SCARTICIA – From 1971 to 1975 Annette Stutzman starred as the witch Scarticia, hostess of Horrible Movie late Saturday nights on WAPT-TV in Jackson, MS. Stutzman also worked as the personal secretary of the station manager.
Scarticia, the Mistress of the Night, would welcome her viewers every week with the words “Greetings, animals” and close each show by saying “Pleasant nightmares.” The witch’s main sidekick to abuse was her gravedigger Scoop Gravely, played by famous local DJ Ed Hobgood (lower right).
Filling in for Scoop from time to time was Dr. Choke Throttle, a vampire mad scientist played by Marvin Gardens, who also worked on the show’s set, did Scarticia’s makeup and served as cameraman. As usual, the can’t-miss format of Bad Movies presented by a sarcastic host or hostess and their sidekicks became a hit.
Soon, Jackson, MS teens and 20-somethings began holding Horrible Movie viewing parties on Saturday nights. Inevitably, hundreds of fan letters began pouring in every week.
Part of what made Scarticia and company stand out was the way they made many of their Host Segments as parodies of the iconic program Dark Shadows. What comedies like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Soap were to traditional soap operas, those Horrible Movie sketches were to the Gothic horror soap with Barnabas Collins, etc. Continue reading
OHARA (1987-1988) – In this 1-hour detective show’s case “Ohara” is NOT O’Hara and is instead a Japanese-American cop played by the venerable Pat Morita, who also co-created the program. During its run Ohara went through THREE changes of format, starting out with a very innovative approach before poor ratings prompted desperate network scrambling for tired old approaches. 
Having obtained the Golden Fleece, Jason, Orpheus and the rest of the Argonauts fled Colchis immediately on board the Argo. King Aeetes’ daughter Medea fled with them because she fell in love with Jason and defied her father to enable the theft of the Golden Fleece. 
King Aeetes had to break off pursuit so he and his crew could fish up the various fragments of his son’s corpse for proper funeral rites. 
From January 14th, 202o – 
From February 3rd, 2020 – 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The defending champs – the NORTHWEST INDIAN COLLEGE EAGLES – squared off against the STONE CHILD COLLEGE BEAR PAWS. NWIC may be establishing a dynasty. The Eagles dominated thoroughly on both sides of the ball from start to finish and when the dust finally settled, they had defeated the Bear Paws 90-64.
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN IDAHO GOLDEN EAGLES played the GULF COAST STATE COMMODORES in this game. The Golden Eagles clung to a 38-36 edge come Halftime. After the break, CSI outscored the Commodores 44-34 to win out 82-70. Jalen Lyn led Southern Idaho with 24 points. 
SHOWCASE Vol 1 #6 (Feb 1957) 
America’s 250th birthday is coming up in July, so over the next few months Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the anniversary years 1826, 1876, 1926 and 1976.
U.S. President: John Quincy Adams Vice President: John C. Calhoun Speaker of the House: John W. Taylor Chief Justice: John Marshall 
Balladeer's Blog 