Creature Features

[Bestul]

With the beginning of the New Year, Creatures Features made a welcome return to Channel 5’s Saturday night line-up as it resumed its old 8:30 p.m. timeslot. The January 30th edition of The Monster Times even remarked on this with an article headlined “Return of the Creep.”

Also worth noting is that Chiller Theater was by now airing even earlier in the evening. With it starting at 7 p.m. and Creature Features coming on at 8:30, monster fans effectively had a Saturday night horror double feature.

January 6, 1973 -
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Queen of Outer Space”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Not of This Earth”
January 13, 1973 -
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “World Without End”
January 20, 1973 -
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “From Hell It Came”
January 27, 1973 -
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Frankenstein 1970”
February 3, 1973 –
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Beginning of the End”
February 10, 1973 –
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Attack of the 50-foot Woman”
February 17, 1973 –
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “The Giant Behemoth”
February 24, 1973 –
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Planet on the Prowl”
March 3, 1973 –
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
March 10, 1973 –
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Donovan’s Brain”

The March 10th airing of “Donovan’s Brain” was the last showing of Creature Features for some time. Next week saw special St. Patrick’s Day parade coverage, while the following six Saturdays featured installments of the miniseries The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

March 17, 1973 –
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Donovan’s Brain”
March 24, 1973 –
Channel 5, 12 noon – baseball special
March 31, 1973 –
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Brain from Planet Arous”
April 7, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Attack of the Crab Monsters”
Channel 5, 11:30 p.m. – “Devil Bat”
April 14, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Destination Moon”
April 21, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “The Indestructible Man”
April 28, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “House on Haunted Hill”
May 5, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Corridors of Blood”
May 12, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Cape Canaveral Monsters”
May 19, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Castle of Terror”
May 26, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Fire Maidens of Outer Space”
June 2, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Human Monster”
June 9, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “The Man Who Lived Twice”
June 16, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Before I Hang”

[Bestul]

As summer began, Creature Features returned to Saturday night.

June 23, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “The Monster and the Girl”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “My Son, the Vampire”
June 30, 1973 –
Channel 5, 12 noon – “My Son, the Vampire”
Channel 5, 9 p.m. – “Satan’s Satellites”
July 7, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Satan’s Satellites”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Night Caller from Outer Space”
July 14, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Night Caller from Outer Space”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Horror Hotel”
July 21, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “Horror Hotel”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “The Mad Monster”
July 28, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “The Mad Monster”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “The Monster That Challenged the World”
August 4, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “The Monster That Challenged the World”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “The House on Haunted Hill”
August 11, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “The House on Haunted Hill”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – football
August 18, 1973
Channel 5, 12 noon – “World Without End”
Channel 5, 8:30 p.m. – “Nightmare Castle”

Again, Creature Features was dropped from its nighttime slot and replaced by football games and other programming (although the Saturday at noon horror movie continued as did WPIX’s Chiller Theater). When horror movies eventually returned to Saturday night, they would usually air in a late night timeslot.

Creature Features would resurface at odd intervals, even surprising viewers with a sudden reappearance during 1979-1980, but none of these runs lasted for very long. Sadly, Lou Steele, The Creep himself, died of a heart attack in February 2001.

Putting this broadcast history together brought back to me plenty of great memories – of the pregnant needle spacecraft in It! The Terror from Beyond Space eerily gliding through space, of those squishy brain creatures inching around the woods in Fiend without a Face, and, of course, all the continuing Universal adventures that featured the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man, et al. It also provided a glimpse of how channels 5 and 11 programmed and counter-programmed against one another with their monster movie rerun showcases. It also showed that how, during its heyday, Creature Features became appointment television for horror movie enthusiasts, feeding our love for the genre and providing many younger fans like myself with our first exposure to the Universal classics.

Monster movie memories don’t get much better.

[Bestul]

THE RETURN OF CREATURE FEATURES

Late in 1979, viewers of Channel 5 in New York were pleasantly surprised by the return of an old friend – Lou Steele, aka “The Creep,” host some years ago of its Saturday night horror showcase, Creature Features.

Instead of airing in its old 8:30 p.m. slot, Creature Features was now a late night showcase. What’s more, it aired not one horror movie, not two, but three – a triple feature! The first airing went out under the familiar Creature Features name, the second movie was Son of Creature Features and the third film was shown as Revenge of Creature Features.

