WARNING: Behind the scenes details you might not want to know.
So anyway, I was preparing “Son Of Bad Movie Weekend”, which I barely remember, as I was busy setting up our ongoing weekly show. “Son Of” must have been funny, it was another hit.
So would I be ready to do the first monster host show during “Son Of Bad Movie”?
We will try.
THE SET
So I designed a set that could be done with three cans of paint, a table and a bookcase. Painted it on the studio wall, because I had no money for flats. (4’x8′ wooden panel set background pieces.) Matt was also an art school graduate, so he did a lot. Serendipity offered me a fire suppression pipe in the corner I painted red for arty effect. Big cartoon window painted on the wall. Matt and I both had monster toys and skulls and stuff, which I set on the table in front of us. (Maybe that is another article about us collecting monster toys.)
Because early on it was a standing set, we just kept adding to it. Later when we had to share the studio sometimes, I would take it down and have to put it back out.
The Richmond VA monster host previous to us , the Bowman Body, told me in later years his show (on the local ABC station in the ’70’s) had been a collaboration between him and the Art Director there. Well I was the host and the Art Director here. And I had my secret weapon, Matt, also an artist.
(Set Picture)
THE NAME AND COSTUMES
So what were we going to call it? The General Manager had in mind Dr Cadaverino, the Milwaukee horror host. When I was a kid in the midwest we had Acri’s Creature Feature, where they tried to sell you vinyl siding during the host segments. Not much to go on there. Matt had grown up watching Bowman Body, and was actually interviewed in the Bowman Body documentary movie. Anyhow, I kind of picked a generic mad scientist character, white hair, white coat, big mustache. So no one could tell it was me. It was a kids show show we didn’t want to be too creepy. (Seriously the only way people recognized me was by my voice. Like in the grocery store but that is another story…)
After some internet research to make sure I wasn’t copying anybody, I actually sent around a list of names and got people to vote. Well certain people I thought had some sense. Okay 4 or 5 people. And Dr. Gruesome it was. I just added Movie Morgue myself.
Matt chose a burlap poncho over a black sweatshirt, with a towel tied over his shoulder under his shirt as a “hunch”. (Is that how you describe it?) And a multi color wig. Well, it was a kids show. There had been this employee of the station, who didn’t have enough to do, and we had called him “the mosquito” because he just hovered around watching the rest of us work and asking dumb questions. Pretty much described the character of Skeeter. So Skeeter it was. Matt later took out the third “e” and signed it Skeetr.
SCRIPT? WHAT SCRIPT?
Starting with the first show, we did a joke going in and out of each segment. We improved a lot pretty quickly. At first I was doing a “Boris” kind of voice, and Skeetr was kind of doing a “Curly” voice, but we soon settled down. Since what we really had to know was whether we were going to a movie segment or a commercial break, there was always a chart on the desk in front of me telling me where we were going.
And what people always asked, was what was the script like?
Uhhhh,…script?
At first I would spell things out, what were were going to say, the jokes. And all moved slowly. The script the became like ” To Commercial. Doc details experiment on Skeetr. Skeeter says something appropriate.”
Yeah, it wall pretty much all “improvised”. The jokes were discussed right before the segments in a “you say this and I’ll say that” kind of fashion. We tried to pack the jokes in. I usually prepared the open, the subject, and 75% of the segments. I depended on Matt for the other 25%.
The IMDB article about us notes my super speedy delivery, and that was because I only had so much time, and so much to say. And often I was nervous. Plus if a joke fell flat, it was better to go on to the next thing.
When we were guests on “Midnight Frights” later on, the show was produced by folks who grew up watching us. The first time, they wrote out lines for us to say. Which we kind of did. From then on they just would leave a space in the script that said “Doc & Skeetr”, and we improvised.
NEXT-Twice a week. On and on.