Saturday, October 23, 2021

KNIGHT RIDER - "Halloween Knight" (1984)

 
This evening's Countdown To Halloween Saturday Night Special is episode number five from season number three of "Knight Rider," and indeed, special it is!!

 
This episode's title is a play on words called "Halloween Knight," and aired on October 28, 1984.

The star of the show is the car named KITT, but David Hasselhoff, better known as "The Hoff," is the human star playing a super hero detective named Michael Knight! The Hoff is second in coolness only to The Shat, and both of them seem to be incredibly good sports!

Patricia McPherson as Bonnie Barstow was not in the first two episodes, but after that she was in all of the sixty-two remaining episodes except for two, but she still got credit in those two.

Just to make sure that you know this is a Halloween episode, there are inserts like this.

Bonnie has just moved into a new apartment, and is not feeling well, when she sees this scene through her apartment window. Because she is weak, she passes out, and then is not sure whether this really happened or not!

This episode has literally everything. To start with, it's got a guy in a gorilla suit!

 
And....... it's got a witch!
This shot cracks me up. The Hoff is in really good shape, but from this angle, the reflection off the hood of the car makes it look like he's got a big beer gut!

KITT is an acronym for "Knight Industries Two Thousand, and this car is like Alexa on steroids. Here Michael Knight has KITT analyze some gorilla fur he found.

In this shot The Hoff shows that he is not just some one dimensional pretty boy!

Just weird!!

"SHUT UP! 
Shut up I say.........Just don't talk if you're not going to tell the truth!"

Whoever is in the gorilla suit tries to unsuccessfully run Michael over!

The guy who lives here is extremely creepy, but he does have a cool M.C. Escher print hanging on his wall, so I kind of forgive him to a degree.

Whoever is trying to freak Bonnie out goes to all the trouble to hook up this 3D holographic projector in her apartment ala "Terror In The Haunted House," except in color!

Before this show even started, they make it very clear that this is a Universal production, and then they decided to double down on it by throwing the "Psycho" house, aka "The Bates Motel" into the mix! Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that the aforementioned creepy guy's name was Norman Baines! What a crazy idea it must have been to get "The Bates Motel" and KITT in the same shot!


You just can't have a good costume party without at least two patriotic clowns, and a guy in a tux with a pumpkin head!

That's Norman Baines inside the pumpkin head!

And then to completely cement the whole Universal deal, they end the show at a drive-in where they are showing one of the most iconic Universal monsters of all time, "Creature From The Black Lagoon!"

"Creature from The Black Lagoon" was originally in 3D so it's pretty legit that they show the kids watching the movie wearing 3D glasses!

KITT and Michael were in hot pursuit of the suspects hassling Bonnie, so what could possibly be a better 3D effect than a car bursting through the drive-in movie screen coming straight at the viewers?
In 1984, my head was in a completely different place, and I wasn't the biggest "Knight Rider" fan in the world, but recently my good buddy Lord Litter reminded me about this show, and from his German perspective, this show was like some pretty cool Euro trash, and I have to admit, that right down to the excellent music by Don Peake, he is once again 100% correct!
Catch it if you can!

Friday, October 22, 2021

ANOTHER DUNGEON HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN UPDATE

Here's another DHC update for you to chew on on a Friday, here at The Dungeon. There's lots of craziness including explosives and our space opera show, so buckle up!

Many of the attendees are starting to show up wearing their Halloween costumes, the dude on the right is coming as some weird Manster monster, very cool!

Reverend Spike gives the morning event eulogy to start the day off right. And, may no one  performing in the celebration get hurt too bad...

In anticipation of our show at the Dungeon Theatre, these guys set off some fireworks and ran through them to get into the mood.

The show has started and everyone is seated, ready to partake in our Sci-Fi Extravaganza... "Where In The Hell Am I, Anyway?!" In the opening scene, our hero Comet Rider has been transported to an unknown planet, he peruses his surroundings.

Comet Rider meets Kabong, evil ruler of Kronk. A fight immediately ensues and they take the battle to the ring of the planet's moon.

But Kabong has a few tricks up his sleeve, the second Comet Rider gets the upper hand in the fight, Kabong disappears him to another part of the planet!

