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Growing up with local TV channels showcasing sci fi/horror/fantasy movies


Zathras
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Yesterday, I received a book I purchased from Amazon titled The World Beyond: Science Fiction and Horror films on KPHO-TV5.  As some of you may know, I live in Phoenix, and lived here almost all my life.  I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, and KPHO was a local channel that aired the eponymous World Beyond film showcase, specializing in what we now refer to as cult classic sci fi, fantasy, and horror films.  This ranged from Godzilla, to Hammer films, and Roger Corman films, as well as other 1950s-1980s B movies.  The show was shown at about 10:30 AM on Saturdays.  Now, I didn't grow up well off and for much of my childhood we didn't have cable. This was also during  a time before even VHS video stores were everywhere, let alone DVDs or streaming, so this was formative in my tastes in cult classic films.   By the 1980s we started seeing cable shows similar to local film showcases like Elvira, USA Up all night, or even Mystery Science Theater 3000, which replaced the local shows.  

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else grew up on local TV channels that showcased cult classic sci fi/horror/fantasy, and what are your favorite memories of such shows.  What films made a large impact on your later movie tastes, and you in general?  If you are comfortable sharing where you grew up, please include the town and the station and show you grew up on.

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I wish I could recall the name of the host, but we had one in Seattle that was very much int he Elvira/Vampira vein. It was very low budget and also very kiddie, but i can't remember much else. Elvira of course won once I had cable, along with Up All Night, and Night Flights. I remember Joe Bob Briggs hitting when I was in high school, and he's making a comeback currently, but I never got his appeal.

I always loved the original Fright Night for taking one of these hosts and throwing them into a real horror situation.

 

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Yeah, I would watch Elvira at my friends' house, or mine when we finally did have cable.  There were other local shows on the local (then UHF) channel 15.  I can't remember the guy's name, but he was like a low budget ripoff version of Alice Cooper.  That show was on a few years, but was yanked once cable became a dominating thing in the mid-late 1980s.  

 

And yeah, the original Fright Night with Roddy McDowell was awesome, as Peter Vincent (a combo of Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, now doubt).  And Marcy Darcy from Married with Children LOL!

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I grew up in Northwest Montana. Our town didn’t get cable until around 1982. We had to watch local channels from Spokane Washington and 1 channel out of Kalispell Montana.  One of the Spokane channels would broadcast classic movies on Saturday afternoon. Some of my favorites were Rodan vs. Godzilla, Abott and Costello vs. (insert Dracula, Mummy, Werewolf here) 20,000 leagues Under the Sea. I miss seeing those old movies.

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We didn’t have anything like that where I grew up. The closest was a local Columbus station airing Star Trek, and later TNG, right before they stopped broadcasting for the night. We had a tiny portable TV that I would sneak and watch whenever I could, but most of the time I fell asleep waiting for my parents to go to bed.

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