Christmas on Mars

Wayne Coyne is a real gentleman. You can read a longer version of this interview here

and be sure to check out showtimes at Cinema Purgatorio.com.

Five Freaky Frankenstein Films

After the success of FRANKENSTEIN Night! I wanted to do a video that captured some of the fun-facts from that show.

Thanks to BODIES: The Exhibition, they were really generous -- and they gave me that shirt, which made for a good movie reference. (2-in-1, really.)

Variations on a Theme

Wednesday is SCI FI MUSICAL Night!

Honestly, this Wednesday’s The Sci Fi Screening Room is the best yet.

Co-host Raven Snook and I are excited to do this show.

We’re joined by specials guests Eric Drysdale (The Colbert Report)

and Joe DiPietro (author of The Toxic Avenger: the Musical)

PLUS special appearances by
Alan Arkin
A.L.F.
Bea Arthur
Bill Bixby
David Bowie
Charlie Callas
Lou Ferrigno
Gamera
Gil Gerard
Gerrit Graham
Ruth Gordon
Jessica Harper
Neil Patrick Harris
Deborah Harry
Finola Hughes
Kris Kristofferson
Christopher Lee
Paul Lynde
Patrick Macnee
Rik Mayall
Richard Moll
Olivia Newton-John
Leslie Nielsen
Richard O’Brien
Jerry Orbach
Mackenzie Phillips
Vincent Price
Catherine Mary Stewart
Craig Sheffer (Hardy Jenns in “Some Kind of Wonderful”)
Darth Vader
Herve Villechaize
Cindy Williams
Paul Williams
Raquel Welch
Pia Zadora

and Danny Elfman as the Devil!


They’ll all be there this Wednesday @ 7:00


SCI FI MUSICAL Night!

Wednesday, December 10th

UNDER St. Mark’s
94 St. Mark’s Place (between 1st Ave & Avenue A)


And we’ll have a glam-rock after-party at ATOMIC X @ Beauty Bar
231 E. 14th Street


see you THIS Wednesday,


Now here's a clip of Darth Vader on THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, in a bit written by people who'd clearly never seen STAR WARS...

Hi, I'm Kevin Maher's Blog...

...

Kevin Maher is a Brooklyn-based writer-producer.

This blog is a place to watch various videos he's made for HBO, CNN and American Movie Classics. Plus independent comedy videos.

Some recent highlights include:

the Sci Fi Department's Halloween episode

Attack of the Super Plants

Sci Fi Happy Hour

It’s also the best place to get details on the live monthly show THE SCI FI SCREENING ROOM -- an editor’s pick in Time Out NY, the New York Times newsletter, Village Voice, Gothamist, and Scientific American (no joke.)

The next show is Wednesday December 10th -- it’s SCI FI MUSICALS Night!


Thanks for visiting.

SCI FI MUSICAL Night!

This Christmas season, The Sci Fi Screening Room is giving you our best show yet:

an evening of songs and scenes from the best Sci Fi Musicals.

Raven Snook returns to co-host this collection of clips from the Golden Age of Cult Musicals. We'll run the gammet from Phantom of the Paradise to Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Join us as we celebrate the most mind-boggling numbers from campy favorites such as Forbidden Zone (1980) and Xanadu (1980), to lesser-know films like the Alan Arkin superhero parody The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) and Grease-meets-Swamp Thing oddity Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1987).

Plus we'll chat with Joe DiPietro, who penned The Toxic Avenger Musical. And as always there's cheap beer and free snacks!

The 2-hour video variety show will also include trivia, sing-alongs and TV clips from the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special and the obscure Star Wars-themed episode of The Donnie and Marie Show.

Kevin Maher (American Movie Classics’ The Sci Fi Department) and Raven Snook (Time Out New York) cohost the evening that promises to please geeks, gays and glitter hounds in equal measure.

Wednesday, December 10th @ 7 PM
UNDER St. Mark's
94 St. Mark's Place (between 1st Ave and Avenue A)
just seven bucks

Please don't adapt THE ROAD as a TV Show

No, there's no plans to make Cormac McCarthy's novel into a new F/X mini-series. I'm just messin' with ya. But here are some actual TV shows inspired by movies. (Beyond Westworld not included.)

Here's a clip of that awful Wizard of Oz cartoon.

Why Not TRON-fest?

