OT: Karloff's Farewell

[Gothick]

Since I consider Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Peter Lorre et al to be spiritual grandfathers to DS, I thought it would be worth reporting that the cable channel Cozi TV is scheduled to show Karloff's final known appearance on film.  An episode of the Gene Barry series NAME OF THE GAME called, I think, "The White Birch," is supposed to air at 3:30 a.m. on Friday Sept. 20.  Please doublecheck your listings before programming your device.

It is said that this was the last time dear Boris went before the cameras; the episode was aired after his death.

G.

[Uncle Roger]

You're correct, Gothick. It is indeed titled The White Birch. Karloff only has a couple of scenes but it is certainly a better farewell appearance than The Snake People.

[David]

Since Boris worked throughout 1968, was there ever any attempt to get him to appear on DS? He would have made a great judge in 1795, or a fantastic Dr Lang!

[Gerard]

It would've been mesmorizing to have him have done a cameo on DS.  I still think of him whenever I see How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Despite all the dastardly characters he played, he was a sweet and gentle man who particularly loved children, which is why he did the Grinch.  He has become a part of Americana Christmas classics.  Like they say, when he was created, the mold was broken.

Gerard

[Josette]

MeTV has just started showing Thriller in the early morning hours.  It's a story anthology series (I had never heard of it before) with Boris Karloff giving the introduction for each episode.

[Uncle Roger]

Keep watching Thriller, Josette. Diana Millay pops up in an episode.

[Gerard]

When I was a kid, Thriller was considered the scariest show on TV, so scary, in fact, that even us kids who would sneak peaks at The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, would not watch it.

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Funny, I don't even remember Thriller from back in the day. I don't remember realizing the show existed before about a year ago when I saw it on MeTV's nighttime weekend schedule. But even then I never watched it. I guess I should remedy that by programming my DVR. 

[Uncle Roger]

A lot of the episodes are on YouTube. I caught a lot of episodes that I had never seen before. Boris appears in a few as a performer to great effect. The episode with Tom Poston and Elizabeth Montgomery is extremely clever.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I just did a little research on tv.com and I see why I don't remember the show from back in the day: I was 4 when it came on and I was barely 6 when it went off. Somehow I doubt my parents would have let me stay up to watch something like Thriller.    And I guess that if/when the show was ever in syndication in my area, I just didn't pay attention.

[Gothick]

THRILLER was a show I always craved to see but whenever it would show up, it would be in some weird time slot or a channel we couldn't get (this would have been when it was in syndication in the late 60s and 70s).  I finally caught up with quite a few episodes some years ago but there's still many I have yet to see.

There are a couple where instead of doing one 50 minute story, they break it up and do two shorter stories.  In one of these Karloff plays a philosophical morgue attendant who can talk to the dead.  It's one of the creepiest, most poignant things I've ever seen on television.  If Karloff had done a cameo on DS, I'd have hoped he could have a role like that of the morgue attendant. 

A number of the stories have a definite DS flavor... I think you would enjoy the shows, MB, though I have no idea when you'd have time to watch them, especially with all the exciting new shows coming on this autumn.

G.

[Gothick]

Another spiritual grandfather of DS has to be Vincent Price.  A friend sent me this link:

http://laughingsquid.com/a-huge-silver-ring-that-features-vincent-prices-head/

It made me think of how intriguing it would have been doing one of the storylines where Barn had been trapped in his coffin if a mysterious visitor arrived at Collinwood wearing a silver ring carved with the likeness of Barnabas' face!

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

It looks like my first introduction to Thriller (the next ep on MeTV) will feature Karloff:

THE PREDICTION
Original airdate: 11/22/60
An engaged couple (Audrey Dalton, Alex Davion) ignores a psychic's (Boris Karloff) warning of death.

Also, if the listings on my DVR are correct, it looks like MeTV is playing the eps in their original order, including having the Sunday at 10pm ET weekend ep following along after the eps from Tuesday-Saturday at 3am ET, meaning the Saturday at 3 ep originally ran 11/29/60, and the Sunday at 10 ep originally ran 12/06/60, and then the Tuesday at 3 ep originally ran 12/13/60.

According to tv.com, the ep with Elizabeth Montgomery originally ran 10/30/61, so there's a while before that one might show up.

[Gothick]

The Liz Montgomery episode definitely has some DS resonances and is quite cute.

My personal favorite episode may be "A Wig for Miss Devore" because I could imagine a similar story playing out with one of Lara Parker's Cassandra wigs some feckless aging actress comes across in a junkshop.  A tie would be this story co-starring Jo van Fleet and John Carradine... can't recall the title, but the ancient Witch Goddess Circe is involved.

Some of the episodes are really pretty mediocre.  The quality varies a lot in terms of the scripting.

G.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

The greatest "Thriller" episode of all: "Pigeons From Hell," starring the late Brandon DeWilde, imho.    (I still get nightmares about that spooky Southern mansion.)