Wor channel 9 Godzilla commercial holiday movie special 1981

[alnessang]

I remember Gozilla movies airing on tv in NYC sometime during Thanksgiving break '81.

[MOSUGOJI]

Just for the hell of it I looked up what WWOR was running today and tomorrow at the times they should be running the King King and Godzilla movies. Freaking Divorce Court and Law and Oder reruns!! What a load of shit! Not that it matters much anyways since our cable company no longer carries WWOR and it's no longer an independent superstation. It's just another nameless faceless used to be good station in a sea of crap that thinks infomercials are actual entertaining programming!!

[Kepley100]

Oh boy, next week is Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to pop in my KING KONG Blu-Ray (along with my SON OF KONG and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG DVDs)! On Tuesday, GODZILLA VS MEGALON is finally coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray (courtesy of Media Blasters), just in time for the Thanksgiving weekend! (BTW, I pre-ordered the GODZILLA VS MEGALON Blu-Ray on Amazon.) It was amazing discovering WOR-TV's HOLIDAY MOVIE SPECIALS three years ago and recreating them with the DVDs!

[htsasele]

Did he say "Jack Palance stars in 'Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster'"? What the fuck, where did that come from? Or did he mean to say Jack Palance hosts 'Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster'?

[mazinz2]

@htsasele this was discussed before, we can call it a station blooper, though I can see Palance telling Megalon to go and destroy the city

[Metaldog67]

@htsasele lol!

[Tarantulisimo]

Godzilla movies were the Xmas Special & King Kong/MJY movies were the Thankgiving special, right? Or was it the other way around?

[mazinz2]

@Tarantulisimo, both would air during the Thanksgiving holiday (Kong on Thursday and Godzilla on Friday). They probably did show stuff round Christmas time and if they did it was not a yearly tradition with the station

[tapthatt2012]

happy holidays!!!!  no james bond marathons for me-----GODZILLA ALL THE WAY!!

[mazinz2]

@tapthatt2012 You got that right! Currently as I am typing this message the Godzila vs the Cosmic monster film is playing (my discs)

[tapthatt2012]

@mazinz2 i actually threw in kk escapes. from a convention bootleg. eng lbx. looked pretty good on the 46" tv. today the marathon continues!

[Tarantulisimo]

@mazinz2 Does any1 know the name of this announcer?

[Tarantulisimo]

@tapthatt2012 Do U know this announcer's name? And did U ever locate the "Spaced Out Films" intro? "Spaced Out Films" was the name they changed Saturday morning's "Chiller Theater" 2 around '77-'78. And keep those commercial blocks coming!!!!

[BrooklynEagle]

I really wish they'd still show these! Used to be the best way to close out the years back in the day (and get cozy & adjusted for a COLD-ASS Tri-State winter! Winter used to be brick something serious back in the day in the borough!). But since Channel 9 is all "MyNetwork" now (thankfully the Bombers games on there are YES-based) and everything, I doubt we're getting those great flicks back. Nowadays, I gotta depend on the Sci-Fi (oh, excuse, "SyFy") channel. :-*(

[Jerryjg62]

Jack Palance was in a Godzilla movie?!

Man, I'm behind in my Godzilla movie trivia! :-0

[spicnspanish]

@Jerryjg62 No he wasn't. That was a mistake lol.

[fronio89]

By the time they showed the Godzilla versus the Smog Monster you would be full of turkey.....

[pushingmongo]

Along with King Kong, Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young...this was every Thanksgiving of my childhood.

[memyself2k]

@pushingmongo Sharp memories! A native New Yorker like myself every Thanksgiving as a kid.

[GueiGirl]

I remember the Smog Monster one scaring the hell out of me when I was little. Now it's one of my favorite Godzilla films.

[madfingers72]

Fri., 11/27/09: I almost took today off from work to watch 'em on DVD this afternoon. I've been meaning to do that one of these years.

[mazinz2]

funny you mentioned this, because that is exactly what I did today. I took out the dvd i made from the 1981 WOR special with the three Godzilla films from that year. Brought me back in time

[spicnspanish]

@mazinz2 You have the 3 Godzilla flicks recorded off Ch.9 with commercials in 1981?

[mazinz2]

@spicnspanish

yes I do have the 3 films though without commercials (well maybe one or two but that was it.)

[the430movie]

OMG!!!! I love this!

