From A (Apocalypse) to Z (Zombies!)

Wow! What a turn-out yesterday at the Lombard Tom and Eddie’s! A great time, with great Sven fans, great food- and, those Sven souvenir cups were pretty spiffy! More about yesterday in an upcoming blog- including a little about a side trip we made afterwards. Thanks to the actual Tom and Eddie, as well as their staff and all the customers for making this a memorable appearance! That being said, you can see me tonight- in a slightly different setting- from 6 to 8 pm! It’s the Zombie Annihilation Haunted House, as we’ve mentioned before- you can make your way through the last stand against the zombie hordes of the zombie apocalypse, and earn a special survival kit- and, meet me, get an autograph, take a picture, and purchase a Sven t shirt and/or buttons- perfect for your Halloween season! It all takes place tonight at the Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero/Stickney- all the information is right here on our site, under the appearances tab. I hope to see you there! Next weekend, we have a trilogy of appearances- Friday night, from 7 to 9 pm, we’re back at Brookfield Zoo as part of their “Creatures of the Night” fun; Saturday, we’ll be in Frankfort from 7 to 9 pm at the Creepy Hallow Halloween extravaganza, with rides, a haunted house, and more; and Sunday afternoon, we’re back at the historic Portage Theatre at 1 pm for autographs- and to introduce a screening of “Beetlejuice”! You can find all the information, again, under the “appearances” tab…and , there’s more to come this month! Happy to hear from so many Bat-fans who enjoyed the Caped Crusader feature on last night’s Me-TV show…again, we had to edit the movie a bit, since its full run-time was much more than the usual time we have for both the movie and our bits ( hey- we HAVE to leave the commercial time as it is!)Also happy to hear that you’re looking forward to our classic sci fi feature next week… Well, classic Munsters fans can rest easy- the NBC updated pilot with a non- Frankenstein-looking Herman, is definitely not going to be a series- but, the network, trying to get back some of the big bucks they shelled out for the pilot, are putting it on TV as a one-time-only “Halloween special”. It’ll be interesting to see how different these Munsters are from the originals, as well as how the “dramedy” tone of this show stands up. You’d have thought the lack of success of “The Munsters Today”- a syndicated show from the 80s, that portrayed the characters looking the same way- might have been a hint – if other people playing the familiar characters just like the originals couldn’t cut it- would Munsters even more removed from the traditional mold have a chance? I guess we’ll see…IF we watch it. Let’s have our “Halloween Horror of the Day” be a monster that was also updated- and is still as frightening in either form (which is significant, because, in its revamp, it could CHANGE form!) It’s “The Thing” (also known as “the Thing from Another World”)- a 1951 horror , remade a few times, but most famously in 1982 by John Carpenter. In the 50s version, it is found – frozen-in a crashed flying saucer in the arctic- and taken to a research station where it thaws- and ,unfortunately, needs blood to survive! This plant-based monster begins to pick off the men in the isolated Arctic outpost- forcing them to unite in a final stand against “The Thing”! The 1982 John Carpenter version is similar, but adds the unnerving element that the creature can shape-shift- so, its enemies can never tell if someone (or even a dog) right next to them is actually the Thing- and it makes many bizarre and frightening transformations. No matter which version you prefer- the 1951 Thing (played by James Arness, later to play Matt Dillon in “Gunsmoke”!) or the 1982 shape-shifter Thing- this terror from another world definitely can turn into the “Halloween Horror of the Day”!