If you were watching “Svengoolie” on TV a couple of Saturday nights ago, you know he was screening “Revenge of the Creature,” the 1955 sequel to “Creature from the Black Lagoon,”
In passing, the MeTV horror host mentioned that he had hosted a TV screening of the movie – ostensibly in 3-D – in the 1980s and cited it as a horrible experience. Sven has made this same reference a few times, much like the survivor of a horror film looks back on an encounter with Leatherface or Jason Vorhees.
You might not know, but 3-D films, which had been a popular novelty in the 1950s with “House of Wax” and other movies, were a sub-sub-genre of renewed interest by Hollywood in the 1980s. For the most part, movie theaters screened newly recirculated films like “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” and “Dracula” and “The Bubble,” which was redistributed as “Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth.” Spoiler: It was not fantastic.
So it was probably inevitable that someone – not Svengoolie – had the bright idea of trying out an actual good 3-D movie, “Revenge of the Creature,” on TV.
In my area in Indiana, we were able to see Svengoolie from Chicago channel WFLD, but in the spring and early summer of 1982, the Creature film was screened on TV channels all over the country.
Sometimes, these airings were hosted and sometimes they were not.
What they all had in common:
You had to get a pair of red-and-blue 3-D glasses from a fast food place or convenience store (I got mine with the purchase of Pepsi at a c-store, I believe).
You had to watch on a color TV. (Even though the movie was in black and white.)
You were supposed to try to sit six feet from the TV and as straight on to the TV as possible.
You had to try to contain your disappointment at the lack of quality 3-D when the movie aired.
“I think I just saw the Gill-Man’s hand in 3-D,” my friends and I regularly shouted during the movie.
Svengoolie ruefully remembers that ill-fated attempt, but for me, it’s a pleasant memory.
And far from the stupidest thing we did in the 1980s.
keithroysdon 