You are now listening to post-mortem with Mick Harris, where the most influential voices in horror cinema

will spill their guts, literally, to the renowned horror director, writer, and producer.

Now here's your host, Mick Garris.

I'm Mick Garris and this is post-mortem.

When did you first start watching horror movies?

Did you stumble onto something weird while flipping around the dial

and realize that this was made just for you?

Was it a friend down the street street or that eccentric uncle whose house was filled with a library of

creepy VHS spider movies.

For many it was the vaunted and late lamented horror host.

Dating back to the 1950s and 60s,

most of the local TV stations around the country

ran a catalog of inexpensive old horror films late on Friday nights or on Saturday afternoons.

And they had a host usually dressed in horror show drag, climbing out of a dusty coffin, and

making fun of the movies that we actually loved.

Usually they did it with charm and a little love, and we forgave them their mockery because

they were showing our movies and nobody else was. New York had Zacharly, Cleveland

had Sven Gully, Philadelphia had Dr Shock. In my hometown of Los Angeles,

Vampira was the first of the breed on Channel 7, though that was a little before my time.

Later on, Channel 13 had Jeepers Creapers and Channel 9 had Seymour.

It all changed dramatically in 1981 when Channel 9, after the death of Larry

Vincent who played Seymour, brought a new kind of horror host on board. She'd been a Las Vegas showgirl, an actress, a performer of

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