[scramyou]

I wish the would start all of this up again. I miss this around Thanksgiving & Christmas. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Does anyone rember something called the AFM(?????) Holiday Network that would show holiday related movies and had a realy cherrie hoilday music opening w/swirly colors? I cant seem to find anything like that here.

[johnjanos]

I believe your thinking of the SFM holiday network. Wnew used to show that stuff in the 70's an 80's..

[scramyou]

Yes and thank you. I did find that here after I rembered the correct letters(SFM,not what I had written). Just aswell,does anyone rember the ,agian I THINK channel 11 or 9 old holiday special opening and between comercial opening & bump..it aswell has those swriling colors and happy hoiday type music. These clips are all bringing back great memorys,thanks.

[1952kid]

I think King Kong was first aired on Super adventure theater, WOR-9 with Claude Kirchner and Clownie on saturday mornings. Correct me if im wrong about this.

[rguiteau]

I could of swore that one weekend in 80 or 81 WOR 9 devoted a block of time to airing Japanese tv shows..I remember watching Gundam, Ultraman and some game show Ichi's Castle? Anyone recall that?

[rguiteau]

Jack Palance?!..oh I forgot he played Mechagodzilla..thanks for the memories!

[RoyKnable]

Back then, Godzilla was pretty big. WABC had Godzilla Week on the 4:30 Movie. WPIX showed Destroy All Monsters on Chiller Theater. WOR had some on the weekends. Good times.

[memyself2k]

WOR had Fright Night late Saturdays. I guess you're a fellow New Yorker?

[wmbrown6]

Until the mid-1970's, WNBC Channel 4 had one Godzilla film: "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster," which received constant play on "Movie 4" and occasionally the "Sunday Film Festival." Near the end of the decade, however, it was added to WOR's library of monster movies.

[memyself2k]

Thanks for the info.

[Doogie7626]

Goddamn!! I was looking for ads like this for the last 18 years. I remembered WWOR/Channel 9 used to play King Kong on Thanksgiving Day and the day after was Godzilla thon. I knew the gig was up when Godzilla disappeared. Well he disappeared and I discovered pussy.

[tapthat2012]

great memories/ what else do you have on tape like this from back then?

[greybread]

Hey everybody! I just got the GODZILLA MASTER COLLECTION box set from Best Buy! And I got the KING KONG 2-Disc Special Edition, SON OF KONG, KING KONG VS GODZILLA, and KING KONG ESCAPES all on DVD! All thanks to seeing these wonderful clips here on YouTube! I'll be recreating the HOLIDAY MOVIE SPECIALS on my DVD player on Memorial Day!

[bmovies60]

Now I know that having our favorite movies on DVD is a WONDERFUL convenience (I own HUNDREDS of movies and tv shows on DVD). You can watch them when you want, without commercial interruptions, and the viewing image is sharper than seeing them on the tv or movie screen. BUT a small part of me misses seeing these movies the way I did as a kid in the 1970s-80s: During the holidays, on a local tv station (WOR, WNEW, WPIX, etc) with commercials, on the rabbit eared antenna tv (no cable back then!)

[terrondt]

@bmovies60 i have many of these movies on dvd also but i agree with u. i loved watching these movies on thanksgiving afternoon into the evening as child in the late 1970's and early 80's. east turky dinner with trimmings and run to the tv to watch the godzilla flicks.

[EarlSnohomish]

The big apes on Thanksgiving and Godzilla and friends the next day...that was really a smorgasbord for us kids back then. :-)

Thanks for posting this!

[Reg197844]

Yep, it wasn't Thanksgiving without Mighty Joe Young.

[Tarantulisimo]

@EarlSnohomish Do U remember if WOR did anything similar around Christmas-Time? And I was some1 would post some of those WOR employees' family Season's Greetings promos from back then....

[heine71]

Is one of the Godzilla movies featuring an ULTRAMAN/SPECTREMAN clone?

[bigalsns]

Yes, "Godzilla vs. Megalon" features the Ultraman clone Jet Jaguar.

[muzakid31]

I remember the lineup as King Kong vs. Godzilla, then Godzilla vs. Megalon and then Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.

[bigalsns]

You're right. However there were a few years where "Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster" played first in the lineup before it ended up being replaced by "King Kong vs. Godzilla."

[Syntox]

Man, this Godzilla marathon used to be what Thanksgiving weekend was ALL ABOUT when I was a kid growing up in NYC. THANK YOU!

