November 26, 1966 Schedule

On Saturday Night, November 26 in 1966 at 11:15PM on KCRA Channel 3, Bob Wilkins showed a couple of good movies. The first movie was "Night Tide"(1961) directed by Curtis Harrington and starring Dennis Hopper. "On leave in a shore side town, Johnnybecomes interested in a young dark haired woman. They meet and he learns that she plays a mermaid in the local carnival. After strange occurences, Johnny begins to believe that she may actually be a real mermaid that habitually kills during the cycle of the full moon." The second movie was an AIP classic called "How To Make A Monster"(1958). "When master monster make up man, Pete is fired by the new bosses of American International studios, he uses his creations (via a new concocted make up formula) to exact revenge." Both movies are available on DVD. If you get "Night Tide", Be sure to get "The Milestone Collection" edition by Image. Excellent quality. Avoid those budget dvd's. As for "How To Make A Monster", Lionsgate has released an alright version of it. Not Bad, But then again, Not Good.

November 19, 1966 Schedule

On Saturday Night, November 19, 1966 on KCRA Channel 3 at 11:30PM, Bob Wilkins showed a double feature of "Return Of The Fly"(1959) and "Invasion Of The Saucer Men"(1957). "Return Of The Fly" was an alright sequel to the classic "The Fly". It was apparently lower budget as while it was widescreen(2.35:1), it was in Black & White not Technicolor and this time The Fly's Head on the human body is about 5 times the size of the original. Vincent Price reprises the same role from the original. The second feature was "Invasion Of The Saucer Men", a classic 50's sci-fi movie about teens tangling with bug eyed aliens. It was remade by Larry Buchanan a decade later in a awful movie called "The Eye Creatures".

November 12, 1966 Schedule

On Saturday Night, November 12, 1966 on KCRA Channel 3 at 11:45PM, Bob showed two excellent horror movies. The first was "The Spider"(1958), an AIP classic directed by Mr. BIG himself, "Bert I. Gordon". It was also known as "Earth Vs. The Spider". "When a man doesn't come home one night, his daughter and her boyfriend go out searching and encounter a giant spider in a cave near the man's wreck." Now it is Bob's second movie that is a true classic.Bob's very first showing of a Universal Classic. I am talking about "The Creature From The Black Lagoon"(1954). "Creature From The Black Lagoon was originally released in movie theaters in 3-D. It is one of a few of the Universal classics to be shown on Bob's KCRA show. The more common and popular Universal Classics like Frankenstein(1931) and Dracula(1931) were shown during the day like KCRA's "Treehouse Theatre(I think that is the name of the show) that was on Saturday Mornings at 9:AM preempting some of the NBC Cartoons to show assorted kid friendly movies like Horror/SciFi Genre, Hercules, Tarzan and a few feature length Cartoons like "Gay Puree".The Universal Classics were also shown occaisionally on Harry Martin's Playhouse Theatre during the week usually around Halloween. KTXL TV 40 would later pick up the Universal Classics in 1969. Also the Universal classics would be a staple on Bob's KTVU "Creature Features" in the 1970's.

November 5, 1966 Schedule

On Saturday Night, November 5 in 1966 on KCRA Channel 3 at 11:45pm, Bob Wilkins showed a double feature of "The Tingler"(1959) and "The Headless Ghost"(1959). "The Tingler" is a very good scary movie from Columbia Pictures and directed by the famous king of gimmick directors, William Castle. "After much hard work, a pathologist discovers and captures a creature that lives in every vertebrate and grows when fear grips its host" This movie stars the late Vincent Price. A very good and scary movie!, Something which the next movie is not. "The Headless Ghost" An AIP Herman Cohen Movie is a Horror Comedy. "Three teenagers encounters a ghost who is in limbo until he retrieves his lost head. They do their bit to help him." Very Ho-Hum Movie unlike "The Tingler".