Though poor Chuck Cunningham was offered up as a sacrifice to appease the vengeful spirit, its baleful curse would pursue the gang across several more seasons, inflicting the most odious manner of manifestations — first Spike, then Chachi, and finally the grim herald of the sitcom End Times himself under the guise of “Roger Phillips.” […]

I’ve heard of “dying onstage,” but this is a bit much. (Hey, I’m a dad now. I’m allowed to make these kinds of jokes.) Recommended listening:

Man, this Special Old Ones Cut of Summer School is really weird. Recommended listening:

AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! *hic* AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ARF! Recommended listening: You were expecting that Warren Zevon track, right? Sorry.

Look, the laws of physics just work differently in pre-Code horror-revenge stories, okay? (from “Symphony in Death” in Menace #11, January 1954; art by Joe Maneely, other credits as yet unknown) Recommended listening:

I grew up in an era where trashy low-budget horror flicks had a marketing presence in newspapers and television. With cable and VCR tech still a ways from becoming ubiquitous household staples, and my peers and I being a little too young (and chicken) to sneak into R-rated movies, these ad spots were the sum […]

I’ve been filling out my October smörgåsbord of spooky fare with selected episodes of Night Gallery, thus triggering my umpteenth reassessment of that three-season and oh-so-early-1970s attempt to recapture some of that ol’ Twilight Zone magic. Was it a supernatural counterpart to Love American Style‘s mix of celebrity guest stars and cornball black-out gags? Was […]

In the haunted realm of Romania, it is said that a wolfman who dies shall return as to wreak evil as a vampire. In the blighted hellscape of Hollywood, it is documented fact that an Altman cursed by a career-ending catastrophe…. …shall return a few years later as Count Downula, to plague Solid Gold viewers […]

Please, if they were real witches, they wouldn’t be casting hexes on Starsky and Hutch while intimidating a small rural community. They’d be endlessly arguing about closed practice or how much to charge for their handmade herbal satchets at next weekend’s street fair. (“Satan’s Witches,” originally broadcast on 2/8/1978, is actually pretty fascinating because it […]

Ah, the good old days of wholesome kids’ television! Recommended listening: