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Post by Sixties TV on Aug 6, 2006 3:19:52 GMT -5
Jeff, your comments are invaluable. Thanks for sharing them. I got a laugh out of your mom basically telling you that you were lucky that you missed "The Thing" because it gave a friend of yours nightmares. What was great about your story was you envied your friend. "Why does he get to have the nightmares. Why didn't you wake me up, Mom?" Good stuff.
I too remember sometimes waking up during the second feature of Terror in the Night. Seems like I would often awake to see a gigantic monster demolishing a city. As cheesy as some of those Japanese dubbed films look today, they scared me to death as a kid.
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Post by Jeff Easley on Aug 17, 2006 9:15:29 GMT -5
One of the great things about seeing these movies in the early 60's as an 8-9 yr. old was that every movie was a total surprise.Many of the movies were only 5 or 6 years old and I had never heard of them."Famous Monsters of Filmland"magazine wasn't sold anywhere in Nicholasville,though a precious issue occasionally sifted down to me via a cousin in Lexington who had access to the Fayette Cigar Store newstand.So every title announced was a total clean slate ,oozing with potential.You never knew if you would get a low budget but solid little flick,like"The Werewolf",or a bona fide classic like"Forbidden Planet".And there were a number of duds,like"The Brighton Strangler" or"Bedlam".I should point out that I'm defining "dud" in the eyes of a 9 yr. old boy,which is to say,no cool MONSTERS!
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Post by Jeff Easley on Nov 22, 2006 0:39:40 GMT -5
I loved reading the article by Nick Clooney with his recollections of filming "Terror in the Night".I do recall how frequently at the end of a segment he would yank his face off camera,and the resulting"smear" effect.Cool!But I was a bit puzzled by his mentioning that they would reverse the black and white image.I'm very sure my recollection of a very out of focus face underlit by bright light against a black background is correct.Am I right?I have cherished 45 year old memories at stake here!
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Post by Jeff Easley on Jan 5, 2007 11:44:34 GMT -5
Here is a very trivial piece of trivia,but if I can put a smile on just ONE persons face.... For a while during the very early years of "Terror in the Night",just before Nick Clooney's face appeared,Weber sausage ran a commercial.For a long while it was such a reliable precursor to "Terror..."I almost considered it part of the show.They ran a jingle that went like this:"Somethin's specials waitin' made from ham,pork chops,and bacon...Weber's sausage is what we mean,made on the farm from pork that's lean....Best tastinest sausage yet,Weber's sausage..MMMhhhhmmmm!....You bet!".During the jingle we see a farm wife serving up sausage to her hubby,played by an actor who vaguely resembled the late country comic,"Stringbean".They looked like they fell off a Mountain Dew bottle.Mr. Dentally Challenged himself vocalized the "MMMhhhmmm" during the jingle.I remember it in black and white...don't know if it was shot as such because we had a black and white set at that time. So there...thought I would set that down for posterity.
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Post by Gene Doyle on Oct 17, 2007 15:26:48 GMT -5
I have connections to both "Terror In The Night" and "Thriller 18". I was the Art Director that replaced Jerry Hellard at WKYT when he left the station in 1968. The station had just been purchased by Garvice Kinkaid's Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company, which poured money into upgrading the stations cameras, transmitter, and other equipment for full color broadcasting. Paul Warnecke, the Production Manager at that time, became the new host of "Terror In The Night" when Nick Clooney left the organization. Paul's "Terror In The Night" on-air name was "The Mad Doctor" and asked me to play the part of "Igor" his assistant. We dressed the stage with scientific-looking apparatus including beakers filled with dry ice which made them appear to "boil" and overflow with sinister chemical smoke. We created a new opening for the show using model terrain that looked like a grave yard with a victorian-style casket that mysteriously opened, from which the show title "Terror In The Night" flowed out like a ghostly apparition. This opening would dissolve into The Mad Doctor and Igor in the "laboratory". The Mad Doctor and Igor would appear in comedy skits before each commercial break. Each show had a theme, usually revolving around what was happening in Lexington during the week, a football or basketball game, horse racing, Halloween, etc. The funniest bit was how the show ended each week—Igor always found a way to get The Mad Doctor to say "IGOR!...LET ME HAVE IT!" and when he did, Igor would hit him in the face with a cream pie. After which, The now pie-faced Mad Doctor would hold up two fingers (the 60's Peace Sign) and say to the audience "Rest in peace". He would then fall backwards out of the frame. An interesting point is, Paul and I always wrote our comedy skits over lunch, just before we taped the show. These lunchtime collaborations were the highlight of our week and often resulted in some really hilarious skits. Working on writing, producing, and acting on "Terror In The Night" was more fun than I can relate and is one of my fondest memories during the time that I was involved with the show from 1968 to 1971 when the program ended. Regarding "Thriller 18", I the Animator who produced the show's opening while I was the Art Director of WLEX from 1967 to 1968. At the time, no one locally had ever tried drawing and filming an animated opening for any local TV show (as far as I know.) I initiated doing the animation in my spare time, in between my regular Art Director duties at the station, by building my own animation apparatus, then drawing and painting the cells. Since no one locally had ever done anything like it before, it was a trial and error method on my part, but surprisingly, it worked like a charm. The animation was only ten seconds long and looked like a knife cutting a slash across the screen from which "blood" poured down to create the letters "Thriller 18". In the years that followed, I developed my animation skill further, creating animated film openings for various shows on WKYT and eventually doing fully animated TV commercials for General Electric, Long John Silvers, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Webber Farms, Heublien International, the American Dairy Association, and more. Most of these were done while I was the Creative Director of Gig Henderson Advertising from late 1971 to 1979. These stories are just the beginning. I have many more stories I could relate about local television in the sixties, if you would like to hear them.
