Feb 2018
I'm not terribly familiar with a lot of them, because I rarely catch anything I watch on a program that would be hosted by horror-themed character, but you gotta love the effort.
Elvira was popular enough to spawn a charming b-movie about her inhereting a haunted house. She's still going, but I've heard on and off again things about her retiring. I guess she can't get enough of it.
I don't know anything about Vampira, whom Elvira was based on, besides what I've seen in the movie "Ed Wood".
Svengoolie is based in Chicago, which is close to where I grew up, but surprisingly, I've never seen much of him.
I think a favorite of many people is Joe Bob Briggs from Monster-Vision. Again, I've never seen that show, but I know Joe Bob from a few dvd commentaries, and for his scene in 'Casino'. I also gotta love the man for liking Texas Chainsaw 4. There is talk of bringing this show back.
Who else is there...
John Kassir played the Crypt-Keeper for many years, and that show was great. They're still trying to bring that one back, but without a crypt-keeper?
Of course, Freddy Krueger also hosted a decent anthology series, too. Maybe by these standards, you can also count Alfred Hitchcock as a host, if he "presents" so many stories.
Thoughts on horror hosts? Who's your favorite? Who am I missing?
Elvira was popular enough to spawn a charming b-movie about her inhereting a haunted house. She's still going, but I've heard on and off again things about her retiring. I guess she can't get enough of it.
I don't know anything about Vampira, whom Elvira was based on, besides what I've seen in the movie "Ed Wood".
Svengoolie is based in Chicago, which is close to where I grew up, but surprisingly, I've never seen much of him.
I think a favorite of many people is Joe Bob Briggs from Monster-Vision. Again, I've never seen that show, but I know Joe Bob from a few dvd commentaries, and for his scene in 'Casino'. I also gotta love the man for liking Texas Chainsaw 4. There is talk of bringing this show back.
Who else is there...
John Kassir played the Crypt-Keeper for many years, and that show was great. They're still trying to bring that one back, but without a crypt-keeper?
Of course, Freddy Krueger also hosted a decent anthology series, too. Maybe by these standards, you can also count Alfred Hitchcock as a host, if he "presents" so many stories.
Thoughts on horror hosts? Who's your favorite? Who am I missing?
TJ and the Ant was great. It was on every night, not just Saturday. Friday or Saturday, I forget which, he'd do an all-night marathon of horror movies until 5 or 6 am. TJ was Doug Heim, a station engineer, and ANT was All Night Theatre. He showed other movies besides horror sometimes, and really managed to dig up some obscure ones. Some of them are not listed anywhere and I've never been able to find them again. Lots of old RKO horror movies and lots of British oddities. Heim also did a kids' game show called Barney's Clubhouse Pow in the afternoon. Kids would call in on the phone and yell "pow" as an Atari-like screen was on the TV and balls would shoot at some cowboy type character. If they hit it a certain number of times they'd win something.
Rick Felski's show was Shock Theater. He had an on-air name but I can't remember it. He had corpse paint and a funny hat. I think Dita Von Teese looks like a cross between him and Rod Stewart. He showed a lot of odd movies too that I never saw anywhere else. Two of them were Graveyard of Horror and Nightstar: Goddess of Electra.