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.

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