Growing up in the 70's near Terre Haute, Indiana, we only had 2 and then finally 3 local television stations that we could watch. The local CBS, NBC and then eventually ABC affiliates we full of typical boring (well like the Bionic man and Happy Days were cool for a while) network shows.
However, when the weather was just right, and there wasn't an IU basketball game on, and Mom and Dad would let us stay up late, my younger brother and I would get blankets and pillows and lay on the floor late on Friday nights and tune in to WTTV 4 the independent TV network on Bluff Road in Indianapolis. On Friday nights we would watch Sammy Terry's Nightmare Theatre and then on Saturday night we would tune in to Science Fiction Theatre.
The first time I got to stay up late enough to watch Sammy, I had to go to the basement to watch because our TV was in the same room that mom and dad slept in....go figure, I fell asleep before it even started! But the next week I managed to stay awake and what an experience! I got to see the original Universal Studios Werewolfe! And Sammy? Why he scared the livin crap out of me! I was hooked!
As the years went on and we grew up and our interests changed, Sammy Terry faded from our radar screens. Those late nights (after getting home from the roller skating rink) laying on the floor hiding our eyes with the covers and constantly being told turn the TV down faded into memories.
Recently, while browsing the internet I noticed a website for an internet horror movie with a host similar to Sammy....needless to say, thousands of memories came flooding back to me and as I searched further I learned that there were still people out there
hosting those old scary movies!
But I also realized that sadly, there are a whole generation of kids now that have never got to see those old creepy movies, they don't know what it's like to watch a scary old black and white film hoping to get to see the end before the thunderstorm that is brewing outside forces them to turn off the TV and unplug it from the wall. (Anyone remember having to do that?)
I began to plan and plot and realized that I had the means at my very fingertips to bring back those days. Many of the old movies I watched on my family room floor are in the public domain now and I have a cam-corder and there's all kinds of free resources out there.
The only thing to do was to become a 21st Century Sammy Terry!
And so, here I am....reviewing horror movies, and classic Sci-Fi flicks and putting together a show that you, as parents, can get your kids together in front of the computer and have some real *clean* fun while watching a movie that you mighta seen as a kid.
I hope this labor brings back some memories and perhaps forms some new ones in impressionable minds....the movies are old, but they are carefully screened and will always be family friendly and most of all fun! (sometime scarry too!) There won't be graphic violence (not too much) nuditiy? nah! but also there won't be computer graphic animation and billion dollar special effects! These movies are old school! I really hope you enjoy!
E-mail me with comments and suggestions!
Sincerely,
Dr. Sigmund Zoid
