"... and you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I'm Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!"
On Saturday mornings as a little kid, these were the words I would anxiously wait to hear. For those of you who don't know, the above quote was a catchphrase the immortally cool Don Cornelius would use to end his television program Soul Train...
...and when I was 5 years old hearing it meant only one thing. It meant it was time for Chiller Diller. Chiller Diller was a Creature Features-style television program that aired on KTVU Channel 2 in the 1970s...
...and it played a huge role in my meticulously planned Saturday schedule at that time.
When I was a kid my Saturdays usually went as follows:
I would often get up early and stuff my face with a heaping bowl of Captain Crunch, followed by a nice helping of cartoons. 'Challenge of the Super-Friends' was my personal favorite but I was also partial to Thundar the Barbarian (God I miss Saturday morning cartoons!). Soon enough the rest of my family took over the living room television to watch sports. Everyone in my family loved sports. I was outvoted. Sports bored me to tears. I've learned to appreciate it now but back then every game looked the same. So after my banishment from the living room I would move into the kitchen area over by the sliding glass door, where we had our old black and white television set up and a small couch. I would turn it on, put on Channel 2, and for some reason it always seemed to be during the last 10 minutes of Soul Train. So I'd patiently wait for Mr. Cornelious' aforementioned famous catchphrase, sit through a couple of commercials then kick back on the little couch and watch the opening credits to Chiller Diller.
It featured a clip of music from the movie 'Goldfinger'...
...played over a scene of two grave robbers crossing a creepy old cemetery, (it was years later that I realized this was the opening scene from 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman'.) Then the words CHILLER DILLER would bleed through as the deep baritone voice of the KTVU announcer would break in.
"Welcome to Chiller Diller, todays movie is (insert horror movie title here)"
And I would know I was in for a real treat if he followed this up with "Viewer discretion is advised" because back then most local channels didn't bother to edit movies. When they warned you about content they meant it.
And for the next two hours I was transfixed. Sometimes the movie would be too scary and I'd have to hide with my eyes peaking over the bar that separated the kitchen from this little TV area we had made. Chiller Diller tended to show a lot of the Hammer Horror films. Stuff like 'Curse of Frankenstein' and 'Horror of Dracula' - which reminds me of something. For most people when you think of Dracula this is the image that comes to mind...
No way. For me when you mention Dracula this is what comes to mind...
The Monstrous Movie was another scary movie themed show that aired on KBHK Channel 44. It eventually became Son of Svengoolie...
...which was a wonderful show that still has a very strong cult following (just check out all the YouTube postings).
For the most part, the stuff they showed on Monstrous Movie/Svengoolie was along the lines of the old Universal horror flicks, so it was a little easier for me to sit through a whole movie without hiding.
The movie would end at 4 o'clock and unless the Abbott and Costello movie that followed had a monster in it I'd go outside to play for another couple hours before being called in for dinner.
At 8 o'clock another scary movie show would start on Channel 44. This one was called Shock Theater...
...this show played a lot of the old Roger Corman stuff. I remember this was usually the show we'd watch as a family. I have a very vivid memory of watching Vincent Price in The House of Wax for the first time on Shock Theater.
Then it was bath time and off to bed when the movie was over, where I would pretend to go to sleep. I'd listen for my parents to go to bed (which was usually right after the news) at which point I would listen for my dad's snoring before sneaking out into my little TV room in the kitchen area where I would turn the old black and white back on and end the day back on Channel 2. Because it was time for the one and only Creature Features with Bob Wilkins!!
And if the movie wasn't too scary (and I'll admit, sometimes it was) I would end my night watching my 4th consecutive scary movie. I didn't sleep all that much when I was 5 and I probably had no business watching some of the stuff I was watching. But the way I look at it is this, it was a different time, and a different place, and sometimes I think I'd give just about anything to go back there. Even if it's just to visit.
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