Interview With Creature Features’
John Stanley
Here’s an interview with Creature Features’ John Stanley I did in 2007, all freshly pressed for you.
Yeah, sure, I’ll tell you what you want to know. The whole…gasp…ungodly thing: I was a TV horror host. Yeah, me. The ordinary guy without a monster suit. I was one of those who introduced monster flicks on Saturday night. Horror classics and non-classics sixty minutes before the arrival of the Witching Hour. Yeah, let the truth be heard throughout the dungeon, throughout the castle of madmen: I was a “Creature Features” man (I Was a TV Horror Host: Memoirs of a Creature Features Man, John Stanley).
Creature Features was a popular television horror movie show that aired on KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland and San Francisco, California, from 1971 to 1984. Originally hosted by Bob Wilkins, John Stanley took over in 1979. Local station horror hosts would introduce, comment, and usually have fun with the evening’s movie fare, but Creature Features took things more seriously and included interviews with horror and sci fi notables. The Universal Studios classics, Roger Corman budget movies, Japanese terrors, and anything not nailed down under a coffin lid was fair game for airplay (you needed a rabbit ears antenna back then).
In New York City, one horror host was The Creep (Lou Steele) on Channel 5. Except for his sunglasses and sinister attitude, Steele played The Creep without a dungeon backdrop or creepy make-up. I fondly recall spending a lot of time with The Creep and I’m a better person for it. I probably would be a much better person had I been lucky enough to watch John Stanley’s Creature Features. Although he sported the usual horror host trappings of a tomb-like set and outrageous throne chair, Stanley appeared as a normal nerdy guy who knew way too much about the movies he presented. He also had the most wonderful and interesting celebrity guests to chat with.
He wrote an enjoyable and informative book about his experiences called I Was a TV Horror Host. After I read it, I knew I had to ask him to step into the closet for a little chat. …