I finally made it to Lebowski Fest! And all it took was a paper-think premise.

Big shout-out to Will Russell, the co-founding Dude. You will not find a cooler organizer in these United States.

Note: This was one event where the tourists were a lot more fun than the locals. Sorry New Yorkers, you're a little too hip for your own good.

The Barbarella and other Sci-Fi Cocktails

Here's a fun episode we taped at MARS 2112, with special guests St. John Frizell and Miss Saturn.

I discovered a ton of science-fiction inspired cocktails. I hope to one day publish them as a book (ironic for a guy who doesn't drink.)

Surprisingly, no one's invented a BUCKAROO BANZAI cocktail. It seems like the perfect name for a powerful drink. The gauntlet has been thrown down -- I urge all you amateur mixologists to leave a recipe in the comments section.

BIGFOOT Night! A Look Back...

BIGFOOT Night! was really awesome, thanks for everyone who came out or supported in other ways. M. Sweeney Lawless programmed a great evening with videos, drawings, eyewitness accounts and some laugh-out-loud TV and movie clips, including The Legend of Boggy Creek, Bigfoot & Wildboy and The Six Million Dollar Man.

And get this -- the show was reviwed by
Scientific American(!)

We didn’t get much footage from the show, but here’s the part of the show where I encouraged the audience to take out their camera-phones to get photographic evidence of a Bigfoot.

Lucky for you, the always-awesome Jonny Fido had his video camera.

Watch this clip.

Five More Hungry Actors

Play along with this video quiz.

BIGFOOT Night!

The next Sci Fi Screening Room, it's gonna be Big. It's gonna be BIGFOOT NIGHT.

M. Sweeney Lawless and Kevin Maher (me!) bring you clips from infamous movies, questionable documentaries and scientific proof that Bigfoot definitely exists. (Maybe).

Featuring clips from The Legend of Boggy Creek, Sid & Marty Krofft's Bigfoot & Wildboy, rare footage from the one-woman show "Betty the Yeti" and a special presentation of the award winning short film SKUNK APE!?

Special guests like Australian journalist Dan Ziffer (who exposes the truth about the Bunyip)
and Doug Skinner (who will reveal the Mozart-Bigfoot connection.) This is gonna be a good show, people.

MONDAY, November 17th
7 PM
UNDER St. Mark's
94 St. Mark’s Place, btw 1st Ave and Avenue A
The evening will include Bigfoot drinking games, haikus, trivia, prizes. The show is $7 for believers, $10 for non-believers.

Also, we're a pick in TIME OUT NEW YORK.

Post-Election Day Special

I guess I shoulda posted this sooner. It ran on AMC's website the day after the election. We taped an alternate intro and outro, if McCain had won. There were some good jokes, but I'm happy to sacrifice them.

Scary Sci Fi

This episode was supposed to tie-in to AMC's FearFest, but it became a fun experimental piece.

FRANKENSTEIN Night!

Get ready for a video cavalcade like no other -- this Monday is FRANKENSTEIN Night!

With Special Guests Monster Creature Feature, Tom Blunt, Will Carlough, Jay Stern, Tom Carrozza, Maura Madden, M. Sweeney Lawless and MORE!

There'll be cheap drinks, trivia prizes, music, poems, and Frankenberry Cereal.

Monday October 27th
7 PM
at UNDER St. Mark's. (94 St. Mark's Place, between 1st & A, NYC)

tickets at $7 ($5 if you come in a full costume -- not just a hat)


SEE clips from Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, Frankenstein Conquers the World, and Dracula Vs. Frankenstein.



AND the second feature of the night (included with admission) is the Quicksilver Radio Theatre's production of Mary Shelley's original story.

Toxic Avenger - the Musical

Lloyd Kaufman gives us the inside scoop about Toxic Avenger, part 5!

Reign of Fire

Always trying to do something different with man on the street. This episode was co-written by dragon-enthusiast Nick Nadel.

More than Super-Friends

Fly Fun Facts

Here's some fascinating facts about David Cronenberg's 1986 masterpiece, THE FLY. I watched it again and aside from Jeff Goldblum's GIGANTIC CORDLESS PHONE, the movie isn't dated at all. Today it would be all CGI, which would be less disturbing.

