undead Johnny
PS: loved the pics of the Stormtroopers at the Bear’s game.
Comment by Undead Johnny — October 31, 2006 @ 4:16 am