MonsterVision - A Personal History
When asking any fan of classic horror and monster movies about how they became exposed to them, the answer is usually the same; television. From the late 1950’s onward, various television stations across the United States would show these horror blocks, generally with a local horror host who would introduce these movies. As basic cable television began growing in the 1970’s, some networks began syndicating the horror blocks nationwide.
In the early 1990’s, TNT began airing MonsterVision, an all-night marathon of classic horror and monster movies. My memories of MonsterVision are fuzzy since I was around 3-4 years old when it aired in its original form. My grandfather was a heavy TNT watcher at the time, and I can only assume that I became aware of MonsterVision from the awesome promos that would air during the commercial breaks of the shows he would watch. To fill in the gaps of my fuzzy memory, I have relied on James Rolfe from Cinemassacre and his extensive History of TNT’s MonsterVision archive on his website; you can find it here.
MonsterVision usually aired four or five movies in its marathon, starting at eight o'clock pm and ending at either two or four o'clock am. One of the best things about the show was its excellent promotional material.
The “should you be afraid of the dark?” promo always got me excited for MonsterVision. It was a one minute and forty-second montage that would excite, intrigue, and scare the living crap out of me. The narrator always added to the effect, sure looking back today, it borders on cheesy and campy, but at the time, it was legitimately scary to me. I laugh today, looking back because some of the clips that scared me the most were actually from laugh out loud stinkers (Plan 9 anyone?).
Once that intro began on Saturday night, I was ecstatic and on the edge of the couch. The intro would let me know that I was in for a good time. I don’t think I was ever able to stay up for the entire marathon, save for a few Godzilla and giant monster exclusive marathons. Movies that I remember seeing were Clash of the Titans, The Manster, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, The Green Slime, The Thing From Another World (colorized), and The Time Machine to name a select few.
My favorite episodes of MonsterVision by far were their Godzilla and Japanese giant monster marathons. I first saw movies like Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Mothra, and War of the Gargantuas all on Monstervision.
MonsterVision was also where I first heard the song Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult, spliced together with a Godzilla montage and random stats about Godzilla and other monsters that appeared on the screen. I distinctly remember recording the montage and pausing the tape to write down the monster stats in my notebook. For what, I don’t know, but it was important to me at the time.
One thing I do not remember about MonsterVision is the guest host nights that would feature Penn and Teller, Bob Denver, and Jason Alexander as guest hosts for variously themed marathons such as Best of the Worst, Best of the Outer Limits, and Small Titles Big Screams. I do remember a little from when Bob Denver hosted, and the movie was Mysterious Island. If I remember correctly, I changed the channel because it was a break from the conventional MonsterVision format, and I was not a fan of it at the time. As I said before, there are a lot of fuzzy memories concerning MonsterVision. I mostly remember the promotional material and a handful of movies, the clearest memories are those of the feelings of excitement, fear, and wonder that overcame me whenever MonsterVision would start on those Saturday nights.
MonsterVision began airing less frequently in 1994, so I remember it just fading away. I didn’t mind. I was importing the most recent Godzilla movies at the time from Japan, as well as buying the older movies from SunCoast Video, Columbia House, and a local video store; I was well stocked when it came to classic horror and monster movies. I was so caught up in my growing collection of VHS tapes that I had no clue MonsterVision came back in 1996. This time MonsterVision had a permanent face, that of Joe Bob Briggs; Joe Bob had made a name for himself as a host and reviewer of b-movies, cult films, and grindhouse features. MonsterVision also changed formats by showing more modern horror films such as Friday the 13th, Return of the Living Dead, and various others. I had no interest in contemporary horror at the time because I was still discovering classic horror movies outside of the Universal and Turner catalogs. It wasn’t until around 2002 when I began watching more modern horror films like Halloween, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and Dawn of the Dead. By the late 1990’s, AMC (when they were American Movie Classics) was my channel for classic horror, a week-long monster marathon that took up programming the whole last week of October; it was called Monsterfest. But that’s another story for another time.
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