About Shocking Theater

Once upon a time, back when T.V. was new, and the infomercial had yet to be invented, your local T.V. stations needed to fill up air time.

They did so with local programming.

You know, your local news, a talkshow hosted by the news anchor, a game show hosted by the sports caster, a childrens show featuring a clown (and nightmares because clowns are scary), and old movies.

One day, somebody decided that it would be a good if the movies were hosted, especially the horror movies hosted late friday night and the sci-fi movies hosted saturday afternoons.

They would look for someone at the station who would host the movie cheap, dress them up in a “scary” costume (most of the time), put them in a “scary” (yet cheap) set, and tell them to have fun.

They created Horror Hosts.

And it was a success.

That is, until, the big guys started buying the local V.H.F. stations.

They filled those programming blocks with informercials, syndicated T.V. sitcoms, and game shows.

So, the local hosting moved from the V.H.F. stations to the U.H.F. stations.

And there they remained until the big guys started buying the U.H.F. stations as well.

So, once again they moved to Cable Access, where most locally produced programming (including Horror Hosts) remained.

And this is one of those shows.

Originally entitled “The Monster Movie Show”, and distributed primarily through the magic of the internet, the producers decided to bring it to Northern Michigan’s Public Access Station, UpNorthTV and change it into “Shocking Theater”.