[Bestul]

[Bestul]

Here’s the line-up for what was seen:

Saturday, November 24, 1979
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Dracula’s Great Love”
Channel 5, 1:34 a.m. – “Phantom of the Rue Morgue”
Channel 5, 3:21 a.m. – “Horror of Party Beach”
Saturday, December 1, 1979
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed”
Channel 5, 2:02 a.m. – “Trog”
Channel 5, 4 a.m. – “The Monster Maker”
Saturday, December 8, 1979
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Gargoyles”
Channel 5, 1:34 a.m. – “Dracula, Prince of Darkness”
Channel 5, 3:31 a.m. – “The Maze”
Saturday, December 15, 1979
Channel 5, 12 midnight – basketball
Channel 5, 3:00 a.m. – “Frankenstein Created Woman”
Channel 5, 3:59 a.m. – “Dead Men Walk”
Saturday, December 22, 1979
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “The Legend of Boggy Creek”
Channel 5, 2:01 a.m. – “The Mummy” (1959)
Channel 5, 3:52 a.m. – “Mask of Diijon”
Saturday, December 29, 1979
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Scars of Dracula”
Channel 5, 2:01 a.m. – “The Face of Fu Manchu”
Channel 5, 3:58 a.m. – “The Man Who Lived Twice”
Saturday, January 5, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Blood on Satan’s Claw”
Channel 5, 1:59 a.m. – “Superargo vs. Diabolicus”
Channel 5, 3:54 a.m. – “Before I Hang”
Saturday, January 12, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – football
Channel 5, 3 a.m. – “Return of the Vampire”
Saturday, January 19, 1980
Channel 5, 1 a.m. – “Dr. Blood’s Coffin”
Channel 5, 2:58 a.m. – “Corridors of Blood”
Saturday, January 26, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “My Son, the Vampire”
Channel 5, 1:35 a.m. – “Blood of the Vampire”
Channel 5, 3:23 a.m. – “To Love a Vampire”
Saturday, February 2, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “The Black Room”
Channel 5, 1:30 a.m. – “Face Behind the Mask”
Channel 5, 3 a.m. – “Psychomania”
Saturday, February 9, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “The Beast with Five Fingers”
Channel 5, 1:46 a.m. – “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms”
Channel 5, 3:21 a.m. – “The Beast in the Cellar”
Saturday, February 16, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “The Human Monster”
Channel 5, 1:36 a.m. – “Behind the Mask”
Channel 5, 3:05 a.m. – “The Man They Could Not Hang”
Saturday, February 23, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Them”
Channel 5, 2:01 a.m. – “The Sound of Horror”
Channel 5, 3:43 a.m. – “Planet on the Prowl”
Saturday, March 1, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “The Devil’s Own”
Channel 5, 1:57 a.m. – “Kronos”
Channel 5, 3:30 a.m. – “The Man Who Haunted Himself”
Saturday, March 8, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Crucible of Horror”
Channel 5, 1:57 a.m. – “The Devil Doll” (1964)
Channel 5, 3:40 a.m. – “Curse of the Voodoo”
Saturday, March 15, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Dr. Blood’s Coffin”
Channel 5, 2 a.m. – ““Dr. Blood’s Coffin” (obviously a misprint, no correct info is available)
Channel 5, 3:58 a.m. – “Fiend Without a Face”
Saturday, March 22, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Dracula Has Risen from the Grave”
Channel 5, 1:37 a.m. – “The Asphyx”
Channel 5, 3:41 a.m. – “Creation of the Humanoids”
Saturday, March 29, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Sasquatch” documentary
Channel 5, 1:47 a.m. – “The Man in Half Moon Street”
Channel 5, 3:31 a.m. – “Shadow of the Cat”
Saturday, April 5, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Dead of Night”
Channel 5, 2:12 a.m. – “The Climax”
Channel 5, 4:01 a.m. – “The Monster and the Girl”
Saturday, April 12, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “Journey to the Center of Time”
Channel 5, 1:43 a.m. – “Night Creatures”
Channel 5, 3:27 a.m. – “Slaughter of the Vampires”
Saturday, April 19, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “The Lost Continent” (1968)
Channel 5, 1:56 a.m. – “The Vengeance of Fu Manchu”
Channel 5, 3:54 a.m. – “The Projected Man”
Saturday, April 26, 1980
Channel 5, 1 a.m. – “The Face of Fu Manchu”
Channel 5, 2:48 a.m. – “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster”
Saturday, May 3, 1980
Channel 5, 12 midnight – “The Curse of Frankenstein”
Channel 5, 1:46 a.m. – “Curse of the Living Corpse”
Channel 5, 3:33 a.m. – “The Haunted Strangler”
Saturday, May 10, 1980 –
Channel 5, 12 midnight – Kojak reruns started airing here.
Channel 5, 1 a.m. – a couple of Hitchcock thrillers followed.
Channel 5, 3:54 a.m. – “The Flesh Eaters”

Starting with the next week, Hitchcock thrillers or Sherlock Holmes mysteries filled the timeslot. The Creature Features triple feature was gone.

If anyone out there has any photos of Lou Steele (aka The Creep) please contact us immediately!

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