Sunday, April 8, 2012

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!


 

1 comment:

  1. I believe Mark Hamill hosted the Godzilla/Gamera day segments.

    ReplyDelete