Yay for the advent of color TV shows in the 1970s! I was a huge fan of "Kolchak:The Night Stalker" starring Darren McGavin. That show was sort of a precursor to "Supernatural."
Horror TV Shows in the 1970s:
Creature Features (1970-1990s in some areas)
U.S. local channels wanted to fill air-time with cheap material, so they hired a host and made up a creepy name like: "Creature Features," “Svengoolie’s Screaming Yellow Theater,” “Chiller Theatre,” “Fright Night,” and “Creature Double Feature” and broadcast classic Horror films and B-movies from the 30s-70s, British “Hammer Horror” movies, and sci-fi monster movies.
Interesting Notes: Creature Features was originally started on WGN in Chicago, but other small channels jumped on the bandwagon. Soon various shows were broadcast from Baltimore/Washington D.C., Boston, the Delaware Valley, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Omaha, Quad Cities (Eastern Iowa/Western Illinois), San Francisco, South Bend (Indiana), Southern Florida and Tampa Bay (Florida).
Night Gallery (1970-1973)
Narrator: Rod Serling
Interesting Notes: The series was introduced with a pilot TV movie that aired on November 8, 1969, featuring the directorial debut of Steven Spielberg, as well as one of the last acting performances by Joan Crawford. Many of the TV series’ episodes were written by Rod Serling.
The Sixth Sense (1971-1972)
Dr. Michael Rhodes (Gary Collins) is a college professor who studies reported cases of premonitions, ghosts, visions, and other paranormal events.
Guest stars included: Tom Bosley ("Happy Days"), Patty Duke ("Patty Duke Show"), Cloris Leachman ("Phyllis"), Larry Linville ("M*A*S*H*"), Lee Majors ("Six Million Dollar Man"), Stefanie Powers ("Hart to Hart"), William Shatner ("Star Trek"), and Jane Wyman (“Falcon Crest”).
Interesting Note: Several episodes had already been filmed for the next season when the show was cancelled. These episodes were aired on Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery.”
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975)
Starring: Darrin McGavin as Carl Kolchak
A newspaper reporter investigates strange supernatural occurrences.
Interesting Note: The two pilot movies, “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and “Kolchak: The Night Strangler,” and the subsequent TV series inspired Chris Carter to create the “X-Files.”
Horror Films of the 1970s:
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
The Omega Man (1971) (The original film adaptation of Matheson’s I Am Legend.)
Willard (1971)
Blacula (1972)
Gargoyles (1972)
Tales From the Crypt (1972)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Jaws (1975) (My favorite movie of all time!)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Burnt Offerings (1976)
Carrie (1976)
The Omen (1976)
Audrey Rose (1977)
Equus (1977)
Eraserhead (1977)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
The Island of Doctor Moreau (1977)
The Sentinel (1977)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Fury (1978)
Halloween (1978) (John Carpenter makes the horror B-movie genre into a box office smash, and the Teen Slasher Flick is born!)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Alien (1979)
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1979)
The Changeling (1979)
Love at First Bite (1979)
Phantasm (1979)
Salem’s Lot (1979)
When a Stranger Calls (1979)
It's weird that there were so few supernatural shows on TV in the 70s while King and Koontz were very popular. It wasn't until the 90s that TV fell in love with Horror. But first we have tomorrow's post on: The 80s -- big hair and bigger Horror!
Join the May Monster Madness Blog Hop. We're hopping for seven days, from May 11-17, in celebration of monsters, mayhem, and all things Horror related!
Horror TV Shows in the 1970s:
U.S. local channels wanted to fill air-time with cheap material, so they hired a host and made up a creepy name like: "Creature Features," “Svengoolie’s Screaming Yellow Theater,” “Chiller Theatre,” “Fright Night,” and “Creature Double Feature” and broadcast classic Horror films and B-movies from the 30s-70s, British “Hammer Horror” movies, and sci-fi monster movies.
Interesting Notes: Creature Features was originally started on WGN in Chicago, but other small channels jumped on the bandwagon. Soon various shows were broadcast from Baltimore/Washington D.C., Boston, the Delaware Valley, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Omaha, Quad Cities (Eastern Iowa/Western Illinois), San Francisco, South Bend (Indiana), Southern Florida and Tampa Bay (Florida).
Narrator: Rod Serling
Interesting Notes: The series was introduced with a pilot TV movie that aired on November 8, 1969, featuring the directorial debut of Steven Spielberg, as well as one of the last acting performances by Joan Crawford. Many of the TV series’ episodes were written by Rod Serling.
Dr. Michael Rhodes (Gary Collins) is a college professor who studies reported cases of premonitions, ghosts, visions, and other paranormal events.
Guest stars included: Tom Bosley ("Happy Days"), Patty Duke ("Patty Duke Show"), Cloris Leachman ("Phyllis"), Larry Linville ("M*A*S*H*"), Lee Majors ("Six Million Dollar Man"), Stefanie Powers ("Hart to Hart"), William Shatner ("Star Trek"), and Jane Wyman (“Falcon Crest”).
Interesting Note: Several episodes had already been filmed for the next season when the show was cancelled. These episodes were aired on Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery.”
Starring: Darrin McGavin as Carl Kolchak
A newspaper reporter investigates strange supernatural occurrences.
Interesting Note: The two pilot movies, “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and “Kolchak: The Night Strangler,” and the subsequent TV series inspired Chris Carter to create the “X-Files.”
Horror Films of the 1970s:
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
The Omega Man (1971) (The original film adaptation of Matheson’s I Am Legend.)