Also: Much the way The Fly was edited after test screenings, I had to cut a gross scene from my video. The deleted gag will appear on YouTube soon. (I promise)


2 facts that didn't make it into the "5 fun facts" -- Tim Burton almost directed the film. Michael Keaton almost starred (supposedly he didn't want to act under all the prosthetics.) Those two would eventually get to work with Geena Davis in Beetlejuice.

The Case For (and Against) Sci-Fi Comedies

We tackle one of the most controversial sub-genres.

5 Actors Who Needed The Money

5 Things You (Maybe) Didn't Know About Escape From New York

I was never a huge fan of the movie, but then I saw it at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with a big noisy crowd. The scratched-up print was a hit with the rowdy audience. I loved it.

Attack of the Super Plants!

A lovely visit to my favorite garden -- the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

I didn't mention it in the video, but the Garden is where I proposed to Rebecca. I had wanted to get down on one knee and say "Engagment ring, do your thing!" -- a hilarious reference to the short-lived Thing cartoon, in which teenager Ben Grimm would touch his magic ring and say "Thing Ring Do Your Thing!" and turn into The Thing (from the Fantastic Four.) I chickened out. But she said yes anyway.

Monster Self-Defense

This is not self-defense for monsters, rather it is a guide to defending yourself against monsters. Sorry, monsters.


Related videos:


our interview with George Romero


and our look at Return of the Living Dead

Everything You Wanted to Ask About the Sci Fi Screening Room, But Were Afraid to Know...

January’s HULK Night! featured nearly every version of the animated Hulk (1966 - 1996), plus clips from the 1977 pilot movie and the climax of 1990’s Death of the Incredible Hulk. Our feature presentation was Metamorphosis, an amazing 1979 live-action episode packed with glam rock, death fantasies, an indictment of the music industry and an LSD freak-out (Banner hallucinates that his alter-ego is chasing him across the desert, only to morph into a stoned Hulk!) Live entertainment included Hulkus (Hulk haikus) and a Hulk piñata smashed by an actor as the Green Goliath.



Thanks everybody who came out to KISS NIGHT!
For March’s KISS Night! Kevin (and co-host Rob Gorden) donned face-paint to present the 1978 made-for-TV movieKISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. The screening included clips of Gene Simmons in the futuristic thriller Runaway (1984). Audience members were challenged to a beer-guzzling contest against Rob’s robot-clone. Kevin read KISS-ku (KISS haikus.) The after-party included KISS make-overs, a KISS tribute Band (Creatures of the Night), a costume contest and DJ Joey Nova.



In April, Kevin and co-host Raven Snook covered themselves in glitter for THE APPLE Night! The feature film, The Apple, is a flamboyant, dystopian Adam & Eve story set in a nightmarish future of 1994 (as imagined in 1980.) Raven led the crowd in a sing-a-long and gave an audience member a futuristic glam-rock make-over. After the screening DJ Joey Nova hosted a glam-rock party at Beauty Bar with apple-flavored drink specials, glitter manicures and lots of David Bowie music.








May welcomed BATMAN Night!, showcasing everything from the 1943 serial to 1998’s New Adventures of Batman (with an animated version of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight.) The feature presentation was a rare 1978 Challenge of the Superfriends episode where Batman and friends get turned into Hobbit-like trolls. Co-host Nick Nadel interviewed Batman Strikes writer Matthew K. Manning. Kevin shared poetry as he’d collected over 400 original Batman Haikus for the event. (He hopes to publish a Bat-ku page-a-day calendar.) There were Batman-themed trivia games and a dramatic reading of fan fiction. The after-party, at The Hangar Bar, served Batman-inspired cocktails.



Die hard fans turned out for June’s ROCK & RULE Night! when Kevin (and co-host Dekker Dryer) screened 1983’s Rock & Rule. The film was preceded by a retrospective on Nelvana animation (including the Boba Fett cartoon sequence in The Star Wars Holiday Special and clips from The Care Bears Movie.) Trivia prizes included CDs by artists from the movie, including Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. DJ Joey Nova kept the evening going with an all-night after-party at Beauty Bar.

DAMNATION ALLEY Night! was a September screening of the second-greatest fantasy film from 1977, Damnation Alley. The post-apocalyptic adventure paired Jan Michael Vincent with George Peppard and futuristic Winnebago known as The Landmaster. Clips included an episode of ARK II and the episode of Get a Life where Chris faces off against Paperboy 2000 (a paper-delivery robot played by the Landmaster.) The evening featured only one haiku (about George Peppard’s moustache) because Kevin had never seen the movie before.



