WYFP: Saturday Nights Before Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live began October 11, 1975 on NBC.  Before SNL, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area, Saturday nights at 11:30pm meant Creature Features on KTVU Channel 2, a then independent station in Oakland, California.  It was hosted by Bob Wilkins, a former advertising man from Sacramento. 

Take a look at the intro- 

The show had been running on Sacramento stations for the previous 10 years, then moved to Channel 2 on January 9, 1971. I was 6 when it began but allowed to stay up and watch because my Mom didn’t like watching horror movies alone. The intro itself would change as the years went on. The show itself was so popular it beat SNL in the ratings quite often but, not enough to forestall the inevitable cancellation in 1984, when the show was hosted by John Stanley who took over for Wilkins in 1979.  The two hosts didn’t just show films, they also interviewed local characters and internationally known film people.  

After the show ended, John Stanley published many guides to genre movies. 

Happy Halloween stay safe

And WYFP?