36 late Sunday horror
(actual title forgotten)
KGSC-TV 36 (Now KICU), San Jose
1971 - 1975
10:00 pm and later / Sunday
When local horror movie boom was at full tilt in the early 1970s, a good weekend could get pretty full. Things started on Friday nights with The Ghoul and after that, a couple of AIP films. Saturday night there could be two or three movies hosted by Bob Wilkins, and a Charlie Chan movie with Geoff Wong. You could usually see a Peplum or a Mexican horror film in the afternoons, and oddball titles crept in during the all-night slots of at least three different channels.
Then came Sunday. Sunday was a long drought. Nothing on but wrestling, maybe a Peplum in the afternoon if you were lucky.
But around 10:00 pm or so, KGSC-TV would finish things off nicely with this unhosted horror package. It was like a bit of dessert after the huge feast of Friday and Saturday.
The only problem was remembering that it was on! It was a strange day and time for a horror movie show, and I often forgot to check the listing for it. However, that forgetfulness sometimes resulted in a pleasant surprise, when channel surfing would land me on some obscure film when it seemed like the weekend was already over.
I can't for the life of me remember what the show was called, but it had the same name and the same battered title card for its entire run. Based on the TV Guides in my collection, KGSC-Tv began running horror films in this slot some time between May, 1971 and October, 1971, and continued running them until some time between March, 1975 and July, 1975.
At least some of the titles were European horror films, because I remember staying up once to see the Italian Christopher Lee vehicle, CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD. They also ran LAST MAN ON EARTH in that slot at least once.
THE EVIL BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE is available on DVD from Something Weird Video as part of a Starman double bill with ATTACK FROM SPACE. Another Starman double bill, INVADERS FROM SPACE and ATOMIC RULERS OF THE WORLD has also been released by Something Weird. THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE is available on DVD from Synapse Films. It is also the subject of a hilarious Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, available on DVD from Rhino Home Video. (If you're buying it to watch the film, the Synapse version is by far the best edition of this title ever seen. Beware of no-frills public domain editions of this excellent monster romp!)
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