October’s FRANKENSTEIN Night! was a 3-hour bonanza starting with a video cavalcade including clips from Frankenstein Vs. Baragon (1965) Blackenstein (1972) and Thomas Edison’s original 1910 Frankenstein. Tom Carrozza sang Mel Torme’s "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" and Marian Brock read an epic poem about the Creature. Kevin showed a 1976 view-master reel and Maura Madden (author of Crafternoon) provided tips for Halloween crafts and costumes. The video show was followed by the Quicksilver Radio Theater Company’s 60-minute adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original novel.

November was BIGFOOT Night! a delightful evening which brought out skeptics and honest-to-God Bigfoot fans. Co-host M. Sweeney Lawless treated the crowd to eyewitness accounts, original folk art and M&Ms. We screened clips from Bigfoot: Man or Beast?, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Bigfoot & Wildboy and the episode of The Six Million Dollar Man featuing Andre the Giant as the Bionic Bigfoot. (This is widely regarded as the best episode in the series. No duh!) Our feature presentation was the award-winning short film Skunk Ape!? Special guests included lecturer Doug Skinner and Australian journalist Dan Ziffer. M. Sweeney Lawless put together a kick-ass booklet of bigfoot haikus, true stories and fun-facts. That alone was worth the price of admission (it was $7 for believers, $10 for non-believers.)

Watch this clip.

Upcoming Shows:

In December Raven Snook returns to co-host SCI FI MUSICALS Night! It’s a collection of songs and clips from Sci Fi Musicals ranging from Phantom of the Paradise (1974) to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog (2008). The evening will celebrate the best numbers from cult favorites like Forbidden Zone (1980) and Xanadu (1980) to lesser-known films like the Alan Arkin super-hero parody The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) and the Pia Zadora-Craig Sheffer oddity Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1987). Plus TV clips like the episode of Buck Rogers that featured space rockers Andromeda -- and the overlooked Donnie and Marie Star Wars Special.

2009 will include:
VIDEO-GAME MOVIE Night! and GODZILLA Night! and SUPER-HERO Night!

KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park

Super-heroes Super-Styles

Actors we love to love: Brad Dourif

Dark City

X-Files FAQ

BLOBFEST 2008

I encourage everyone to go to Blobfest. Next year marks BLOBFEST 10 (or maybe BLOBFEST X) -- book your hotel room now.

Creepy Clown Cinema

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (at the Bronx Zoo)

SCI FI SCREENING ROOM: ROCK & RULE

Thanks to everyone who came out for BATMAN NIGHT, next at the the Sci Fi Screening Room we're showing 1983's ROCK & RULE.

Co-hosted by Kevin Maher and Dekker Dryer (founder of Illusion TV)

We'll have sci-fi shorts, trivia, drinking games, prizes and cheap beer.

After the show, the evening continues with a glam-rock party at Beauty Bar (231 East 14th Street btw 2nd and 3rd Aves). DJ Joey Nova is playing more from the artists of ROCK & RULE -- Stooges, Velvet Underground, Blondie and more! Makeup artists offer glam makeovers and glitter manicures to get you feeling like a futuristic glam-pop super-star.

WHEN: Wednesday, July 2nd @ 7 PM

WHERE: UNDER St. Mark's
94 St. Mark’s Place, btw 1st Ave and Avenue A
L-train to 1st Ave, F/V to 2nd Ave, R-train to 8th St, 6 to Astor Pl.

HOW MUCH: just seven bucks


THE SCI FI SCREENING ROOM has been an editor's pick in Time Out NY, Gothamist, Village Voice, The New York Post, and the New York Times' Urban Eye.

WALL-E and other E.T. rip-offs

The Toxic Avenger: and other Sci Fi Musicals

Visit these links to hear more music from: Spider Baby, The Toxic Avenger, The Last Starfighter

Sports of the Future

Join me during my visit to the Sport Museum of America, where I discuss Future Sports (without actually mentioning FUTURE SPORT, a made-for-TV-movie starring Dean Cain and Wesley Snipes. We cut that for time.)

F.A.Q.: King Kong (1976)

A tiger-bear sounds terrifying!

