Early Influences

I like bad movies. Don’t get me wrong, I like good movies too. Not necessarily the ones that win Oscars…because I hate tear-jerkers, chick-flicks, and social commentaries. Gimme action adventure with weapons, violence, explosions and foul language. Even better if the hero wears a loincloth. I love older movies like Beastmaster, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and Krull. I love newer movies that can give me a plot, a small love story, gore and humor like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. I’m the person who laughed out loud in the theater when some extraneous bad guy’s head was nearly ripped off during The Expendables.

Bad movies…such as Gor from 1987…can be far more entertaining to me because I slip into MST3K mode with a blink of an eye. In fact, while good movies are often like a treasure hunt (as I am rapt looking for plot holes or trying to guess the next plot point), bad movies have all of that so obviously laid out that I enjoy them more because I can turn my curious story-mind off and just be a goofball.

And I really enjoy being a goofball. Witty banter and sarcasm make me happy.

I ask myself, Why do I lack a robust serious side? What influenced this goofiness?

Perhaps I was addled in my youth by growing up with my mind doing a regular time-warp and technology-shift as I watched Star Trek, Gunsmoke, Buck Rogers, Ponderosa, Battlestar Galactica, and Kung Fu. Maybe Saturday mornings scarred me deep. I mean sure, I watched Scooby Doo and the usual Saturday morning cartoons like everyone else…but once I discovered that the local channel offered Superhost--I watched that EVERY Saturday. I lived for Saturday Superhost. Example:

It was here that I was introduced to the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. I learned the names of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney. Here I first saw Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Ghidrah, and a plethora of other wacky sci-fi Japanese films. I think even my adoration of Errol Flynn might have started here. Superhost did more than play the best movies of eras past though. He did spoof skits, like this one spoofing the then popular show The Bionic Woman:

 

I’d still watch Superhost if it was on…but alas I have to settle for reminiscing to the snippets on YouTube.