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11/14/01 - Omaha World-Herald
DANIEL FINNEY

10/06/01 - Council Bluffs Nonpariel
GREG JERRETT

Creature Feature returns to Saturday night TV
Published Wednesday November 14th,2001
Omaha World-Herald DANIEL P. FINNEY - World-Herald Staff Writer
The only thing worse than the movies on KMTV's "Creature Feature" is Son of San Guinary's teeth.

Television is home to plenty of scary sights these days, but few as truly grotesque as those yellowed, rotting choppers of San Guinary, host of truly awful horror, fantasy and science-fiction films airing every Saturday at 10:35 p.m. on Channel 3.

Legend has it - or at least "Creature Feature's" opening credits say - that Son of San Guinary is the offspring of Dr. San Guinary, the original host of "Creature Feature," which aired from 1971 to 1982.

In September, KMTV revived the program so a new generation of viewers could enjoy the fine art of mocking C-grade movies made with special effects that could be produced on an Atari video-game system.

The first Dr. San Guinary was played by the late John Jones, a KMTV producer. The station declines to identify the current man behind the makeup.

But one thing is clear: Dr. San Guinary never spent a dime on his little boy's dental care. Those things make Austin Powers' grill look like a cover shot for Dental Hygiene Monthly. One can't help but stare ...

"Hey, my eyes are up here, pal," says a slightly offended San Guinary before taping a segment for an upcoming show.

Then he grins and pops out the false teeth - revealing normal, coffee-stained ivories.

"They are awful, aren't they?" he says of the prosthetic teeth.

"Somebody called my wife the other day and said, 'Your husband ought to be doing that show. I really don't like the one they've got doing it.' My wife said, 'That is my husband.' The woman says, 'Well, I can't watch him. I don't like those teeth.'"

Regardless who is behind the powdered makeup and Coke-bottle glasses, one thing is certain: Saturday nights are cheesier.

"We thought this would be something fun for longtime viewers," said producer Rich "Willard" Wooster, who was among those who decided to resurrect "Creature Feature." "It's all good, clean fun. The people who grew up with it like the nostalgia, and their kids seem to be getting into the movies."

The "Creature Feature" set at KMTV studios on 108th and L Streets is awash in both nostalgia and kitschy fun, which appeal to a cult audience.

The background features a glass of Diet Coke, on the top of which mold has grown - just the way San Guinary likes it; a sheet-covered dummy with a football helmet onto which a blond wig has been duct-taped; and Igor, a creepy black-and-gray hand that reaches through the bars of a cage.

The scripts are handwritten. Many of the show's sound effects come from stock reels that were used on the original "Creature Feature" nearly two decades ago. And at least once during each show, Son of San Guinary shows clips of "dear ol' Dad."

"It isn't exactly a big-budget production," Wooster admits as he pours fake blood on the sheet covering the dummy. "Our motto is 'Semper Gumby' - always flexible."

KMTV's "Creature Feature" aired during the golden age of locally produced horror TV.

In the 1950s, middle America prospered after World War II and bought television sets. Demand for TV programming prompted Hollywood studios to sell broadcast rights to hundreds of films gathering dust in storage vaults.

A popular package of such films included classic horror flicks by Universal Studios, including "Dracula," "Frankenstein" and "Night Monster." Local television stations created spooky TV hosts who introduced the films to late-night weekend audiences.

The shows proved lucrative for TV stations: The films were cheap to buy, the shows were cheap to produce, and they provided an advertising vehicle during hard-to-sell time slots (usually after 10 p.m. on weekends).

Many of the shows and their hosts took on cult status, including Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the busty host of "Movie Macabre" on KHJ-TV in Los Angeles, and Count Gore DeVol, a vampire spoof from WDXR-TV in Paducah, Ky.

In Omaha, the host was green-faced, jovial mad scientist Dr. San Guinary, who delighted audiences with bits of slapstick comedy between breaks in B-grade horror flicks such as "The Horror of the Blood Monster" and "Vampire Men of the Lost Planet."

In the early to mid-'70s, at the height of its popularity, "Creature Feature" drew an estimated 52 percent share of the local audience.

Jones became a well-known personality even outside of the show, and frequently emceed events for local charities, including the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy telethon.

"Creature Feature" was canceled in the summer of 1982. Jones died of cancer at his Ralston home in 1988 at the age of 46.

So, too, passed the format over which he presided so successfully. By the mid-1980s, the success of syndicated network programs, such as "M*A*S*H," supplanted locally produced programming.

But now Son of San Guinary has risen to avenge horror TV in the Midlands.

"It's not anything spectacular, but you don't have to pay to see it, do you?" quips San Guinary. "It's great fun. I'm picking up a few extra bucks doing what I love."

A recent Thursday taping drew two audience members to the studio. San Guinary yucked it up with his fans.

OK, one was Maralace Gifford, the mother of "Creature Feature" production assistant Kim Sedidy. Gifford watched the show as a youngster.

"I think it's great you've brought it back," Gifford told Wooster. "I think it's great fun. We need more clean, fun things like this on TV."