Leap Day Becomes Creep Day- with Petrifying Peril from the "Monolith Monsters"!

Tonight on MeTV- they want to rock all night and petrify every day ! We’re talking about some unearthly meteor fragments with the power to turn flesh into stone-  as these sinister shards  mutate into towers of destructive terror and become the "Monolith Monsters"!

This 1957 science fiction classic begins just as several other movies have- with a somewhat wayward meteor making a crash-landing in the arid desert. On impact, it smashes itself into thousands of pieces. When Ben, a local geologist, stops on a desert road to add water to his radiator, he spots an unusual fragment of stone that he can't identify-and, as any geologist would, decides to take the mystery rock discovery back to his office for further investigation. He gets back to his office with the fragment, where neither he nor local newspaper publisher Martin are able to identify it. Ben goes to sleep there-only to be awakened in the night by a major rainstorm! He notices something odd happening to that unidentified rock sample he left out in his office- and goes to get a closer look- which turns out to be a VERY bad idea.

The next day, Dave, the head of the federal geology office, makes a routine visit to Ben’s place – only to be met by a horrible sight!  The office looks like it has been demolished, with hundreds of strange rocks all over -and he is shocked to find his pal the geologist appears to have turned to stone! This mind-boggling discovery has him at a loss to figure out what has happened- or how a human could possibly be transformed into the equivalent of a statue!

Meanwhile, Dave’s girlfriend, Cathy- who is a teacher- has her class out on a field trip to the desert- where one of the kids picks up a black chunk of meteorite, and takes it home as a souvenir. While this is going on, an autopsy is being performed on Ben- as much of an autopsy as would be possible on a stone corpse- that yields no answers- resulting in the body being sent to a specialist. Dave returns to the shambles of the office along with Martin- who notices that the many pieces of rock scattered around look just like the single piece Ben found in the desert and was examining!

The office event is only the beginning-as Cathy recalls her student finding a similar fragment- leading to a frantic trip to the girl’s home and a horrible discovery. Soon the locals face more destruction, more odd stones- and more victims of strange petrification- and the shocking fact that some people who have had contact with the stones are actually slowly TURNING to stone! It falls to Dave and his girlfriend Cathy to enlist his old college professor in solving the riddle of what is happening- and how to stop it! Time is running out, as they have mere hours to find a cure for the victims who are transforming to stone- while the meteor rocks multiply, and begin growing - becoming towering stone pillars that grow, and then collapse, with their massive weight crushing anything in the vicinity. Inexplicably, the smashed rubble starts growing again, forming more towers that are slowly moving toward the populated areas. Will the monoliths continue to advance, wiping towns and their inhabitants out with pulverizing force?!

Most 1950s science fiction films seem to use atomic radiation as the source of a deadly menace- but this movie goes down a slightly different path, with the unique idea of inanimate objects becoming the monstrous threat- with a totally different cause. We’ll fill you in on the cast, which includes some recognizable actors- and rock your world with the usual Sven shtick- including bringing back a favorite commercial for an asteroid-avoiding product- and a vintage Sven song!

"Monolith Monsters" crash your TV set tonight at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central, or check your local listings (or at www.metv.com) for specific time and channel where you live. MeTV invites you to join the many folks on Twitter who live-Tweet during our show- often putting us among the highest trending topics during that time- using the hashtag #svengoolie .Chicago gets a second look at the Sven-shtick-filled “Mummy’s Curse” on the U- at the special time of 9 am, due to sports programming.

The Svengoolie Studio Set - featuring a Sven figure in traditional outfit, with his own coffin and rubber chicken- is selling rapidly in our store- make sure to check it out and order while we still have them in stock!

We continue our visit to the C2E2 comics and entertainment convention at Chicago’s McCormick Place today-where, from 12:10 to 12: 20 pm- you can get a “celebrity photo op” with me (check for availability). Following that, it’s a special Sven 40^th Anniversary panel in Room S504 from 12:30 -1:30. We’ll do a final autograph session from 1:45 -2:45- (at table 1). . Due to the short session, we can only do ONE autograph per person. Yes, you CAN take a photo with me then at no cost! Since the autograph session is only an hour- try to get in line early, since they will have to cut the line off so we can end by our out time and make way for the next guest who will be taking over the table. You’ll also catch us out on the convention floor, shooting material for future shows, and we’ll make a stop at the CW 26 booth.

See you tonight on MeTV- where people who live in trashed houses should not grow stones!