Fright Night (TV show)

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Fright Night was the name of at least two science fiction and horror movie programs. One ran from 1970 to 1981, and the other ran from 1973 to 1987. Both programs were broadcast by KHJ-TV Los Angeles, and it's sister-station WOR-TV New York City.

[edit] Los Angeles

Fright Night was a television horror show that presented low-budget horror and science fiction movies on KHJ-TV in Los Angeles between 1970 and 1973. The host for the show was Larry Vincent (Sinister Seymour). He was noted for his style of critcizing the movies he presented in an offbeat and funny manner, usually appearing in a small window which would pop up in the corner, tossing a quip, then vanishing again.

He show began with a voice-over introduction by a whiny-voiced, never seen assistant, who proclaimed him ". . .the Master of the Macabre, the Eppy-tome of Evil, SEEEEEEEYmooooourrrr!" He would then come out from behind the "slimiest of walls," and often lambaste the viewing audience for wasting their time watching such "stinkers." His films generally were poorly-written movies which had been distributed for late-night filler programming, in the days before satellite distribution became cost-effective for non-network stations.

He would frequently try to get a free meal from Pizza Fella (a take-off on a then-popular franchise known as Pizza Man). He would announce that a character was a "real four-flusher" -- followed by the sound of a toilet, flushing four times.

When Vincent passed away he was replaced by Elvira "Mistress of The Dark". Upon Elvira's arrival the show was renamed "Movie Macabre".

In the American horror movie Fright Night the name of Roddy McDowall's character, Peter Vincent, was based on Fright Night's host Larry Vincent. Actually the charractern is loosely based on veteran horror film figures English actor Peter Cushing, who was a frequent co-star with actor Christopher Lee, and American actor Vincent Price.

[edit] New York City

Fright Night was also a horror program that aired on New York's WOR-TV, Channel 9. As the Championship Wrestling show was ending, a Channel 9 off-screen announcer would say "Now stay tuned for Fright Night, next on Channel 9."

The opening featured a series of classic monsters from the Universal Horror series. Bela Lugosi's Dracula, Elsa Lanchester as the Bride Of Frankenstein, Lon Chaney, Jr.. as The Wolfman and then Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein Monster which dissolved into a skull from whose empty eye socket flowed wispy dry ice mist. Then two words appeared in the eye socket...FRIGHT NIGHT.

From there the screen would give way to an incredible array of weekly horror films unlike those offered on any other station of the time. The show ran at various times throughout its history, ranging from midnight to 1 and 1:30 am. Fright Night had its premiere on Saturday night, October 6, 1973 at midnight. The first film shown was one of Hemisphere Pictures' television movies called Decoy For Terror.

From 1973 to 1979 Fright Night showed mainly the Universal Horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein. In fact, The Invisible Man became a Christmas tradition, broadcast whenever the Saturday night program fell on a Christmas weekend. Fright Night also later made a tradition of showing the violent Christmas chiller Silent Night, Deadly Night instead.

In early 1979 the movies changed switched to more 1970s slasher films and B-movies like: