I’ve watched sufficient sitcoms to know that households often have some form of weekly custom: For some, it’s Sunday dinner, and for others, a board recreation night time. For so long as I can keep in mind, my household’s Saturday evenings have been outlined by sitting on the ground of my wood-paneled basement, consuming pizza, and watching TV. What made our little ritual much less Rockwell-esque was what we have been watching: Svengoolie, a horror film program broadcast domestically from Chicago and hosted by a person carrying face paint and a high hat.
When folks say they don’t watch tv, exhibits like Svengoolie are often the rationale why. It feels cheaply made and overly campy, and it’s the alternative of instructional: I could have truly misplaced mind cells watching it. For these of you who aren’t acquainted (and actually, why would you be?), attempt to think about a mix of Thriller Science Theater 3000 and Elvira. Each week, the present’s host “Svengoolie” (or “Sven,” as his pals name him), performed by Chicago broadcasting icon, Wealthy Koz, presents a B-quality horror movie from the Nineteen Thirties to Nineteen Seventies which he punctuates with pretend adverts and comedy bits. For over 40 years, Svengoolie has graced tv screens throughout Chicagoland, displaying the perfect of the worst horror movies for our viewing pleasure.
To the typical outsider, an episode of Svengoolie will, and may, come off as unusual. At the beginning of the present, Sven emerges from a coffin on his dungeon set, wearing a crimson and black tux, a protracted black wig and goatee, cranium make-up, and naturally, the highest hat. Sven introduces the movie in his opening monologue with a quick synopsis and some jokes, most of that are so dangerous that crewmembers offscreen throw rubber chickens at him till he retreats again into his coffin. The rubber hen, a logo for the comedic and self-deprecating nature of the present, is a typical motif. For those who have been a Svengoolie mega-fan, that’s the tattoo you’ll get.
Because the episode goes on, just a few common characters make appearances within the skits that bookend business breaks: Tombstone the floating cranium, Berwyn the rubber hen puppet, and Doug Graves, an actual pianist who offers music for Svengoolie’s tune that parodies the week’s movie. It’s a present that would solely work in Chicago, whose blue-collar historical past and laid-back humorousness imply of us don’t take something too critically. (We stands out as the “Second Metropolis,” however there’s a cause so lots of your favourite comedians bought their begin in Chicago.) Although it could sound like a vaguely horror-themed fever dream with a film within the center, at its core, Svengoolie is a program devoted to the preservation of underdog (and underfunded) horror movies.
Svengoolie has the printed rights to early horror classics like the unique Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman. These films are the godparents of more moderen creature options, akin to Tremors and Mothman, they usually helped spark our present fascination with vampires and zombies. Once we fake to talk like a vampire, we’re imitating the unique model of Rely Dracula performed by Bela Lugosi (whose actual accent wasn’t all that far off from the one he used). And who, once they think about Frankenstein’s monster, doesn’t think about the hulking villain from the 1931 film, along with his neck bolts and micro-bangs? Although, should you’re loyal to Frankenstein the guide and disagree with the portrayal of the film monster, I respect your opinion. I simply ask that you simply preserve it, and your fancy, emo monster, to your self.
From a really younger age, I used to be conversant in Golden Age horror stars like Boris Karloff and Vincent Worth as a result of I had watched an unhealthy quantity of Svengoolie. For each film he exhibits, Sven offers a quick historical past, which might embrace tales from the movie’s manufacturing in addition to actors’ biographies. I’ll concede that calling the present “the alternative of instructional” earlier was a little bit of a misnomer. If something, I feel that I’ve most likely recouped a lot of the mind cells misplaced to dangerous puns due to the historic info Sven sprinkles all through the present, considered one of my favourite elements of the Svengoolie expertise. In spite of everything, the place else are you able to get the historical past of the making of The Blob (mockingly, Steve McQueen’s first starring position) as defined by a person carrying a rubber hen necklace? I’m a fan of the unusual juxtaposition between the screwball nature of Svengoolie and the quasi-dignity it provides to the movies it presents. It’s a bit just like the Island of Misfit Toys, besides Sven is the caretaker, and as a substitute of toys, it’s previous horror and sci-fi films. They too deserve a spot on our cultural radar, regardless of their flaws.
Svengoolie isn’t all Dracula and Frankenstein. Sven is an equal alternative host. Positive, he exhibits the classics, however he’ll additionally present you films that, for no matter cause (trace: they’re objectively dangerous), didn’t have as a lot success. The Tingler, Satan Doll, and Them! are all films that Sven treats with the identical respect as his most well-known options. These B-movies function alien creatures articulated by clearly-visible fishing line, in addition to a few of the stiffest appearing you’ll be able to think about. When my household got here collectively to look at these gems, we’d continually imitate the actors’ melodramatic supply and shout out our personal responses to the ridiculous dialogue. In the course of the Chilly Warfare, film makers turned impressed by the atomic age and rolled out a bunch of sci-fi flicks that includes all types of large bugs: Them! is about large ants, Tarantula is about, get this, a large tarantula. There’s even one about large grasshoppers created in a lab experiment gone fallacious referred to as Starting of the Finish.
For those who’re pondering, “there’s no approach that grasshopper film might be any good,” you’d be proper. Watching Svengoolie requires the viewer to have a humorousness. It helps if in case you have a household like mine, the place all of us assume we’re hilarious and are completely happy to look at one thing dangerous only for an excuse to yell on the TV. I watch Svengoolie for a similar cause I’ve watched all of the Sharknado films (decide not, lest ye be judged): it’s so dangerous, it’s nearly good. Thriller Science Theater 3000 follows the identical ethos; its creators truly took inspiration from Svengoolie. Whereas Thriller Science Theater 3000 facilities round protagonists trapped in house, compelled to look at horrible films that they mock and riff on all through the movie, with Svengoolie, you get to do the riffing your self.
Each episode, Sven does a phase thanking his viewers for sending in letters and fanart, displaying off drawings despatched in by younger youngsters {and professional} artists alike. It’s your first clue to simply how beloved Svengoolie truly is, particularly amongst individuals who’ve lived in Chicago for the reason that 70s, when Svengoolie bought its begin. Wealthy Koz makes appearances in commercials for TV legal professionals in addition to at ribbon cuttings and native cities’ Halloween festivals. At comedian and horror conventions, better-known followers like Invoice Hader and Mark Hamill appear simply as excited to see Svengoolie as Svengoolie is to see them. It’s secure to say that the extra you watch, the extra Svengoolie grows on you, similar to an alien parasite in considered one of its films.
When my household watches Svengoolie collectively, we’re continually speaking and laughing about how ridiculous the movie is. Everybody will get in some good strains (at the least, it appears that evidently option to us as a result of we’re our personal largest followers), and it’s an opportunity to neglect about how critically ridiculous the actual world is and to immerse ourselves within the eliminated ridiculousness of the present. There’s additionally the nostalgia of it: once I image my household collectively, I consider us in our basement, watching Sven. To me, Sven seems like a humorous uncle, who simply occurs to be carrying a fancy dress that makes him seem like a disco undertaker. Svengoolie holds a particular place within the hearts of its followers; it’s a testomony to Chicago’s unpretentiousness and unflappable humorousness, and for me, to time spent as a household.
This 12 months, Halloween falls on a Saturday, and Svengoolie is displaying Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. I’m again at dwelling as a result of pandemic, and I can assure that you simply’ll be capable of discover me in my basement, sitting on the ground, consuming pizza with my household and yelling on the TV.