[muzakid31]

YEAH!! I remember always looking forward to the Thanksgiving week issue of TV Guide and looking forward to seeing the Monster Movie Lineups.

[TGS909]

Syntox...you are soo right! I can't tell you how much i feel the same way. I waited all year for that Thanksgiving weekend and those movies! It is so sad to think someday no one will know anymore what that was like!...

[venomchamber]

wtf?! Did he say "JACK PALANCE stars in Godzilla Versus the Cosmic Monster"? What a mistake that was!

[wmbrown6]

In the first place, "Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster" was a re-titling of a film originally released as "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla." Secondly, Mr. Palance may have appeared in some newly-filmed scenes of this picture (which was mentioned as among the "embarrassing foreign films" he made in that period - 1974), though he isn't mentioned as among the cast today.

[venomchamber]

nope. I'm very much aware of Godzilla's movie history and have every version on VHS & DVD. Jack Palance never did any work for Toho Co. Ltd. Obviously the announcer is reciting an incorrect transcript supplied by a program director who wasn't paying attention and misplaced the credits on the wrong text.

[wmbrown6]

Raymond Burr didn't work for Toho either - but he appeared in the U.S. release of the first "Godzilla" movie in the '50's.

[venomchamber]

Yes, we all know he was added by Transworld Pictures, and later by New World Pictures in 1985. However Nick Adams, Russ Tamblyn, Robert Dunham, Joseph Cotten and Richard Jaeckel all appeared in original Japanese versions.

The fact remains Jack Palance was not added to nor starred in the Godzilla movie advertised. It was an on-air misquote.

[wmbrown6]

Hmmm. This misconception must've persisted for years afterwards, given some places on the Web that misattribute Mr. Palance as being in the flick. Which American actors would've been in "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" a.k.a. "...the Cosmic Monster," if any?

[venomchamber]

None. The film consists of an entirely Japanese cast.

However, B-movie actor Robert Dunham appeared in Godzilla Vs Megalon as the ruler of Seatopia during this marathon.

[wmbrown6]

Ah. Given that Mr. Palance did his share of foreign-made schlock in that period, what would he have appeared in that was in Ch. 9's library at the time?

[venomchamber]

Who knows? It could have been a typo in their database for his early 70s western The God Child or a mismatch for his war movie Attack! as there was a movie shown called Attack Of The Monsters on frequently at that time which he is not in either. At the time of this commercial, he was hosting Ripley's, which I have dozens of shows on tape.

[EarlSnohomish]

The funny thing is that many outlets selling the movie advertise Jack Palance starring in it still to this day.

My brothers and I had a field day back then for a few days in 1981 when we heard on WOR that Jack was "in" this movie, BTW. The thought of Palance (one of my favorie actors) in that flick just seemed laughable to us.

[bat115]

Ha, they did that on my local stations too. I always wondered where the idea that he was in it came from. anyone know?

[MexiGojira]

I think he said Jet Jaguar.

[ZIPPTPH77]

Now that was living wasn't it? LOL

[wmbrown6]

I'm still wondering who the V/O was on this. From what I've gathered, he was either a part-timer, freelancer or fill-in.

[mazinz2]

Not sure, but I can tell you his voice was on frequently back then

[wmbrown6]

On Channel 9?

[mazinz2]

Yes. I recall the voice doing a few of the other "film shows" they used to have. It is possible my memory can be wrong, but I do have some other chan 9 tv movies (when they used to show films around 4-6:30pm in the evening on weekdays). I am almost positive though that the voiced used was on other items I have on tape. I will have to check---

[wmbrown6]

While you're at it, check to see if this voice did any sign-on newscasts after 5 A.M.  It'd be interesting to see if he ever identifies himself.

[wmbrown6]

@mazinz2 - I received the answer just today who that voiceover was: Art Helmer.

[EarlSnohomish]

I also recall his voice back then on WOR on numerous occasions myself, though I have no idea what his name is/was.

[wmbrown6]

Probably was a case, on this occasion, of him filling in, as then sub-announcer Barbara Korsen was doing fill-in work at WABC-TV around that particular time.

[EarlSnohomish]

BTW, do you recall the "big ape" movies on Thanksgiving before 1976? The New York TV Monsters Movie Memories website states that the marathon started in '76, but I could have sworn it was earlier than that. I don't remember the Godzilla movies before that time, however.