Yes, Uncle Floyd is great, a veritable legend in the Garden State! Floyd was on various cable and uhf stations in the NYC greater area for well over twenty years. When Uncle Floyd was on New Jersey Network, the Garden State’s PBS station, his show would come on every night before NJN’s airing of “Dark Shadows.” I can’t remember if NJN aired just one or two episodes of DS each night, it’s 36 years ago.
NJN did start with Barnabas’s arrival at Collinwood, when a startled Mrs. Johnson answered the front door to find Barnabas sporting a hat (probably the only time we ever saw Mr. B. wearing a hat). NJN kept airing DS for several years up until episode number 1006, where 1970 PT Horace Gladstone confronted Cyrus Longworth, saying, “And, Cyrus Longworth is John Yaegar and John Yaegar!”
Unfortunately, NJN had a change in management, and the new general manager thought that DS was “beneath PBS’ dignity” and ordered DS off of NJN. This ticked off many viewers, who had donated money to NJN to specifically keep DS on the air until the the final 200 episodes or so of DS were broadcast. A subsequent class
action suit returned a great amount of that donated money back to the understandably outraged DS fans, effectively kicking that stuffy station general manager right in the “keester.”
I remember that Uncle Floyd had a friendly rivalry with DS, where his viewers would mail in posters to Uncle Floyd, depicting him “battling” Barnabas in various scenarios. Uncle Floyd also had a friendly “feud” with the actors on the original “Star Trek,” which aired everyday on Channel 11 opposite Uncle Floyd in NYC, with Uncle Floyd “battling” Captain Kirk and Mister Spock.
Uncle Floyd had a number of comedic sidekicks on his show, including “Mugsy,” “Looney” Skip Rooney and Scott Gordon, who, I believe, was active in the NYC Dark Festivals. In addition, Uncle Floyd has appeared in several films, such as “Good Morning, Vietnam,” starring the late Robin Williams and Forest Whitaker. And, Uncle Floyd is a regular at many of the comedy clubs in the tri-state area, including Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club in beautiful Point Pleasant, NJ.
Yes, Uncle Floyd is a true Renaissance man from the “great” state of New Jersey! Maybe Uncle Floyd and KLS will discuss possible entrepreneurial endeavors over lunch at either Holsten’s Ice Cream, Chocolate & Restaurant in Bloomfield, NJ (where Tony Soprano & family enjoyed Holsten’s delicious onion rings, possibly for the very last time) or at Pizza Land in North Arlington, NJ, just a stone’s throw from Satriale’s Pork Store in beautiful Kearny, NJ. I’ll bet that Maggie never enjoyed such epicurean delights at the Collinsport Inn Coffee Shop or even at Collinwood, as Ms. Evans will enjoy during her upcoming visit to the Garden State. Mangia, Maggie!