Complete Creature Feature listings from the years: 1976 and 1977. Near-complete listing of 1978, and additions to 1980 & 1985. Listings courtesy of Lonnie Dohlen. 1985 listing provided by Mark Passmore.
"Shock Theatre" listings dating back to 1965(!) from Dick Bennick's previous network (WGHP-TV in Winston-Salem, North Carolina). Bennick portrayed "Count Shockula", a forerunner of DPB. Bennick moved to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area in 1971; the same year my family did. Listings provided by Lonnie Dohlen.
Additional movie commentaries by Bearerhead Ed Tucker and myself.
An all-new DPB/Count Shockula gallery, mostly featuring photocopies of articles from various Florida and N. Carolina newspapers. Most images courtesy of Lonnie.
An authentic Creature Feature still-store used as a TV "bumper". Graphic provided by Ed Tucker.
New section added: "Saturday Night Frights"; a show hosted by DPB in the mid-'80s. Show info and listing provided by Mark Passmore.
Gallery images of yours truly, featuring: authentic,hand-signed DPB autographs, a vintage photo of my brother and myself posing with DPB at a late '70s/early '80s Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, images of me by DPB's famous (restored) hearse when it was on display at Busch Gardens' "Howl-O-Scream" event on Halloween 2000.
Once again, many thanks to Lonnie Dohlen, Ed Tucker, and Mark Passmore for the info and images they provided for this massive update, and to Nolan for hosting and supporting this great fan resource.
If you'd like to contribute info or images to the Creature Feature/DPB database, please contact Nolan Canova or myself. Thank you for perusing the database - we hope to see it grow much more in the future!
Exporting Sinbad
You know, maybe the reason the Middle East hates our guts is because they feel they're under-represented in our pop culture. Well, I have the solution. Why not export Harryhausen's "Sinbad" adventures to them? I mean, isn't it a positive thing when they see that Americanos have hero-ified an Arab adventurer? They'll see Sinbad as quite the warrior, slaying monsters that occasionally represent religions or nationalities they loathe (such as the 6-armed Buddhist/Hindu "Kali" or the Greek Minotaur & Hydra).
Not sure how they'd feel about seeing Caroline Munro and Jane Seymour in skimpy outfits instead of berkas, but my guess is that if they have any level of testosterone, their tongues would fall out of their mouths in a split-second.
Yeah, I say drop "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" DVD's from the planes instead of leaflets! One session of viewing the Sinbad movies, and they'll be westernized in no time, and will be shouting "Praise be to Allah!" when they see Munro's sweaty cleavage.
Off-Beat Cinema Watch
Just a reminder for Tampa Bay area night owl horrorheads: Off Beat Cinema will be presenting "The Screaming Skull" this Saturday morning (or late Friday, if you will). OBC airs on Sat. 2/5/05 at 3:00am - 5:00am on WTSP Channel 10 (check local listings for station number). Set those VCR's!
New Horror/Fantasy
The new Robert De Niro "supernatural thriller" "Hide and Seek" was #1 at the B.O., taking in an impressive $22 mil. Not bad for a "safe" little horror movie. I guess it's better than having "Are We There Yet?" take the top spot.
Ghost House Pictures' "supernatural thriller" "Boogeyman" starts this Friday. The Raimi-backed studio has built a foundation of specializing in ghost stories, as evidence by last year's successful "The Grudge". Not sure if GHP will be directly involved with the upcoming "re-imagining" of Raimi's classic "The Evil Dead", since ghost stories are short on gore. "Boogeyman" stars that kid from "7th Heaven" (my wife loves that show...). The trailers look okay; I'd rather see it than "Hide and Seek". It can't be better than Ulli Lomell's 1980 shocker.
I just got one my first glimpse of Michael Chiklis as "The Thing" in the new "Fantastic Four" movie. On the quality spectrum of Marvel comics movie adaptations, "The Fantastic Four" is likely to land right in the middle - the equivalent to "X-Men"; with "Spider-Man" being the best and "Daredevil" being the worst. Not sure what they were thinking casting the olive-skinned 'Jessica Alba' as Sue Storm. That makes as much sense as dying Freddie Prinz Jr.'s hair as the blonde Fred in the abominable "Scooby Doo" movies. Guess Hollywood is phasing out fair-skinned blondes in favor of weird cross-ethnic mimicry. They must have got their cues from the tinkering of Betty Crocker's image.
"Oddservations" is ©2005 by Andy Lalino. The Oddservations banner is a creation of Andy Lalino. All other graphics are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2005 by Nolan B. Canova.