I was recently interviewed by a cool website called THE NEW ROOTS PROJECT.

Read the interview here. Finally, your chance to hear what I REALLY think about the relationship between the television industry and independent film.

If you check out the interview, you might notice an error -- it says "Tiger Bear called him Funny!" That's a typo. It's supposed to be Tiger BeaT. Not Tiger BeaR.

In the future, I think a better typo would be "Tiger Beat called him Funky!"

Thanks for BATMAN Night

Last Wednesday Nick Nadel and I screened an evening of BATMAN videos, starting with an episode of the Batman cartoon called "Legends of the Dark Knight" -- in the 1950's story Gary Owens voices Batman opposite Michael McKean's Joker.

After that we let the audience choose a clip from the 1966 Batman movie -- the overwhelming majority wanted to watch the "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb" sequence instead of the "Shark Repellant" scene. Good call audience! It got the biggest laughs of the night. The second biggest laugh came when I read a Batman haiku which was penned by my wife. (She's funnier than me.)

Then we showed some of the 1943 Batman Serial, which is historically significant for: a drab Batmobile, slow pacing, and racism (the bad kind.) Following the dramatic cliffhanger, Nick read titilating passages from
Dr. Fredrick Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent.

We lightened the mood by showing the 1978 WORLD'S GREATEST SUPERFRIENDS episode Lord of Middle Earth, which is like a Tolkien-ripoff by someone who hasn't read Lord of the Rings, but heard about it from an older cousin. This episode features many of the highlights seen in the show's opening credits. Then we took an intermission, giving people a chance to enjoy some BATMAN CEREAL (okay, it was Cap'n Crunch) and wash it down with beer.



Then it was back to the festivities with a staged reading of a pice of fan fiction entitled "BATMAN: Nemesis Fight". Actors -- you haven't lived until you've performed fan fiction before a live audience. It was a highlight of my career.

We kept the laughs coming with Will Carlough's short film "Robin's Big Date" where Sam Rockwell plays the Batman opposite Justin Long's Boy Wonder. We read some Batman haikus and then Nick interviewed Batman Strikes writer Matthew K. Manning, who shared the secrets of his Batman collectibles collection.

We switched gears into futuristic mutant cartoon mode, with an additional segment of "Legends of the Dark Knight" where the Frank Miller Batman battles mutants. Batman kicks much mutant ass.

Every show must come to an end, and ours ended with the conclusion of "Lord of Middle Earth" which had some amazing giant snails doing battle with spiders. (Spoiler alert! Snails win.)


After the show we hit the Hanger bar for some delicious Batman cocktails.

For more Batman haikus, you can email me to get a booklet mailed to you. Or check out Mike Whalen’s blog (scroll down). When I requested some Batman Haikus, Mike and slam poet David Hendlerchallenged each other to write 100 each. I also accepted the literary challenge and now we have close to 400 Batman Haikus. Can anyone recommend a good page-a-day-calendar publisher?

BATMAN Night! (a.k.a. The Dork Knight)

After the success of HULK Night and KISS Night, THE SCI FI SCREENING ROOM is proud to present...BATMAN Night!…

Wednesday June 4th @ 7:00 PM
at the Theater Under St. Mark’s
94 St. Mark’s Place (btw 1st Ave and Avenue A)
L-train to 1st Ave, F/V to 2nd Ave, R-train to 8th St, 6 to Astor Pl.
Just 7 bucks!

Kevin Maher (that's me!) and Nick Nadel share bootleg Batman, fan films, the 1943 serial, the 1980's cereal, as well as some Superfriends clips, 1960's out-takes, and other Batman rarities. Plus a visit from Batman Strikes writer Matthew K. Manning.

The evening will also include BAT-KUs (Batman Haikus), Bat-trivia, and Bat-prizes.

Plus an after-party at the Hanger Bar (217 E. Third Street) complete with Bat-cocktails and utility belt snacks. If Nick drinks enough, he'll do the Bat-Dance on the bar.






NOTE: This show is an editor's pick on BAT-BLOG.com, that's like the New York Times of Batman blogs.

They Live

Fantastic Planet

I have a good ear for BATMAN.

Adult Films Inspired by Science-Fiction

Pretty self-explanatory. This was the first episode that had to be significantly re-written. There were some dirty jokes that got cut. I will save them for my memoirs.

