I just finished watching a piece of fanboy video in the guise of a documentary that had as its' subject matter the rise and demise of the local "horror host." It's called "American Scary," and it's a trip down memory lane.
When I was a kid, my mom plop us in front of the TV for "Monster Week" and the local TV stations would run lots of bad horror movies or monster movies. Oftentimes, my mom would watch with us. The movies themselves were almost always awful, with lousy dialogue and comically bad special effects. Among my favorites were any and all of the "Godzilla" movies and the old Hammer Dracula films which starred Christopher Lee.
As most of you might recall, if you're around my age, we used to ALSO have the "Creature Feature" shows that would run late-night on Fridays or Saturdays, and those were "hosted" by someone dressed in a costume with a cheesy set, etc.
Where I lived, it was Count Gore De Vol, who was also Captain 20 in DC.
But I'm losing my focus, what with all these run-on sentences.
Ever wonder where those guys or gals went?
The easy answer is corporate consolidation. In the late 1980's these local shows were phased out in favor of info-mercials...I mean, if you can make $6,000 for an info-mercial why pay that same $6,000 to put on a silly kid's TV show? Makes sense to me.
But, when you take people out of the world - or out of each other's lives - you lose soul. While it's true that silly Creature Feature shows were often laughably bad, they (and the kid's TV hosts that used to exist) helped create a sense of community, as corny as that sounds. I can remember sending my birthday information to Channel 20 (again, in DC) just to hear Captain 20 wish me a happy birthday, or sending in entries to whatever contest they had going (one year it was "Spin n Win" where you could get an Atari 2600 system and a several games, my brother Tom and I tried to win a bunch of times).
As dumb as all of that sounds, I think it's true in a sense. There's only so much "sameness" people want in their lives. It's why some folks are motivated to keep a McDonalds or Wal Mart out of their town. I think this is true on TV and radio as well. We're inundated with the same crap: Judge shows; the aforementioned info-mercials; the same radio playlists since 1995.......reality TV ad nauseam. Can you feel it? In a world where big media corporations crow about how much choice we have as consumers, it seems there are fewer choices than ever.
OK, now I'm not attempting to argue that America died when the local UHF stations started airing whatever programming they wanted to air. I'm merely lamenting the loss. Yeah, I'm sentimental that way.
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