IN THE MIDDLE 1980s/ WAY DOWN ON LEVEL 31 …
Before MST3K there was The Texas 27 Film Vault! Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of this neglected cult show from the 1980s in this FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY YEAR of its 1985 debut. Randy and Richard, our machine-gun toting members of the Film Vault Corps (“the few, the proud, the sarcastic”) do their usual bit of showing an old serial then showing a bad movie.
Thanks to my 2011 interview with Randy Clower, the show’s co-creator and co-star and thanks to my research through VERY old newspapers plus emailed memories from other T27FV fans I’m taking a look at another episode of the show where a broadcast date can be determined.
ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Saturday July 12th, 1986 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
SERIAL: ATOM MAN VS SUPERMAN (1950) – Kirk Alyn starred as Superman with Lyle Talbot as his archenemy Lex Luthor. Especially laughable are the bits when Superman “flies” – an effect achieved by switching from live footage of Kirk Alyn to INSERTED CARTOON FOOTAGE of Superman flying. Think of the ‘Toons in Roger Rabbit interacting with the live characters & backgrounds and you have the idea.
FILM VAULT LORE: This episode of The Texas 27 Film Vault was the first to come with a Viewer Discretion warning. Gore effects fans were in Nirvana this night as Film Vault Corps member Joe “The Hypnotic Eye” Riley was given full reign for some of his most graphic effects work during the comedy sketches or Host Segments if you prefer.
Behind the scenes preparation for the episode’s Film Vault Players sketches.
Direct from the Film Vault Corps Academy in Leadville, Colorado, the Academy’s Little Theater Group was touring Film Vaults across the country. Tonight they were performing on Level 31 of the Film Vault underneath Dallas, where the show was set.
The Little Theater Group was reenacting scenes from famous alien monster movies and since It! The Terror from Beyond Space was a partial inspiration for the original Alien, the chest-burster scene was reenacted in darkly comic glory! (As if the chow in the Film Vault Commissary wasn’t unappetizing enough already!)
THE MOVIE: It! The Terror from Beyond Space is one of the consummate low budget schlockers of the 1950s. It embodies the “so bad it’s good” aesthetic that so many Movie Host shows have always reveled in.
In the far-off year 1973 (LMAO) a very fake-looking space-ship on an even more fake-looking matte-painting of a Martian landscape has come to rescue the sole survivor of the previous mission to the Red Planet. Continue reading
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