Thanks for THE APPLE Night!

Thanks to everyone who attended The Sci Fi Screening Room's presentation of THE APPLE. For those of you who couldn't make it -- you missed out on a lot of fun. We opened the show with a musical number from BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Co-host Raven Snook stole the show. She read an excerpt from ICED (written by APPLE cast-member Ray Shell), shared an email exchange with APPLE actress Miriam Margolyes (who says "the film was made by a madman") and delighted the crowd with a rousing sing-a-long of SPEED. (see video.)



I did trivia, prizes and actually convinced the audience to eat complimentary APPLE JACKS cereal.

Before the night was over, we gave an audience member an APPLE-style glitter-glam makeover (I'm only sorry I don't have before and after photos.) And we gave everyone in the audience free glitter and B.I.M.s to wear. I've never seen a more attractive audience in all my life.

Thanks audience. This is not the kind of movie one should see alone.

Join us for THE APPLE Night!

After the success of HULK Night and KISS Night, THE SCI FI SCREENING ROOM is proud to present...THE APPLE Night!…

This Wednesday (May 14th @ 7PM)
at the Theater Under St. Mark’s
94 St. Mark’s Place, btw 1st Ave and Avenue A
L-train to 1st Ave, F/V to 2nd Ave, R-train to 8th St, 6 to Astor Pl.
Just 7 bucks!




THE APPLE: it’s Xanadu meets George Orwell in this flamboyant, dystopian Adam & Eve story set in the nightmarish future of 1994 (as imagined in 1980.) Audiences will love to see naïve Catherine Mary Stewart mutate into a drug-fueled glam-pop super-star (Hubba-hubba!) THE APPLE invokes the spirit of Frank Zappa’s concept-album Joe’s Garage, albeit in a non-satirical way. If you like Phantom of the Paradise, but wished it was dumber, gayer and made in Berlin by one-half of Golan-Globus, this is the movie for you!

The show is hosted by Kevin Maher (American Movie Classics’ The Sci Fi Department) and Raven Snook (www.ravensnook.com) providing trivia, prizes, drinking games, free glitter and a sing-a-long.

After the movie the evening continues with Atomic X @ Beauty Bar (231 E. 14th Street, btw 2nd and 3rd Aves) It’s an all-night glam-rock party hosted by Joey Nova. Expect the DJ to be playing plenty of David Bowie, New York Dolls, and selections from The Apple soundtrack. There will be a makeup artist doing glam makeovers and glitter manicures to get you feeling like a glam-pop super-star. Plus there’s an open bar from 10 – 11 and apple-flavored drink specials throughout the night!


Watch the Sci Fi Department’s episode about THE APPLE:

The Lost Subgenre: Sci Fi Buddy Cop Movies

In this action-packed episode I team up with funnyman Andres du Bouchet. Also appearing are Will Carlough and James Moles.

Obligatory Comic Con Episode

Here's a video from the 2008 New York Comic Con. Thanks to everybody who talked to us - we had a swell time.

Beware of Your Computer

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of WarGames we're looking back at the Golden Age of evil computer movies.

Sequels I Still Wanna See

Sci Fi Auto Show

Return of the Superhero Parody

For the children...

This is the children's guide to the Apocalypse.

Time Travel Movie Guide

We round of some time-travel movies that are worth watchng and worth skipping.

Also -- I have to give a shout-out to two TV shows: One of the most moving stories from "The Twilight Zone" is "Walking Distance." The episode is rumored to be Rod Serling's favorite, it's about a burnt-out ad-man who longs for the simple pleasures of his childhood.

An awful TV entry was "Fonz & the Happy Days Gang" -- a 1980 cartoon in which Fonz, Ritchie and Ralph Malph accompany a sexy alien named Cupcake as they travel through history. Also don't forget The Fonz's dog, Mr. Cool. And did I mention it was narrated by Wolfman Jack? This show was one-half of an hour-long block on ABC adapting hit sitcoms. it was coupled with a show about Laverne & Shirley in the army where they were beated by a pig drill sergeant (voiced by Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter.)

