Wild Thingdom

The History Of Wild Thingdom

 

I'm the Love Child of Eric Von Zipper and Candy Johnson, the lady who danced in the fringey dress in the Beach Party flicks . No one could resist those wild hips. Von Zipper saw to it I was adopted by a nice young couple. 
I was raised in a small town near the Eerie Loch. In those days, when I was but a tyke, the airwaves brought images from a great Wizard/Beatnik known as Ghoulardi. Ghoulardi worked out of a great walled city known as Kleave Land. He taught great lessons about distrusting those in power, because they're knifs, not accepting unfair things because everybody else does, and most importantly, it's funny to see car models blown up. With his deep booming laugh we would all watch him every week to see what wisdom The Great One would impart, along with a monster movie that had been "improved".


Sadly one day Ghoulardi left Kleave Land to explore the Land Of Shaking Earth. A handful of brave Knights kept his spirit alive in the years following the Time Of Leaving. We all watched and learned from Hoolihan, Big Chuck, The Ghoul, Li'l John, and Superhost. Brave Knights all, they proudly bore the mantle of Ghoulardi.


As I came to manhood I was a thouroughly schooled disciple of Ghoulardi. I knew how to spot a Knif, watched black and white films every week, and always knew when to "cool it". That's my story, straight from the fridge.


Von Zip 

This introduction was placed on MySpace shortly after Von Zip and I (Gillgrappler) met on the old Universal Monster Army yahoo group.  After a few weeks of ghoulish hijinks in that group we realized that we were both currently living in the Rochester, NY area.


We met in person at a local mall (Irondequoit Mall, Medley Centre, Steal My Car Center).
He filled me in on his background (see above). Then I shared my background.

I grew up in the swamps of Victor, NY outside of Rochester.   I watched a Rochester NY station, WHEC 10. On Saturday evenings at 11:30 they ran Frightening Flickers  with an unseen host named Gregory the Graveyard Walker. The show opened with a montage of clips of things like figures staggering thru a dark fullmoon lighted cemetary (from some movie I believe). It started with Gregory's voiceover saying something like 
"Who knows what horrors we will receive, 
a tale of terror you won't believe. 
I know for I am Gregory your friendly graveyard walker, 
bringing you TV 10's Frightening Flicker!" 
I think this ran from 1970-1980. 

I also watched Channel 31 WUHF to see a show called Creature Feature on Saturday afternoons.  Saturday was the day for monsters, horror and sci-fi in Rochester!


Also on 31 WUHF was Ranger Bob host of TV POW at 4:00 on weekdays.  He showed old cartoons, Little Rascals and Three Stooges episodes.  He also did many skits that involved our favorite monsters.  This was shown in his Halloween Specials.
An example of one of these skits can be viewed below.

Von Zip and I wanted to do a new horror host show for the Rochester, NY area and beyond.
We decided on the name for our show...WILD THINGDOM!  Now that we had the name of the show we had to develop an opening sequence and a closing sequence for the show.

We then had to produce and edit episodes of Wild Thingdom.  Next we had to get Wild Thingdom on the air.  We met with reps from Finger Lakes Cable Channel 12.  They wanted us to have at least 2 complete seasons in the can, before they would consider airing it.
Reps from Webster Cable Channel 12 loved the show.  They gave Wild Thingdom a Midnight time slot on alternate Saturdays!


Our next step was to promote Wild Thingdom with other horror hosts and fans.
Von Zip went on a promotion trip to the Cleveland area.  During this trip he was able to meet with two of his idols Big Chuck and Lil' John!

As a result of this trip Von Zip was able to get Wild Thingdom involved as a member of Couch Potato Theatre's "Triangle Channel"!
The show was now being showed on the internet.

Halloween Jack the Creator, Owner and Operator of THE MONSTER CHANNEL: The first INTERACTIVE horror channel!
http://www.100ymm.com/

wanted to air Wild Thingdom.  He gave us a time slot on Wednesdays at 10:00 pm.

THANKS AGAIN
Halloween Jack!