Sci Fi Channel's Super Nova Movie Explosion

Awesome!

NOT Awesome!

I've mentioned I'm sure a time or two before that I truly miss old school TV.  When every channel had a very unique flavor and you just KNEW what channel you were watching.....channels may have had their logo in the corner of the screen, but it didn't take up a friggin quarter of it.  There weren't any of those annoying ads for other shows running during the show you were watching (which now seem to take up half the damn screen!  Oh how I loath those damn ads.....) and The Sci-Fi Channel hadn't lost it's dignity.  Syfy.  Really?  You know what....I'm just going to let that go for now because you don't really need a 50,000 word essay on why that is so ridiculous.  I'll tackle that when I'm in a grumpy mood and need something to beat on.

Anyway,  as I was talking about my special Easter memory of receiving NOES 3: Dream Warriors as an Easter gift one year,  I was reminded of another happy Easter season.  Not surprisingly, it revolves around horror and sci-fi movies!  Who would've figured, eh?  Here's what happened:

The Sci-Fi Channel ran an incredible special event that it called The Sci Fi Channel Supernova Movie Explosion!  It was amazing.  Oddly enough, I can't find any information on it through internet searches that explicitly state when the Supernova occurred, but looking through past Sci-Fi Channel scheduling grids I believe that it took place in April of 1995.  Running from April 8th through April 16th (the 16th being Easter Sunday) Sci-Fi showed a ton of great movies that, quite frankly, I'm not sure they've shown again since.  I had hoped that the Movie Explosion was going to continue on to be a yearly tradition but sadly there was no such luck.  There was once an attempt at resurrection, which was only a two day affair, and as I recall it was a poor attempt....with crap ass low budget made for cable fare taking the forefront.  I can see that stuff any day.  Ah well.

Now as I recall, each day of the '95 Supernova had a different theme and there were a few folks from the genre that were hosting the event.  The only one I can remember is Roddy McDowall for sure.  Somewhere locked away in my parents house are videotapes with some movies and segments from this, but to be honest I have not had the time to dig and search for them.  Soon, I hope!

Here I have reconstructed the movies shown during that week of Sci-Fi greatness.  There were names for each day, but again, I don't really remember them...so I'll just give a general description of the day's theme!

Sci Fi Channel's Supernova Movie Explosion Movie Line-up

Saturday April 8th

 
Giant Monster Day

Gamera (the Invincible)

Gamera Vs. Barugon (aka War of the Monsters)

Gamera Vs. Gaos    (aka Return of the Giant Monsters)

Gamera Vs. Guiron  (aka Attack of the Monsters)

Gamera Vs. Zigra   (

King Kong Vs. Godzilla

Godzilla On Monster Island (aka Godzilla vs Gigan)

Godzilla Vs. Megalon

Godzilla Vs. The Cosmic Monster (Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla)

Sunday April 9th

Unnatural Killers Day 

Murders In The Rue Morgue

Killdozer

The Raven (1935 Version with Bela Lugosi)

It Came From Outer Space

Things To Come

Fahrenheit 451

Dracula 

Frankenstein 

Rosemary's Baby

The Lost World (The1925 Version)

Monday April 10th 

Classic Monsters and Big Bug Day

The Bride Of Frankenstein

The Brides Of Dracula

Creature From The Black Lagoon

Revenge Of The Creature

The Creature Walks Among Us

Tarantula

The Deadly Mantis

The Evil Of Frankenstein

The Monolith Monsters

Tuesday April 11th 

Killer Offspring Day 

Frankenstein's Daughter

Dracula's Daughter

Son Of Frankenstein

Son Of Dracula

Firestarter

Child Of Darkness, Child Of Light

Child's Play 2

Psycho 2

Psycho 3 

Wednesday April 12th

Menace From Outer Space Day

Zombies Of The Stratosphere

Retik, The Moon Menace

The Crimson Ghost

D-day On Mars

Fire Maidens From Outer Space

The Claw Monsters

The Unknown Terror

The Maze

The Lady And The Monster

Thursday April 13th 

Mummies & Curses Day

The Mummy

The Mummy's Hand

The Mummy's Tomb

The Mummy's Ghost

The Mummy's Curse

Curse Of The Undead

Curse Of The Voodoo

Curse Of The Living Corpse

Curse Of The Werewolf

The Black Cat (1934)

The Black Cat (1990)

Friday April 14th 

Robots Gone Awry Day

Tobor The Great

The Colossus Of New York

Cyborg 2087

Kronos

Colossus: The Forbin Project

Android

Homewrecker

Short Circuit

Crash And Burn

Overdrawn At The Memory Bank

Saturday April 15th  

Mad Science and The Living Dead Day

Fiend Without A Face

The Thing That Couldn't Die

The Brain Eaters

Creature With The Atom Brain

Scanners

Return Of The Living Dead

Night Of The Living Dead

The Evil Dead

Carnival Of Souls 

Sunday April 16th

Sci-Fi Day

Forbidden Planet 

Dune

The Princess Bride

Tremors

Back To The Future Part II

Alien Nation

Darkman

Forbidden Planet 

Movies would start up usually around 9am (except on Saturday's which would

have the movies start at 11am).  Before the movies, you could count on

Sci-Fi's Animation Station to show cartoons like The New Adventures of 

Gigantor, Defenders of the Earth and the Bionic Six!

The last film of the day would usually start somewhere around 2am...which

would then be followed by either infomercials or episodes of One Step Beyond,

Science Fiction Theater or the odd Twilight Zone episode.

In between films, they would have little filler spots here and there with clips
from shows like Inside Space, Sci-Fi Buzz or the FTL Newsfeed (FTL stood for

Faster Than Light).  I miss those shows....and perhaps I will write up a piece
them another time.  I seem to remember random little short films and fillers 

popping up here or there during the marathon, but the scheduling grids don't 

confirm that, so I may be meshing different memories together.

There was a fantastic trailer for the Super Nova Movie Explosion that they aired

only a few times....it ran something like 5 minutes, but it was so cool!  As I 

look back at this list of films, I notice that there are a few that I don't 

think I've ever seen before, such as Retik, The Moon Menace and D-Day on Mars. 

They're both serials from the 40's, Retik being a retitling of Radar Men

from The Moon and D-Day is the TV version of The Purple Monster Strikes.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this little stroll through memory lane and I hope 

that you, like me, remember the Movie Explosion as a magical time when The Sci-Fi

Channel was still showing the stuff that fans wanted.  If I had a time machine, 

you bet your sweet batootie that I would be sitting on my parents living room couch

for a week, 17 years ago today watching Gamera & Godzilla beat baddies to a pulp!