Thursday, October 4, 2018

1980 Boo!

Boo! is a Canadian Halloween TV special that originally aired over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday, October 26th 1980, but the video below was recorded on local Chicago TV's WGN Channel 9 on Saturday, October 30th 1982 during the 4:30pm to 5:30pm timeframe. This obscure variety/skit show was created and produced by Riff Markowitz, who also brought us "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein". Musical Director of "Laugh-In", Ian Bernard composed the disco theme. Strangely, no writers are credited.

The cast of great Canadian talents included Peter Cullen as The Wolf Man, Jack Duffy as Dr. Frankenstein, Ben Gordon as Dracula, Barbara Law as The Countess and Ted Zeigler as Frankenstein's monster, with special guests Dionne Warwick and Rip Taylor. I'd say this is a mashup of "Saturday Night Live", "The Star Wars Holiday Special" and "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special", so bad and not funny that I hope it doesn't ruin anyone's holiday. The hour long video includes the special with commercials.


1 comment:

  1. I remember watching this when I was about 12 years old. The refrain "I tell ya what we're gonna dooo, we're gonna scare the pants right off of you, BOO!" has inexplicably stuck with me for the past 41 years. There were times when I wondered if I had actually just dreamed it all, but thanks to the Internet, I found out that it actually did exist after all. It's pretty bad but it's fun to reexperience it and feel a bit of nostalgia. The commercials are really the star here. It's like going back in time. Show and commercials like this will never be made again, we have become too cynical.

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