In Search Of UFOs

Leonard Nimoy's voice and that spooky music were made for each other.  This show was one of the formative ones for me.  Lots of great nightmare fuel, presented in a serious fashion where a young mind like mine was being told "Son, this awful stuff is real [and probably under your bed]."

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In Search Of: UFO Captives

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Fat Albert Halloween Special (With Commercials)

This was always an annual favorite when I was a kid, and the Halloween commercials make this really something special.  Never thought I'd be happy to sit through commercials.

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2 Ghosts 1 Witch

My dumb dad cut the eye and mouth holes larger to allow us to breathe and see better, because of the number of trick-or-treater deaths and accidents related to not cutting the eye and mouth holes larger.

Satan: Age Five

Got my hands on the ol' family photo albums.

That's me dead center, as Mephistopheles himself.

I remember the costume, and wearing it, but my brain has zero memory of the tinfoil trident I'm holding.

Haunted Houses By The Sea

A while back I did a blog post about the haunted attraction Brigantine Castle at the Jersey shore (read it here).  As summer approached, the commercials on the local stations would play stuff like the below:

And to a young kid, this stuff felt very real and strange.  It seemed more like an opportunity to be in a horror movie than an actual haunted house.  And the commercials seemed like it wasn't a ride or amusement at all, but some place where you were literally attacked by monsters.  Important to note:  My parents never took us there.  As I would have loved to have been slapped in the face by that skeleton hand like Larry of the Three Stooges.

The below article is fantastic and talks about the Jersey shore during the Golden Age of Haunted Attractions.

Here's an excerpt:

From outside, the dull gray fortress of Brigantine was menacing—quite a contrast to blue skies, crashing waves, and tumbling beach balls. You could often see the castle’s demonic-looking cast hanging around the backdoor, and watch fathers daring their teens to enter, then cringe as they handed over their tickets, fear in their eyes. I had never gone in myself, but I knew the real frights were inside. Patrons found themselves in a darkened maze of approximately 30 rooms, each with its own blood-curdling storyline.

Click below for the article...