SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE PARTY (1962-1965) was also called simply SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE and PAT’S SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE in the tantalizingly few surviving pieces of information available about this cult Movie Hostess show. SFMP aired Saturday nights at 10:30 (one ad says 10:20) on KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska from September 1962 to the end of summer 1965.
From 1962-1964 the program was hosted by “Science Fiction Pat” real name Pat Jones and from Summer 1964-Summer 1965 by Ronnie Bounds and her Siamese cat Yatchie. I’ll examine each hostess momentarily, but for the full context of what made Science Fiction Movie Party stand out it’s important to credit the contribution of KMTV’s Program Director Lou Jeffery.
Mr. Jeffery assumed that position in 1961 and by September of 1962 he had carefully assembled campy and low-budget science fiction films that weren’t exclusive to any of the nationwide syndication packages of the time. Lou’s work in securing such a custom package of flicks would have been a big advantage for Science Fiction Movie Party from the show’s outset.
SCIENCE FICTION PAT – Patricia Jones was a multi-talented woman enrolled at the University of Nebraska. On the side she played guitar, sang and recited beat poetry in Omaha coffee houses of the period. On SFMP Pat wrote her own material and designed various mostly black outfits for herself to wear during her Host Segments.
Guitar in hand, Jones would engage in the time-honored tradition of Bad Movie Shows by sarcastically commenting on the bizarre and low-budget nature of the So Bad They’re Good films shown on SFMP. Her sense of humor was versatile enough that she even composed and performed occasional beatnik poems about the schlockers she presented, including Robot Monster (1953), that staple of Bad Movie Shows for decades.
(It’s easy to imagine that she might have been helped along by the title creature’s weird dialogue like “To LIVE like the hu-MAN … To BE like the hu-MAN!”)
At any rate, the early 1960s were when iconic beat-influenced Movie Hosts and Hostesses like Ghoulardi and Moona Lisa launched their shows, so with Science Fiction Pat’s combination of sketches, music, parody songs and state of the art (for the era) special effects, SFMP became an enormous hit.
Pat and her show ultimately captured FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of the televisions in use during her time slot. Science Fiction Movie Party drew more viewers than all of the competing stations combined! Psychotronic Movies and talented hosts are always a potent combination.
Jones continued presenting Golden Turkeys like the Zsa Zsa Gabor movie Queen of Outer Space (1958) and Hugh Marlowe’s World Without End (1956). Not long after her graduation from the University of Nebraska in May of 1964 Patricia moved on with her life.
RONNIE BOUNDS AND YATCHIE – Science Fiction Movie Party was in good hands with its new hostess – model and actress Ronnie Bounds. Her Siamese cat Yatchie was always at her side, charming viewers and lending their comedic skills to sketches like Ronnie having her wear a costume to portray the title creature in the night’s movie Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959).
Always a professional, Yatchie endured the petty indignity with typical feline sang-froid.
Ronnie Bounds fit so seamlessly into the comedy and weirdness on SFMP that some viewers thought she was Patricia Jones and started referring to the show as “Pat & the Cat.”
The end of summer 1965 wrapped up Ronnie and Yatchie’s time hosting the program and Science Fiction Movie Party disappeared. Sadly, no on-air footage has been preserved. Ronnie Bounds’s granddaughter Lexi Rabe has acted in movies like Avengers: Endgame, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Bad Men Must Bleed.
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