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Post by jeff easley on Nov 16, 2007 17:44:55 GMT -5
Hi Gene, I would absolutely love to hear any stories you'd care to tell.I just can't figure out how I never saw the later incarnation of "Terror..."with the cool opening and breaks and such that you and others describe.Granted I was in high school by then.If I got "too cool"for that sort of thing,at least I got over it eventually!I've ever thought of using a video camera and trying to phony up a version of the original opening to tack on to the beginning of the old movies I have on vhs.But I digress... PLEASE share your stories with us..you're responsible for some of our fondest childhood memories!
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Post by Kymberly King on Apr 16, 2008 6:07:47 GMT -5
Hey I remember Terror in the Night. I used to watch the show when my brothers and sisters would spend the night at my grandmothers house in Mt. Sterling.
I recall one show where a paper clip bit a man.
I was only about six or seven when I used to watch. My uncles thought it was the best show ever!!
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Post by Sixties TV on Apr 16, 2008 11:12:27 GMT -5
Kymberly, thanks for sharing your memories of Terror in the Night. Are any of those Uncles available to share their thoughts as well?
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Post by Kymberly L King on Apr 25, 2008 11:14:15 GMT -5
Hi again,
sorry it has taken so long to post a reply.
'Oh yes, my uncles are all still living that watched Terror in the night, several cousins as well. gosh we loved that show.
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Post by Nobs on Dec 17, 2008 15:02:39 GMT -5
To the person asking about the wrestling program he used to watch after "Terror In The Night" on WKYT, I've got some background info. It ran around 1973, and was produced by what was then WDXR-TV, Channel 29 in Paducah. The station was an independent with a package of movies, sports, reruns and maybe a local show or two. The announcer was "Buzz" Benson, who I guess worked in Paducah at the time. It was a pretty cheesy show, but what the hey...late at night on a Saturday with stations signing off at 2 am then...it was something on the tube. WDXR-TV wasn't successful, and soon went off the air. KET got a hold of the frequency, and today Channel 29 is KET's (analog) Paducah transmitter. Last I heard, "Buzz" Benson was working at WAMB (AM) in the Nashville area, which was in the 1990's a Big Band station. Funny about "Terror In The Night"...I remember the days Nick Clooney did the show in glorious black-and-white. I always thought he did the effect on his face with just a flashlight underneath his chin. Whatever it was, it worked, and scared the wits out of me. Great website. By the way, is Kymberly L. King a newspaper reporter in Owingsville? Have fun, Y'all, Nobs
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Post by Henry on Dec 19, 2008 8:56:29 GMT -5
Great comments Nobs. Those were the days, announcer - Buzz Benson, Leaping Lanny, stuttering Sweet Daddy Watts, and the immortal Buddy Hack. Buddy was the only wrestler I can remember that wore a white T-shirt (with full sleeves) while wrestling. I also recall Buzz Benson, the announcer, getting in the ring and wrestling. Jim Shaw took over after Buzz left for Nashville.....where he came from I believe. Nobs, I enjoyed your work in Dracula. Photo of announcer Buzz Benson introducing The Sheik
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Post by Chuck Cantrell on Mar 1, 2009 19:33:59 GMT -5
I lived in Barbourville, Ky when I was a kid (now live in MN), and I looked forward to watching Terror in the Night every weekend. I would get a bunch of junk food, then out all the lights in the house, and while everyone else was in bed I would watch these classics. I still have vivid and fond memories of doing this. I also enjoyed Thriller 18 as well. Those were the days.
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Post by Jeff Easley on May 3, 2010 10:50:00 GMT -5
I haven't visited this board in a while and feel compelled to leave a current post of some sort.This info may be of interest to "Terror in the Night" fans.I suspect many readers were also fans of the magazine"Famous Monsters of Filmland",which enjoyed it's heyday in the mid 60's.The magazine is about to undergo it's 3rd incarnation and a convention is being held in Indianapolis this summer(2010).It would be an easy drive for Louisvillians.I don't have exact info,but a google search should prove fruitful.
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Post by Boober409 on Jul 26, 2014 12:39:17 GMT -5
This doesn't exactly pertain to terror in the night, but in the 60's there was a late night movie show and the theme was an instrumental version of Stardust, does that ring any bells?
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Post by Annie Ryan on Oct 17, 2015 0:26:29 GMT -5
Does channel 27 have any of the film footage of the opening.. how Iloved this show.. I would beg my parents to let me stay up late so that I could watch it ...
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