Chiller Theater Returns to WPIX on Halloween Night!
Welcome back, O Six-Fingered Thief of Peaceful Childhood Sleep!
If you are an arts and entertainment connoisseur who resided near New York City between 1961 and 1982, your Saturday nights belonged to Chiller Theater on WPIX. I was (from ‘68 onward, anyway) and they did.
And if you happened to be a kid at any point during that era, then Chiller Theater scared the whiz out of you. I was and it did.
And now on Saturday, October 31, 2009, WPIX is bringing back Chiller Theater!
If you missed it the first time, don’t let that happen again. First, there Chiller’s claymation opening, with the 
six-fingered hand emerging from a swamp of blood to a dissonant soundtrack that every noisemonger from Throbbing Gristle to Panicsville to 16 Bitch Pile-Up has been trying to top for decades.
The red muck beneath the extra-digited appendage spits out the letters of the title. Then that horrifying freak-mitt grabs the letters one at a time and slithers back from whence it oozed while the Voice of Doom Itself moans “Chiiiilllll-eeerrrrrrrr”.
From there, Chiller typically showed Hammer movies which matched that opening in terms of terror. As a kid, the world as depicted by Hammer seemed to be godless, ice-cold, frighteningly sexual, and out of control.
Thus, I could not get enough of Chiller Theater. It was the scariest thing ever broadcast prior to the petrifying shock-reveal of the Suspiria commercials, and it is a treasured memory.
As usual, DVD Drive-In has a killer Chiller salute here: The Complete Chiller.
And now, Chiller Theater is back this weekend, hosted by Elvira (yay!) and showcasing 1964’s The Evil of Frankenstein (yay again!)
As “11 Alive”, WPIX figured as one of the cornerstones of New York life throughout the ’70s, featuring Captain Jack McCarthy presenting Popeye cartoons and then dropping the Navy drag once a year to host the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Channel 11 also meant The Three Stooges at 4pm and again at midnight (always followed by a Tom and Jerry cartoon), Abbot and Costello on Sunday morning, The Honeymooners, Star Trek, The Odd Couple, Yankees baseball, The Twilight Zone, 
Prisoner Cell Block H , the editorial guy saying “What’s your opinion? We’d like to know“, the “TV Pix” video game where kids called in and yelled “Pix! Pix! Pix! Pix! Pix!” and, most hilariously to me, The Yule Log for three hours every Christmas Eve.
In addition, Channel 11 arguably provided the greatest and most relentless onslaught of exposure to Crazy Eddie, Carvel, and The Haunted Mansion in Long Branch.
I want ALL that stuff back, now and forever, and I’ll happily take the revival of Chiller Theater to be a signal that a complete and utter return to 1978 is definitely going to happen.
I’ll be in my happy place now.
Browse Timeline
Comments ( 9 )
Oh the many Saturday’s I tortured my grandmother while she baby sat & forced her to watch Chiller, such fond blood curdling memories, so happy it’s coming back!
Lee said at
Oct 21 09 at
12:50 pm
I remember blowing my Granny’s mind with DISCIPLE OF DEATH, but that was on Channel 9’s Saturday morning movie showcase, “Spaced Out Films”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4HuiHszIlg
mcbeardo said at
Oct 21 09 at
2:02 pm
CHILLER did more to shape my undying love of horror and exploitation than anything else. It was there for me before I was ever allowed to see all that brain-warping crap in the theater. For years, it was Chiller on Saturday night and Abbot and Costello Sunday morning. Didn’t WOR Channel 9 show lots of low-grade horror movies from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s on Saturday afternoons, as well?
John B said at
Oct 22 09 at
7:27 am
John: WOR had “Spaced Out Films” at 11am on Saturday mornings, followed by movies at 1 and 3, typically horror. They also had a 4 O’Clock movie during the week to compete with channel 7’s 4:30 movie. NOBODY showed more horror movies than channel 9.
And I swear we had MORE entertainment back then, with five channels, then we do now with all our infinite choices.
mcbeardo said at
Oct 22 09 at
10:02 am
Very excited about having the Chiller opening burned into my kids brains this weekend. Thanks for jarring loose all those buried WPIX memories (goodness gracious, the Editorial guy!).
brainpang said at
Oct 28 09 at
3:48 pm
WTF!? They didn’t even show the opening claymation at the start NOR in full anywhere up to an hour in. Just a couple seconds here and there of the hand at the commercial breaks. What’s that all about? If they showed it at the start as they should have I’d probably have bought one of their cool 25.00 t-shirts…but not now. Fuck Them!
brainpang said at
Nov 01 09 at
10:21 am
Holy cow! I no longer live in the area, but I, like you, grew up spending my saturday evenings glued to Psychomania, Night Gallery, or the like on Chiller Theater. Thanks for posting this.
Mike Kirby said at
Nov 24 09 at
5:01 pm
John B, just had to add - I watched Abbott and Costello every Sunday morning, too - another lifelong love nourished by WPIX.
mike Kirby said at
Nov 24 09 at
5:02 pm