Willard (1971)
Blacula (1972)
Gargoyles (1972)
Tales From the Crypt (1972)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Jaws (1975) (My favorite movie of all time!)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Burnt Offerings (1976)
Carrie (1976)
The Omen (1976)
Audrey Rose (1977)
Equus (1977)
Eraserhead (1977)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
The Island of Doctor Moreau (1977)
The Sentinel (1977)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Fury (1978)
Halloween (1978) (John Carpenter makes the horror B-movie genre into a box office smash, and the Teen Slasher Flick is born!)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Alien (1979)
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1979)
The Changeling (1979)
Love at First Bite (1979)
Phantasm (1979)
Salem’s Lot (1979)
When a Stranger Calls (1979)
It's weird that there were so few supernatural shows on TV in the 70s while King and Koontz were very popular. It wasn't until the 90s that TV fell in love with Horror. But first we have tomorrow's post on: The 80s -- big hair and bigger Horror!
Join the May Monster Madness Blog Hop. We're hopping for seven days, from May 11-17, in celebration of monsters, mayhem, and all things Horror related!
31 comments:
Oh man, another good decade for horror movies (well, and some bad ones). And no wonder I like Kolchak so much, if that's what X-Files was inspired by. I've been watching it on Netflix (Kolchak), but am almost done.
Shannon at The Warrior Muse
I remember Chiller Theater from WPIX Channel 11 in New York from back in the early 80s. The unforgettable opening credits are up on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok6uzndOmPA&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Monster hosts date back to the Fifties, though, with such stars as Vampira of Plan 9 from Outer Space fame.
Jaws scared me to no end! My sister used to live in Matawan, NJ right next to the ravine where the Matawan Maneater A.K.A. the shark Jaws was based on actually was.
This is some list! I'm loving your theme.
I never saw Kolchak, but I had a guy friend in middle school who talked about the show constantly. If FELT like I watched it!
I have to say, the scariest in the that list is the exorcist... that movie still terrifies me.
I absolutely LOVE Night Gallery! I'm telling you, this hop is making me miss all the awesome monstrosity of the past. I will be watching a lot of reruns in the days to come...
I don't like being scared now, but I admit that when I was younger, I watched most of those shows.
OMGosh! I watched Creature Features with my grandmother! Geez, that seems like a lifetime ago, now.
Creature Features as they stand were never really aired on TV nor in mainstream cinema in Australia, so we missed out on a great deal of these. It wasn't until later in life when I discovered a few of these treasures! Thanks for such a great post!
Here's my day III MMM at Design du Jour.
I remember Creature Features. My sisters and brother and I would all crowd together on the bed and watch it huddled up together.
So many great films on this list! And I so wish we had Creature Features here! :( We miss out on everything! Here's my MMM'S for today Carmen Jenner Author and Book Me!
Happy Hopping! =D
Growing up in the Greater Cincinnati area, we had the Cool Ghoul for our "Creature Feature" offering and spent many a Saturday night with the covers up close to my eyes watching...lol.
I also loved Night Gallery and the Night Stalker. Shows like that I can still watch today and find them entertaining :)
I am loving these nostalgia posts, Lexa. A real blast form the past, and it's great to remember just good horror was before CGI :) I remember watching Jaws with mom, her two friends and their teenage kids, and my brother. We were all so excited to see it and it was those days when TV was a big draw and everyone would sit together. It was an incredible and memorable event...
Shah x
shahwharton.com
I used to watch Night Gallery. Some of the Twilight Zone reboots have featured scary stories too.
Kolchak was one of my favorites! Watched it all the time.
I don't watch a lot of monster shows. They give me nightmares. I did love the Twilight Zone TV series. And I remember The Exorcist. Eeww. Spooky. Looks like a fun hop. :)
I used to watch Tales From the Crypt though I'm not a horror fan.
I don't watch many horror flicks but I saw Jaws. While we were living on the coast. I couldn't go to the beach for months. I also remember the 1956 version of The Invasion of the Body Snatcher. Seriously scary.
I remember watching Night Gallery and I remember that first episode with Joan Crawford. It was great.
I loved Salem's Lot and The Changeling. The Sixth Sense sounds like a cool series, I've never heard of it before. I would love to see it.
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles
Hey Lexa! yep i grew up in Tampa and every Saturday afternoon was a Creature Feature with Dr. Pall Bearer. lol... Loved those horror films!!
The Exorcist by far is the ultimate scary movie for me!
I was born in the mid 70's so missed the shows but went through a big horror phase when I was a teen and could not get my hands on enough movies. I remember Audrey Rose totally freaking me out.
Hello! Very nice blog and interesting posts, great atmosphere.
Have a nice day. :)
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"Do what you love is not even that, but anyway"
Ah yes, the 70s, that's when Horror really got awesome!
Phantasm, Halloween, The Omen, TCM, Alien, Eraserhead etc. etc. - pure awesomeness!!
A walk down memory lane, for sure. I loved Kolchak.
The Changeling is to this day one of my all time favorite horror films.
None of the shows are familiar to me- but they sound interesting.
Many of the movies I have watched over and over again- Carrie, Jaws, The Exorcist, Halloween, The Omen, When a Stranger Calls (I babysat a lot- and that movie still scares me- especially the end). Boy- does this list bring back memories of the first time I saw some of these.
~Stephanie
I'm a HUGE Jaws fan too. Tales From the Crypt, The Exorcist, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Carrie, The Omen, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Dawn of the Dead, and Halloween (one of my all-time favorite horror movies) were all so good. The 70s was a great time for horror movies.
The 70s & 80s horror are my favorites!
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