They even take the battle to some electrical currents, be careful Comet Rider!

This is a scary part, Comet Rider has to balance himself perfectly on that stream of matter being pulled off that miniature star by a black hole! Holy scheiss!!

The climax was amazing as Comet Rider finally jabs his sword straight into Kabong's heart, bringing the play to a finish, and Comet Rider is transported back to from where he came!

Then as a special treat at the end, Comet Rider shoots a beam that creates a Tron version of himself that shoots a deadly weapon! Unfortunately, it took out a few people in the audience...

Everyone was so stoked after the show that some of them decided to do some goofing!

So, they did high flying flips off of hills, carrying explosives.

And when they hit the ground the crowd would go wild with laughter!

This guy even goofed on his way down.

And boy, the explosion was a doozie!

Then there was a challenge by Brainiac 13, he dared anyone to punt this mini atomic bomb while he's holding it! There's only one person that accepted his insane challenge, Doctor Danger!!

The crowd went bananas, but not with laughter. Brainiac 13 had to get a new hand and Doctor Danger had to have his big toe replaced, other than that, it was one of the highlights of the past week!

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

FIVE DUNGEON HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN WALLPAPERS (2021)

 
Halloween night is drawing nearer and nearer, so here's a treat with no tricks attached. I've put together five Horrific Wallpapers for you, culled from years of images from this blog! I really hope you enjoy them more than I did making them! What a pain in the gazitza!

I take no responsibility if you use these images as desktop wallpaper, and they scare the rest of your icons away!

It's kind of funny, but Halloween wasn't really the subject of a movie until 1978, and even in that movie, there was very little trick or treating.

Early national attention to trick-or-treating were episodes of radio programs "The Baby Snooks Show" in 1946, and "The Jack Benny Show" and "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" in 1948.
 
 
By the 1960's, almost every television show had a Halloween episode of sorts, but it still wasn't happening in the movies.

I'm pretty sure the concept of giving away free candy to kids was developed by a group of dentists and psychiatrists in the 1940's. There was another group of do-gooders in the government who thought it was a good idea to hand out cigarettes and beer, but, well you know how that worked out! The war screwed up everything!

Monday, October 18, 2021

ADVICE FOR OLD DUDES WHO STILL WANT TO GO TRICK OR TREATING / Or, HOW TO BE A CREEP ON HALLOWEEN

Hey all you kids out there that are too old to go trick or treating any more, but who love those big piles of candy to devour. So, here's some sage advice on how to get a ton of candy treats for yourself with hardly any work involved...

To illustrate a point on the incorrect way to amass a pile of treats, do this... Hide and wait until some kids go to a house, go up behind them and get on your knees so that you look short.

The candy man's wearing a Frankenstein monster mask, not a good sign.

But, he's giving each of the kids handfuls of candy, so, maybe he'll be generous to you!

Be very polite and and say... Trick or treat, mister!

His look says it all.

And, he tosses two lousy pieces at you.

Maybe you'll get more candy if you say... Only two pieces?!

And, he tells you to go away, you're too old to be trick or treating!

When you're walking away, you get an idea, and the guy gets a suspicious look on his face, picking up on your vibe.

So, might as well kick his pumpkin in the mush to show your unhappiness over the transaction and you run like Hell as he yells at you!

Okay, you can see what playing by the rules gets you. Now, here's the actual way to go about amassing that big old pile o' treats! I can taste it now!!

It's simple, what you do is hide behind a bush and wait for some kids to come walking by. And when they get up to you, jump out and say... Hey monster kids, what's up?!

If they don't run away, get into a conversation with them, ask them if they got a lot of candy, and whatever you do...

Act friendly!!

Then show them that you hardly got nothing in your bag, and act real sad-like.

Okay, here's the hook... Tell them that you'd like to look in their bags to see what a lot of candy looks like!

And when they present their bags to you... Grab them and hightail it into the shadows!!

And after you do the same thing to some other kids, well, you'll have a king's ransom of treats to last you for a whole week or more!

But if you eat it all in one sitting, you'll deserve what you get! This has been an old-timers Halloween public service announcement!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??