The Final Frontier is Arachnid Fear When We Enter the "Kingdom of the Spiders"-Tonight!

This week on MeTV- you’ll see a familiar face from our “Super Sci Fi Saturday Night” in a different environment- instead of going where no man has gone before, William Shatner must battle terrestrial terror that somehow has ended up where no tarantulas had been before! These fuzzy freaks prove to be a much greater danger than Tribbles- as they establish the “Kingdom of the Spiders”!

We beam you down to Arizona- where local veterinarian Rack Hansen ( Shatner) has a new puzzle to solve when a previously healthy prize calf suddenly takes ill and dies. Surprisingly, the cause of death does not seem to be a known cattle disease-and Rack, stuck for what the cause actually is, sends blood samples to the Flagstaff university lab.

The answer arrives in the form of a pretty arachnologist, Diane Ashley. She shocks Rack by revealing that the cause of the calf’s death was-a massive dosage of spider venom! Rack is skeptical- no spider has that kind of lethal amount of venom! She asks to go to the ranch where the calf came from, and they travel to the Colby farm- where it appears the Colbys’ pet dog has unexpectedly died. The reason becomes clear- when Colby shows them a huge hill that has appeared on the property- loaded with tarantulas! Though they are not native to the area, Diane theorizes that, with pesticides killing off the spiders’ food supply in their home area, they have migrated- and resorted to attacking larger animals in order to gain sustenance.

They attempt to halt this horror by burning the spider hill-but that plan fails, and soon, more local residents are attacked. The town’s mayor, who is more worried about tourists not coming to the area for the upcoming county fair, decides that use of pesticide will solve the problem- with devastating results. Before long, a small group including Diane and Rack, end up trapped- with seemingly no way to escape the deadly arachnids as they claim the area as their new kingdom!

This 1977 addition to the “nature strikes back” themed movies of that time period used about 5000 actual tarantulas in the production. Needless to say, if you have a phobia about spiders , you might want to avoid this one. We’ll tell you about the production, as well as the cast, which includes such notables, besides Shatner, as Woody Strode, Tiffany Bolling, and- Mrs. Sammy Davis Jr.?! We’ll send the gorgeous Gwengoolie out for an on-the-spot report, bring you a new song, present a few scenes in “Svensurround”- and bring back a parody of William Shatner’s best known starring vehicle.

“Kingdom of the Spiders” begins its reign at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. MeTV encourages you to again join in the live-Tweeting during the show on Twitter-just make sure that you add the hashtag #svengoolie to your Tweets! In the Chicago viewing area, the second Kolchak made-for -tv movie “ The Night Strangler” will encore at 11 am on our local station, CW26.

We again want to thank you for your support of “Svengoolie’s Halloween BOO-nanza”- it looks like it will return next year, complete with double features every Saturday night. Thank you also for the great turnouts at our Halloween season appearances- the Elgin IL “Nightmare on Chicago Street” event and our annual visit to the amazing Volo Auto Museum, where we ended up staying a couple hours overtime to make sure we got to meet all the fans in line. The loyalty and enthusiasm of our fans is something we never take lightly and are so honored to see so many people who enjoy our show.

It's a good time to check out our store here in the MeTV Mall- watch for new merchandise, and perhaps start thinking about holiday gifts for your favorite Sven fans- and maybe yourself! Could that be the new Sven holiday sweater? Make sure you order early- supplies are limited!

Join us tonight to enter a southwestern web of terror-sadly, without a single phaser in sight!