Freddy's Nightmares Halloween episodes

Freddy’s Nightmares ran from 1988-1990 in syndication. My local Fox station ran it with Friday the 13th The Series on Friday nights.



Robert England played Freddy as a Crypt Keeper like host, mostly just commenting on the stories, but not being directly involved. He was in the storylines of a handful of episodes, including two Halloween episodes.



“Trick Or Treats” aired October 30, 1988

A medical student starts to have strange dreams, and memories of her oppressive Grandmother keep coming back.



She agrees to a research project, where her dreams will be recorded. The tables get turned on the ambitious researcher as he finds himself pulled into the dream with Freddy.




“Photo Finish” aired October 29, 1989.

In the first story, a once famous photographer now finds herself shooting family portraits in Springwood. She gets a chance at a comeback when a new magazine named Kink hires her to do a racy Halloween photo shoot. Or as the kids say “racky”. With Freddy’s help, she’ll get good photos, even if it means having Freddy kill off her models.



In the second story, the FBI investigates the murder of a Springwood family. One of the agents has an unorthodox approach to investigations. He puts it together that Freddy was involved, and ends up confronting Freddy at the end.




These two episodes, along with the others that feature Freddy in the storyline, are a must see to Nightmare On Elm Street fans.

The other creator of the modern day zombie

“Night of the Living Dead” (1968) was the creation of the modern zombie. No longer were they  henchman to choke people out, this was an apocalypse of undead cannibals. And if you died, you became one of the creatures you were fighting against.



A lot of people credit George Romero as the sole creator of the new breed of zombie. But in fact he was only half the equation. John Russo co wrote the script of “Night of the Living Dead”. It was a combination of Romero’s variation on “Last Man On Earth”, (the first adaption of “I Am Legend”),  and Russo’s story of flesh eaters. And it was Russo who’s idea it was to start the movie at a cemetery.



In my opinion, “Night of the Living Dead” was the best of the Romero directed zombie films. After that they became too satirical, and too on the nose with social commentary.

“The Walking Dead” has best realized the potential of the zombie subgenre created by “Night of the Living Dead”.  It’s not trying to make fun of it’s creatures or push heavy handed politics. It simply shows what the world could become as the zombie apocalypse wears on. A world where man is equally as dangerous as zombies.



In 1978 Russo wrote a novel for his idea of a “Night of the Living Dead” sequel called “Return of the Living Dead”. The title would later be used in an unrelated 1985 horror/comedy, but this story was a straight forward follow up to Night. The situation of Night had been contained, and everything was back to normal, until ten years later when it started up again. In this world it was still something that could be contained, not the post apocalypse zombie world that's the norm nowadays. But this story felt like a “Walking Dead” story in that man was the bigger threat, and the protagonists had to deal with a group of killers and rapists.



If you’ve never seen “Night of the Living Dead”, or haven’t watched it in awhile, it’s definitely worth viewing where the modern day zombie first came to life.

Horror stories in the original Star Trek

The original “Star Trek” series is considered one of the greatest science fiction shows of all time, launching a franchise that continues to this day.

Two of the episodes in that landmark sci fi show very much fell into the horror category. Both written by none other than “Psycho” author Robert Bloch.

The first was “Catspaw”, which aired October 27, 1967.



Captain Kirk and his landing party beam down to Pyrus VII, where they encounter witches, zombies, and even a black cat.

The second was “Wolf In the Fold”, which aired December 22, 1967.



On the planet Argelius II , Scotty is accused of Jack The Ripper style murders.
Bloch had previously written two Jack the Ripper short stories, “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” and “A Toy For Juliette”.

So if you want some horror in your Star Trek stories, check these two episodes out.

Horror movies on USA Network in the 1980s

A lot of people look back fondly at the video store days of the 80s, being drawn to a horror movie they’ve never heard of by a really cool box cover. But for me cable was the more accessible way to discover a new horror gem. Looking to fill airtime in a new medium, cable was a gold mine for horror fans.

USA network nowadays is just another mainstream channel, but back then it was more like youtube. There was a wide ranging of programming during the week, but the weekends were loaded with horror.

First up was the Friday night show “Night Flight”. Created by Stuart S. Shapiro in 1981, the show would run until 1988.  The signature bumper was the Night Flight graphic flying over the city, while narrator Pat Prescott would give information on what we were about to watch.

Night Flight mostly showed alternative rock videos and offbeat shorts, but they’d also show horror movies like “Night of the Living Dead”, “Phantom Creeps”, “Invisible Ghost”, etc.



On Saturday afternoons there was “Commander USA’s Groovie Movies”. A horror host show which debuted in 1985. Actor Jim Hendricks played the part of Commander USA, a retired superhero showing movies on his psychotronic screen. He’s similar to The Comedian character from the 1986/87 comic “Watchmen”.



He showed a wide range of horror movies, from dubbed Mexican horror movies like “Vampire’s Coffin” to the first three “Friday the 13th” movies. Leading into or coming out of commercial breaks, he’d do a comedy segment, sometimes doing a parody of the scene that just played.

In 1986 he did a tie in contest promotion with “Psycho 3” where people who called a 900 number could potentially win an overnight stay at the Bates Motel.




The format for Commander USA’s Groovie Movies started as double features, but eventually it was only a single feature as time went on. The show lasted until 1989.

And then on Saturday night was “Saturday Nightmares”, which ran from 1984 until 1994. It would start off with a horror movie, and then show one or two anthology shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Hitchhiker, etc.



All three USA network programs can be found online. Commander USA and Saturday Nightmares lives on only from people who happened to tape it off TV. Sadly all the masters were tossed by USA network years ago.

In closing, as Commander USA always signed off with: “Keep your nose in the wind, and your tail to yourself. See ya pilgrim”.