Thursday, October 26, 2017

TMP Television Edition: Horror


Happy final Thursday of October to you. Since it the last Thursday, that means Thursday Movie Picks is headed to the small screen. And in the infinite wisdom of our host, Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, the topic for this week is TV horror. Believe it or not, my hands are tied pretty good on this one. I know horror series are all the rage all over the small screen and have been for the better part of this decade. The fact of the matter is I just don't watch them. My daughter is into stuff that should be popular today, like Stranger Things and American Horror Story. Me? I've very rarely watched any shows that could qualify as horror yet, somehow, I've come up with three. And two of them are on the funny side. At any rate, here they are...

The Twilight Zone
(1959-64)
Rather than an ongoing series following a single set of characters, this is an anthology where each episode is unrelated to any other save for creator and Rod Serling setting up and closing each one. The only other thing in common was that every episode was twisted and creepy. Oh, one more thing - the eeriest theme song in the history of television.


The Munsters
(1964-66)
When noting their day-to-day activities, The Munsters, who live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, seem like a regular American family. Dad Herman is a hard-working bloke. Lily is his devoted wife who stays home and cares for their son Eddie. Adult niece Marilyn and Lily's dad, affectionately known as Grandpa, also live with them. Of course, they're anything but normal. Herman is, for all intents and purposes, Frankenstein's monster while Lily and Grandpa are vampires. Eddie is some combination of the two. Only Marilyn appears "normal." I had loads of fun as a kid watching this in syndication.


The Addams Family
(1964-66)
This series had its original run during the same two seasons as that of the similarly-themed The Munsters. In this case, the patriarch is the wealthy and eccentric Gomez. His wife is Morticia. The rest of the clan is rounded out by their son Pugsley, daughter Wednesday, Grandmama Addams, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Cousin Itt, and of course, Thing, the disembodied hand that tends to do its own...um...thing. You're probably aware that in the early 1990s, two successful movies were released based on this series.





18 comments:

  1. I've never seen these shows but you can't go wrong with them. They're pretty much standards. I took a more conventional approach as it relates to modern horror.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are definitely standards. If you ever stumble across these on TV, I encourage you to stop and check it out.

      Delete
  2. I've seen all of your picks, just not all the way through. The Munsters used to be on Nick and Nite so I think I watched that one the most. I remember the Addams Family movies from the 90's a bit better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah...I "think" I've seen the entirety of all of them, but they're from the era long before binge-watching was even possible, lol. Sadly, I still haven't watched The Addams Family movies. I kinda need to do that.

      Delete
  3. I've only seen a few episodes of the Addams Family and I liked them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOVE The Twilight Zone and The Munsters, which are both always wonderful to run across while flipping through the channels. Somehow I never caught any Addams Family episodes, though. Which is a shame since I loved the '90s movies with Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, and Christina Ricci, and the subsequent Saturday morning cartoon version.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm the complete opposite. I love the series, but I've never seen either The Addams Family movie nor Saturday morning cartoon.

      Delete
  5. Love all your choices to varying degrees! Starting backwards The Munsters was one I watched infrequently, I just though it was on the dumb side but I thought both Fred Gwynne and Yvonne de Carlo, LOVE her, were very good in their roles.

    Again I wasn't a committed Addams Family watcher but moreso than the Munsters. It was a better show with smarter scripts and off the charts chemistry between John Astin and Carolyn Jones, ADORE her-one of the best most underappreciated actresses around.

    But The Twilight Zone is in a class of its own, so many episodes that I could name as favorites! I tend to think of it as more sci-fi than horror but there were definitely horrifying situations in many and flat out horror some weeks. It is a show that I'll usually stop and watch if I run across.

    This was an easier week and my picks include a Rod Serling show as well just not the same one.

    Dexter (2006-2013)-Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is a highly respected blood splatter expert with the Miami police department. He seems a little odd and secretive but his co-workers including his sister Deb know that in his past he had some traumatic experiences so they allow him some space. Thing is Dexter has a sideline that keeps him pretty busy off hours…he’s a serial killer who only pursues the evilest of men & women and disposes of them without a trace. Dark, dark comedy that intermingles gallows humor with gore, its absurdist viewpoint is greatly enhanced by Hall’s performance in the lead.

    Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975)-Weathered persnickety Chicago newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) seems to have a real knack for stumbling across bizarre often ritualistic seeming deaths. Turns out that’s because Chicago is apparently a hotbed for every sort of supernatural being, witches, vampires, zombies etc. imaginable. Kolchak usually get to the bottom of each case but somehow can never quite make a believer out of his editor Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). One season series originated with two highly rated TV movies (the first earned a 54 share!), was stacked with familiar faces and had a twisty sense of humor mixed with its horror. The studio however never quite figured out how to market it and buried in a bad time slot.

    Night Gallery (1970-1973)-Second anthology series by Rod Serling isn’t quite the masterpiece The Twilight Zone was but had many original memorable episodes. Unlike the original this usually contained two or even three shorter vignettes that leaned more often towards horror and the supernatural than science fiction. Thought neither as well-known nor as critically respected as the first it did create several famous episodes including “Green Fingers”, “The Diary”, They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar”, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow”, “Caterpillar” and “Whisper” starring a very young Sally Field among others. Originated with a TV movie that provided Steven Spielberg with his first directing gig in an episode starring Joan Crawford.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've not seen one minute of Dexter and never even heard of Kolchak. This is the second sighting I've had today of the latter, so I'm surprised it isn't at least somewhat familiar. As for Night Gallery, I remember watching a few episodes back in the day, but can't recall anything about them, other than not being particularly thrilled by them.

      Delete
  6. I loved the old Twilight Zone! It was wonderfully creepy in an understated way.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Never seen these apart from a few Twilight Zone episodes, but they all sound fun! I do love classic horror/comedies like Arsenic and Old Lace, so I'll probably check them out at some point, especially The Addams Family.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are lots of fun. Goofy fun, in the case of the two sitcoms, but fun nonetheless. Thanks for stopping by.

      Delete
  8. Love your picks and so glad you chose The Munsters which I loved! It was such a fun and sweet comedy. The Adam’s Family was also fun but I liked it just a little less than The Munsters. The Twilight Zone is o e of the best series TV ever! I am rewatching the episodes since they are on the Sci-Fi channel. I am surprised at how many I don’t remember seeing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm probably in the same boat as far as my memory goes. It truly is a classic, though.

      Delete
  9. I don't think I've seen The Munsters. The Addams family yes, I saw it a lot as a kid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting. I was under the assumption that everyone who saw one saw the other.

      Delete