The ABC Movie of the Week

There are many responsible elements behind my lifelong obsession with all things horrific. The Universal Monster movies, to be sure. Dark Shadows. The Twilight Zone. Hammer Studios productions. The big-bug craze of the 50's. Edgar Allan Poe and Eight Tales of Terror. I don't know whether to be thankful for these things, or resentful.

These will be mostly unknown to all but the most ardent younger horror fan, those over the age of, say, 45, will surely remember those glorious Movies of the Week which came on the ABC network every Tuesday, from 1969 to 1976.

Nearly every type of movie was produced and aired. Bawdy comedies, timely stories of the hot topics of the day, action, suspense, romance. But the ones that seemed to be talked about the most were the horror movies.

Most of these aired for an hour-and-a-half, which made them only a little over an hour in length once commercial breaks were inserted. nowadays in that time period they would probably only be forty-five minutes long. Many movies feel drawn out to feature length. An hour or so is about novella length.

ABC had been the third rated of the Big Three television networks for a long time, but The ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week played a big role in changing that. Most of the stories were, frankly, potboilers. But they were incredibly popular at the time. There was usually a lot of lunchroom talk about them on Wednesday at school. Especially the horror and action stories.

Not all of the Tuesday movies were low rent affairs. Spielberg had audiences riveted to their seats with his suspenseful adaptation of Richard Matheson's Duel. ABC was savvy enough to allow the writer to adapt his own story. There was one called Tribes, in which a hippie played by Jan-Michael Vincent was drafted into the Army.

And, of course, every horror fan worth his or her salt rightly revers The Night Stalker. This classic was also penned by Matheson, but it was adapted from a then-unpublished manuscript by Jeff Rice. It was followed by a decent sequel, called The Night Strangler, and a silly but fondly remembered series that featured the Kolchack character fighting a different monster each week.

If you like Kolchack and have not read the Rice novel, you should make a point to do so as soon as possible. The character is quite a bit different, and the story is darker and more effective. Used copies are still pretty easy to find.

But I digress.

The producers were not only shrewd enough to hire the incomparable Richard Matheson, they also utilized the talents of Robert Bloch for some screenplays. They purchased and adapted stories by Theodore Sturgeon, John Farris, Zenna Henderson. Cult director Curtis Harrington did a couple of pictures with them.

Looking back, it was a golden time.

I've dreamed of having a chance to see some of them again. Of course it's easy to watch The Night Stalker, or Duel. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark was remade and isn't hard to find. But most were seemingly lost.

I have the fondest memories of shivering through ABC movies like Crowhaven Farm, Killdozer, The Cat Creature, How Awful About Alan, The House That Would Not Die, A Cold Night's Death, Moon of the Wolf, Satan's Triangle, Night Slaves, and so many more.

There are other famous ones that stand out in memory: Bad Ronald. Trilogy of Terror. When Michael Calls.

Some saint has uploaded a bunch of these on You Tube, and I have added hyperlinks to them. I haven't watched any yet, and I am wondering if I even should. Maybe some childhood memories should remain majestic. I'd hate to watch them and see that they are dated and corny. At the time they were so vivid and terrifying.

I may do so, but I'll wait for now. By all means, check a few out and let me know if I should take the plunge, or allow my sweetly dark memories to stay untarnished.