MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[Redfern]

WCTV, a CBS affiliate broadcasting for the south Georgia and north Florida region had a "Dr. Speculo" for a few years. Even after the slot was dropped, he appeared at Dragon*Con in character.

Ironically, I never saw the broadcasts themselves, just the host wandering D*Con in full makeup.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^^ There used to be a million of them back in the day. The infamous Vampira, who appeared in Plan 9, was actually the first. Penny Dreadful, who I mentioned above, did a documentary on the Horror Hosts of New England, which is on one of her DVDs.

Maybe we can convince Me-TV to create a genre version of the network?

Yeah, I've wanted that for a long time. Maybe we should start a petition.

They already have a second channel, dedicated just to classic non sci-fi programs.

A third channel couldn't hurt, especially since there's no sci-fi channel any more.

 

[mos6507]

Yeah, I really envy the folks who got Elvira as their movie host...

We in the Boston area got Elvira AND Svengoolie back in the day. Best of both worlds.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Who showed Elvira? Back in the 80s, I was only able to watch her when I was down in Hartford-- at least as far as I knew.

WCTV, a CBS affiliate broadcasting for the south Georgia and north Florida region had a "Dr. Speculo" for a few years. Even after the slot was dropped, he appeared at Dragon*Con in character.

He might still be around. Some of these folks switched to online.

They already have a second channel, dedicated just to classic non sci-fi programs.

A third channel couldn't hurt, especially since there's no sci-fi channel any more.

MeTV has two channels? I wasn't aware of that either.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^^ Who showed Elvira? Back in the 80s, I was only able to watch her when I was down in Hartford-- at least as far as I knew.

WCTV, a CBS affiliate broadcasting for the south Georgia and north Florida region had a "Dr. Speculo" for a few years. Even after the slot was dropped, he appeared at Dragon*Con in character.

He might still be around. Some of these folks switched to online.

They already have a second channel, dedicated just to classic non sci-fi programs.

A third channel couldn't hurt, especially since there's no sci-fi channel any more.

MeTV has two channels? I wasn't aware of that either.

With all the digitals [confusing], they have several, but Ch.23 is MeTV, Ch.26 is The U, then there's MeToo, U Too and a bunch of others.

I don't think DISH has all the extras, so I can't be certain what's on all of them.

With all those digitals, I'm surprised they don't have an all sci-fi channel.

 

[Redfern]

WCTV, a CBS affiliate broadcasting for the south Georgia and north Florida region had a "Dr. Speculo" for a few years. Even after the slot was dropped, he appeared at Dragon*Con in character.

He might still be around. Some of these folks switched to online.

That was 20 years ago in the early 90s. I think that "hosted horror" show ran only a couple of years. I don't think he gained the kind of fame others achieved. If I recall, he was actually one of the newscasters and did this schtick on a lark. He likely moved up the ladder and had no time to "goof around" anymore.

But you're right about streaming video services. They have pretty much filled the void left by the dwindling numbers of public access TV stations. "Wayne's World" nowadays would be a "web-cast".

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The Classic TV channel MeTV has a line-up of Superhero and sci-fi shows that they show every Saturday evening. They include:
The Adventures of Superman (50's George Reeve series)
Batman (60's Adam West series)
Wonder Woman (70's Linda Carter series)
Star Trek TOS (Remastered)
Svengoolie (movies)
Lost in Space
The only things on there I haven't watched are TOS, since I watch it without commercials on Netflix, and Svengoolie.
I've tried a few episodes of LiS, but that is just to cheesy for me.
I have really enjoyed the three DC show though.
Anyone else watching this stuff?

This is what Syfy should be airing for their over night programming. It could be there version of Adult Swim.

Maybe we can convince Me-TV to create a genre version of the network?

Isn't that like what Syfy aired in the old days when everyone wished they were air something new.

That said, I'd love to see them cultivate a night or block of programming like that. Maybe with some fun guest genre hosts and mix in some various shorts, rarities, interstitials and the like.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Indeed, when they started out they had lots of classic shows and movies. Now they have all these goofy reality shows. A channel for new scripted programming and a second channel for classics would be optimum.

With all the digitals [confusing], they have several, but Ch.23 is MeTV, Ch.26 is The U, then there's MeToo, U Too and a bunch of others.

It took a little research, but it appears these are all connected to WCIU in Chicago. MeTV started out as an affiliate or sub-channel or something. MeTV appears to be the only one that offers all Retro all the time, though. There are several other Retro channels around (Cozi, This, etc), but none are exclusively genre.

That was 20 years ago in the early 90s. I think that "hosted horror" show ran only a couple of years. I don't think he gained the kind of fame others achieved. If I recall, he was actually one of the newscasters and did this schtick on a lark. He likely moved up the ladder and had no time to "goof around" anymore.

Unfortunately, you appear to be correct. There is not much about him on the web. When I do a Google search, the fourth hit is this thread.

 

[Christopher]

Does anyone know where I can find a listing of MeTV's schedule for the entire week? Zap2It, where I get my TV listings, has changed its software so that it's no longer possible (as far as I can tell) to get a weeklong schedule for a single specific channel. For some reason, every time they redesign their site, it gets less functional and harder to use.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Sure, MeTV has their schedule on their site, right here.

