Two Old Farts Talk Sci Fi celebrates Halloween by looking at two horror comedies from the 1960s, The Addams Family and The Munsters. In fact, they look specifically at episodes that are the “Halloween episodes” of the two series:

Halloween with the Addams Family
season 1 episode 7 of The Addams Family
original air date: October 30, 1964.
IMDB Rating = 7.8

Munster’s Masquerade
season 1 episode 1 of The Munsters.
original air date: May 6, 1965
IMDB Rating = 7.5

As mentioned in the episode, here are the descriptions from wikipedia for the two episodes.

Episode synopsis for Halloween with the Addams Family
from Wikipedia:

Marilyn’s boyfriend, Tom Daily, invites the Munster clan to a masquerade. Eddie remains at home with Mrs. Morton as his sitter. Marilyn goes as Priscilla, Lily is Little Bo Peep, Grandpa is Napoleon and Herman is King Arthur in a suit of shining armor. At the party Mr. Daly is dressed and made up as Frankenstein’s monster. Herman tells him that he reminds him of someone and adds that it’s unfortunate that he isn’t wearing a costume at his own masquerade party, angering Mr. Daly. When it is time for the best costume award Herman is asked to take off his helmet. One man says that Herman should win for wearing one mask over another. Lily is insulted and Marilyn as well is angry with Tom’s family. Tom takes Marilyn home, where he finally sees Herman and Lily without their costumes. Tom runs away, but Marilyn is relieved.

Episode synopsis for Munster’s Masquerade from Wikipedia:

Mistaking two robbers named Claude (Don Rickles) and Marty (Skip Homeier) for trick-or-treaters, the family takes them in for a Halloween celebration. The robbers agree because they are hiding out from the police and their car has run out of gas in front of the Addams’ house. They put up with the creepy household’s holiday festivities as best they can, because they spot Gomez’ desk full of loose cash. Unbeknownst to all, Thing is on to them and ready to take matters “in hand”. When they finally manage to escape the house, it’s only into the waiting arms of the police.

The cast of The Munsters:

Fred Gwyne as Herman Munster
Al Lewis as Grandpa Munster
Yvonne De Carlo as Lily Munster (Herman’s wife)
Butch Patrick As Eddie Munster (the son)
Marilyn (the adopted daughter) played by three actresses:
Beverly Owen as Marilyn #1
Pat Priest as Marilyn #2 (took over midway thru season 1).
Debbie Watson as Marilyn #3 in the film Munster, Go Home.


The cast of The Addams Family:

John Astin as Gomez Addams
Carolyn Jones as Morticia Frump Addams.
Ted Cassidy as Lurch the Butler.
Felix Sila as Cousin ITT.
Lisa Loring as Wednesday Addams
Ken Weatherwax as Pugsley (Pubert!)
Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester
Blossom Rock as Grandmama.

We continue our all-TV season, and recognize Harlan Ellison, who wrote a series of essays on TV, referring to TV as a ‘glass teat’.

Two Old Farts Talk Sci Fi looks at Richard Matheson, and since this season is the TV season, we look at the stories he wrote that became part of the ABC Movie of the Week.

We do a deep dive on the history of TV movies, the ABC Movie of the Week, and specifically the movies that Richard Matheson wrote, which were: “Duel” and “The Trilogy of Terror” and also “The Night Stalker (1972 film)”.

The movies, the theatrical ones, back in the day, that played on TV, cost a lot for the TV stations to play, the rights owner, representative or distributor charged a premium on recent films, for them to appear on TV, and in some cases the networks would bid against each other for the rights to have a movie played on their station, so most films that appeared on TV were older films. There were, occasionally, made for TV movies, but by the late 1960s, TV studios decided to produce, on a regular basis, original TV movies, more as a cost-saving measure. They controlled production costs, and did not have to bid against other networks. Often these movies were shot in 14 days or fewer.

DUEL

Troy and David first look at DUEL. a 1971 movie, written by Richard Matheson, and directed by Steven Spielberg. They look at the sound, Dennis Weaver’s acting, the diner, the reptiles. The decision by Spielberg not to have a big explosion at the end. The great first line (and following lines) in the story that appeared in Playboy:

At 11:32 am Mann passed the truck.

Here are the first two camera shots of the shooting script from DUEL:

THE NIGHT STALKER

The second ABC Movie of the Week that Troy and David look at is The Night Stalker. This is the first of two TV movies that preceded the TV Series, the other is The Night Strangler.

The Night Stalker influenced a generation, included Chris Carter, who created The X-Files.

There was something about the shouting matches between Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) and Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). The heartbreaking ending, where Gail Foster (Carol Lynley) and Kolchak are separated.

David, in a senior moment, says “Jason” instead of Janos Skorzeny.
(ya-noss score-zen-knee).

Troy mentions the unusual choice of free-form jazz music that is used in the fight scenes.

THE TRILOGY OF TERROR

The third ABC Movie of the Week that Troy and David look at is The Trilogy of Terror. This is a movie that has three separate horror stories, the third of which is the one that we all know and love. Richard Matheson wrote all three stories, but other writers wrote the screenplays for the first two stories, and Matheson insisted on writing the screenplay for the third segment.

Karen Black played the lead role(s) in all three segments.