SATEENA, THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER hosted horror and sci-fi movies on Shock Show, which aired on Atlanta’s WSB-TV from January 2nd to December 18th, 1958. This devilishly mischievous hostess was played by Joanne Good aka Joanne Goode aka Joanne Gould. Unlike the usual Movie Hostesses whose characters were vampires or witches, Sateena was the impish daughter of Satan himself.
Joanne Good had started out at WSB in the promotions department in 1957, then created her Sateena character for Shock Show. Joanne co-wrote the character’s Host Segments with the program’s producer Gy Waldron, who later moved on to movies before creating the mammoth hit television show The Dukes of Hazzard in 1979.
In addition to her acerbic wit, Sateena wielded a regular arsenal of props like large spiders, bubbling substances in chemical beakers, oversized “Brimstone Cocktails” spewing smoke from dry ice, and her omnipresent syringe filled with God or the Devil knows what. Another gag centered around shrinking heads with a Voodoo-it-Yourself Kit.
Joanne Good and Gy Waldron were credited in the press with the special effects for the sketches – special effects that were hailed as “some of the most advanced” in southern television at the time. Those effects included floating eyeballs, ghosts and headless bodies lumbering around.
Sateena is also remembered for her greeting “HELL-o!” after being introduced as the station’s “Prescription for panic and hostess of ghoulish games, Sateena, the Devil’s Daughter!” In addition, Joanne was the cousin of television star Bob Cummings, whose secretary she was at one time.
In October WSB held a parade through downtown Atlanta in honor of the station’s 10th anniversary. Sateena was among the celebrities and rode by in a convertible with a skeleton at her side.
Possibly only for publicity pieces, Joanne Good claimed her father got perturbed when Sateena referred to Satan as “Daddy” on her show and her mother wished she was known by a sweet name for her character instead. Joanne also quipped to the Atlanta Constitution “I don’t know how flattering it is but I’ve had people recognize me when I’m walking down the street WITHOUT all my make-up.”
For my fellow fans of Psychotronic movies I’ll point out that Sateena got to host iconic Golden Turkeys like Robot Monster, Cat-Women of the Moon, The Spider Woman Strikes Back, Man-Made Monster and The Sea Bat, about a combination manta ray and whale (?).
Originally, Shock Show aired at 11:15pm on Thursday nights but Sateena urged her student fans to write letters to WSB-TV asking for a move to Friday nights to make it easier for them to stay up to watch the whole show. The letters worked and on January 24th the program migrated to the much better Friday night at 11:15pm timeslot.
Friday or Saturday nights often worked best for such Movie Host shows but some sources claim that on June 5th Sateena’s program was moved back to Thursday nights on the grounds that with school out for the summer the hostess’s fans could stay up late every weeknight if they wanted to.
Other sources claim that Shock Show stayed on Thursday nights for the rest of its run while still others claim that Friday nights remained its home. However, December 18th was indeed a Thursday, so if that less than favorable time slot was adhered to it may have helped cause the show’s early termination in late 1958.
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