Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Monsters…. But Were Afraid (1981)

While scrolling through YouTube, this 1981 TV special came up on my recommendations from a channel called The Museum of Classic Chicago Television, so I checked it out and really enjoyed it.

It was basically a 49 minute special that covered monsters from all areas, including movies, dinosaurs, and alleged cryptids. It was hosted by Charles Osgood, and included footage from various monster films such as Nosferatu, King Kong, Godzilla, Frankenstein, Them, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It also featured several interviews with special effects legend Rick Baker, James Warren (form Famous Monsters Magazine), Jeff Rovine (science fiction and film writer), Daniel Cohen (writer), and Dr. Roy Mackle, a biologist from the University of Chicago. Various topics discussed were the appeal and history of movie monsters, special effects work (including footage from an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NY honoring the work of Ray Harryhausen), dinosaurs, and footage of alleged real life cryptids, including the Patterson-Grimlin film of Bigfoot, and water monsters such as Nessie, Chessie of Chesapeake Bay, and Champ from Lake Champlain.

The section on Rick Baker was especially fun, as the host interviewed him in his workshop. You saw many people working on models and masks, a very young Rick Baker spoke about his various techniques, and he gave demonstrations of some of his highly detailed masks, putting them on and explaining how they operated. It was cool to see all the work that goes into making his movie monsters come to life.

Another section that I really enjoyed were some brief, behind-the-scenes footage from the set of Ultraman Taro, explaining how they put everything together to film a scene. They also showed footage of Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, and if I had seen this special as a kid, I would’ve been beyond ecstatic. In 1981, I was aware of the existence of the film because of the Random House book, but had never seen it. It wouldn’t be until the late 80’s that it finally played on TV and I got to watch it.

This was a fun, entertaining TV show that I didn’t get to see when it first aired (I was born and raised in California). Growing up as a weird, creepy kid who happily devoured anything monster related, this TV special would’ve been right up my alley. It’s an entertaining little time capsule from a bygone era that’s sure to appeal to the nostalgic monster lover in you.

Comments

Help Me… I’m Possessed (1974) / #Missingcouple (2024)

I've watched some weird, obscure horror movies throughout my life. I can now add this lurid 1974 schlockfest to that growing list. In a castle in the desert, Dr. Arthur Blackwood runs a sanitarium filled with mentally disturbed patients (as well as staff). He claims to be working on finding a way to cure people of any violent tendencies they have, and brags about his younger sister, innocent, child-like Melanie, as evidence that his treatment works. When she was a child, their parents had to keep her locked up and chained in the basement, to control her violent fits. Now that he's cured her, Arthur has his wife Diane come to the castle to meet Melanie, so that they can be one big, happy family. Diane begins to grow suspicious that something is amiss after a Sheriff shows up investigating the murder of 2 local teens, and sets about on her own investigation, hoping to uncover the sinister secrets that she feels her husband is hiding. Help Me... I'm Possessed is an outrageous,...

RicSan Custom Toys Kyōrū Kaiju (Titanosaurus)

My latest kaiju figure purchase is the Titanosaurus made by Ricsan Custom Toys. I own and love the Varan & Gabara, so of course I had to preorder this one when it was available. He was delivered earlier this week. This kaiju hails from the last Godzilla film of the Showa era, 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Black Hole aliens are back, rebuilding their robot in another effort to take over the planet. They enlist the help of an ostracized Earth scientist named Mafune and his daughter Katsura, who are able to control an aquatic dinosaur named Titanosaurus. They plan to use both kaiju and mecha to attack Japan. Titano was a cool monster, with his tail that opened into a fish fin, and he would use it to create whirlpools in the sea, and high winds on land. I'm hoping that S.H. Monsterarts makes one for the 50th anniversary of the film, but when I saw this Ricsan Custom version, I couldn't pass it up. Titanosaurus (called the Kyōrū Kaiju), comes in a white box, with its n...

S.H. MonsterArts Anguirus 1972

One of my most anticipated figure releases of 2025 was finally delivered this last week. Godzilla's trusty sidekick, S. H. MonsterArts Anguirus (based on the 1972 suit). From the early video and photo reviews I had seen, he looked to have turned out a great figure. Now that I have him in hand, he absolutely is! This Ankylosaurus is based on the suit that was introduced in 1968's Destroy All Monsters, and made subsequent appearances in Godzilla vs. Gigan (72), Godzilla vs. Megalon (73), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (74). Anguirus was the 2nd Toho monster to ever appear on screen, dueling with the big G in 1955's Godzilla Raids Again. For the later films, he became Godzilla's buddy, helping him out in his various battles. I'm a bit surprised that it took Bandai this long to release Anguirus in the MonsterArts line, as he's one of the more popular kaiju, but better late than never. He's painted in a chocolate brown, with pale yellow on his various spikes, hor...

Musings of an Inkd Geek

Search This Blog