 

[ElScoob]

In Boston, we had The Ghoul (Ron Sweed-- buy his book), but he was actually syndicated out of Cleveland, because Kaiser Broadcasting owned Channel 56 (it was actually WKBG then). Horror Hosts used to be quite a thing. Elvira, of course, is the most famous. Locally now, we have Penny Dreadful's Shilling Shockers out of West Bridgewater-- my mother used to work at the local cable station where she films. Sadly, her husband, who played a werewolf on the show recently died of cancer, so she's giving it up (she has a website with a lot of cool stuff for sale and she really needs the money these days, so check it out if you're so inclined).

Trivia time--Ron Sweed's "Ghoul" character was lifted, with the original's blessing, from Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson, who was the host of WJW Channel 8's "Shock Theater" in the mid-60s in Cleveland. Anderson left for greener pastures in LA, becoming a huge voice-over talent. We Trek fans will always know Anderson as the voice who boomed "Next time on an all-new STAAAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION" in the next-episode teasers during TNG's original run.

--g

 

[Christopher]

Sure, MeTV has their schedule on their site, right here.

Thanks. Looks like there's not much I'm interested in beyond the Saturday evening stuff, beyond maybe Columbo, but it's worth keeping an eye on for future schedule changes.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ In terms of genre stuff, there's also Thriller, which is a fantastic show. On Saturday morning, they have Green Hornet, and on Sunday morning, they have HR Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost. Their non-genre stuff is not as good, but not bad, especially late night on Sunday. I would especially recommend Route 66 if you haven't seen it; it's wonderfully written and very evocative of the era. Other than that... well, let's just say that I wish they'd bring back Mary Tyler Moore and Love, American Style.

In Boston, we had The Ghoul (Ron Sweed-- buy his book), but he was actually syndicated out of Cleveland, because Kaiser Broadcasting owned Channel 56 (it was actually WKBG then). Horror Hosts used to be quite a thing. Elvira, of course, is the most famous. Locally now, we have Penny Dreadful's Shilling Shockers out of West Bridgewater-- my mother used to work at the local cable station where she films. Sadly, her husband, who played a werewolf on the show recently died of cancer, so she's giving it up (she has a website with a lot of cool stuff for sale and she really needs the money these days, so check it out if you're so inclined).

Trivia time--Ron Sweed's "Ghoul" character was lifted, with the original's blessing, from Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson, who was the host of WJW Channel 8's "Shock Theater" in the mid-60s in Cleveland. Anderson left for greener pastures in LA, becoming a huge voice-over talent. We Trek fans will always know Anderson as the voice who boomed "Next time on an all-new STAAAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION" in the next-episode teasers during TNG's original run.

--g

I think he was the announcer for ABC at the time, too, or perhaps a little earlier in the 70s. Ron Sweed has written a book about The Ghoul, including how he came to be, which is pretty good-- it was actually a few years ago now, but it might still be in print.

 

[Greg Cox]

Tonight on Svengoolie: "The Monster and the Girl."

Possibly the most generic horror movie title ever?

 

[The Old Mixer]

And speaking of Me-TV...there it is in living black and white...the classic bit of Superman shrugging off bullets only to duck when the gun is thrown....

 

[Christopher]

^Yeah, I caught that too. And I could've sworn the villain in that one was Victor Buono, but it was Dan Seymour.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm guessing that radio Superman didn't do a lot of ducking....

 

[Christopher]

Speaking of radio Superman, it threw me in "The Birthday Letter" when Clark was just waiting around helplessly in the chief's office for the cab driver to check in and tell them where he'd dropped off the bad guys. Radio Superman would've gotten a description of the cab, then flown off and searched every cab in the city until he found the right one.

 

[RJDiogenes]

There are a lot of discrepancies in the use of his powers. He seems to remember that he has super hearing only sporadically-- but the whole idea was never extrapolated thoroughly, to say the least.

I recorded The Monster and the Girl. From the reviews I've seen, it should be quite an oddity.

By the way, I was mistaken about Green Hornet. It's on Sunday mornings now. And I also forget to mention that they have The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which is another excellent show.

 

[Christopher]

There are a lot of discrepancies in the use of his powers. He seems to remember that he has super hearing only sporadically-- but the whole idea was never extrapolated thoroughly, to say the least.

Same with x-ray vision. What's interesting about the radio series is that it implied that Clark's x-ray vision was always on -- he saw through objects so routinely and casually that he constantly forgot himself and revealed knowledge of what was on the other side of a door or inside a drawer or pocket before realizing that it would make other people suspicious. (Which makes me wonder what he saw when he looked at Lois...) But most other versions have portrayed it as something he has to make a specific effort to activate.

As for super-hearing, I've just started watching DVDs of The Bionic Woman, and it's occurred to me that I'm going to be asking "Why doesn't she hear that?" a lot. In her debut episode on The Six Million Dollar Man, there was an inconsistent scene where she was using her bionic ear to break into a safe but couldn't hear Steve Austin being captured by the bad guys right outside the door. Although it does seem that her bionic hearing is something she has to consciously turn up the gain on, otherwise she'd constantly be wincing at normal conversations. (I was wondering what the activation trigger was, but she usually brushes her hair aside from her ear with her bionic right arm when she wants to bionic-listen, so maybe there's some sort of proximity trigger between the hand and the ear?) And since it's only in one ear, it'd be pretty directional. Maybe she couldn't hear the fight outside the door because it was on her left.