KISS NIGHT rocked

Thanks everybody who came out to KISS NIGHT! I had a blast and I hope you did, too. For those of you who missed it -- we watched KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK, we screened clips of Gene Simmons in the 1984 robot-spider movie RUNAWAY and, in keeping with the movie's story (KISS fights robots), we got an audience member to compete with Rob's robot-clone in a beer-guzzling contest. (watch the video below)




Now here are some KISSKUS (KISS Haikus) by Rebecca Maher, Mike Whalen, M. Sweeney Lawless and Kevin Maher


How many girls you ask?
Don’t know. How many grains of
sand on the beach?

~

Girls, booze, drugs, fame.
That’s not why KISS does it.
They do it for the money.

~

I checked on YouTube
But no one has made KISS Meets
The Phantom Menace

~

I have a sex dream
Where the members of KISS fuck
The Facts of Life chicks.

~

When Geraldo said,
Stick out your tongue Gene, he said
“Can’t, the floor’s not clean”

~

Want to find world peace?
Don’t send Marines to Iraq
Send the KISS Army

~

We begged them – begged them
“Take off your makeup!” They did.
By that time, who cared?

~


PAUL STANLEY
Do you take requests?
Here’s a request for you:
Could you wear your shirt?

~

Gene Simmons' "Love Gun"
is the children's toy I pine
for every Christmas.

~

Only place you’ll find
death before disco is in
the dictionary.

KISS NIGHT is March 11th

I'm hosting KISS NIGHT! at the next SCI FI SCREENING ROOM

WHAT: Screening of KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK (1978)

WHEN: Tuesday March 11th @ 7 PM

WHERE: The Theater Under St. Mark's
94 St. Mark's Place (between 1st Ave and Avenue A), NYC

HOW MUCH: 7 bucks (free if you wear KISS Make-up)

* A TIME OUT NEW YORK BEST BET and a VILLAGE VOICE CHOICE




The screening includes trivia, prizes, and KISS haikus. There'll be cheap beer and free snacks.

It's co-hosted by Rob Gorden, the host of Spike TV's Geek Ray Vision



After the movie join us for REBELREBEL at LIT LOUNGE
(93 Second Avenue, between 5th and 6th Streets)



It's an all-night KISS PARTY hosted by Joey Nova, including:

• An hour of KISS music from 10-11 at the upstairs bar

• An open Vodka bar from 11-12

• KISS videos projected on the downstairs dance floor

• Make-up artist Mistress Harlequin doing KISS make-overs

• The KISS tribute band CREATURES OF THE NIGHT @11 PM featuring the LOVE GUN GIRLS

• A KISS costume contest at 2 AM with the Grand Prize of a KISSOLOGY DVD set





ABOUT THE FILM:

The 1978 made-for-TV movie was produced at the height of KISS-mania. The movie follows Starchild, Cat Man, Space Ace and The Demon as they battle their robot clones while saving a California amusement park. The film was produced by Hanna-Barbera studios, so all the violent fight scenes are peppered with cartoon sound effects. Also, many of Ace Frehly's scenes are performed by a stunt double who was African American. And the band has super-powers (they can fly and shoot laser-beams out of their eyes.)

KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK is NOT ON NETFLIX (WATCH THE EPISODE ABOUT MOVIES NOT ON NETFLIX)

And it's been called THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE (WATCH THE EPISODE ABOUT THE WORST WHATEVER EVER.)

The Asylum's Bread & Butter

I love a good underdog story. These guys are West Coast Troma.

Sci-Five: Oscar-Winners in B-Movie Trash

The Sci Fi Department reviews some of the B-movies made by Oscar winners.

George Romero talks Zombies

In my star-filled career I've worked with Mike Myers, Lindsay Lohan and Mark Summers, but none of them could have prepared me for meeting this legendary filmmaker. George Romero is a great guy. He says "man" a lot (though none of those made it into the edited interview.) He's a class act!

The Top 5 Spider movies

Viva Spider Cinema!

Comic Book Movies

I sat down with the dudes from Comic Book Club to talk about comic book movies.

Biker Heaven

Of all the fabeled movies that never got made, Biker Heaven (the unmade Easy Rider sequel) is the one I'd most like to see.

Though it's probably best left as an unmade film.

A Boy and His Dog

Here's an episode about A Boy and His Dog, L.Q. Jones' adaptation of the Harlan Ellison novella.

The Destruction Tour of Sci Fi New York

Hollywood must hate New York, because it's always getting destroyed in the movies.

American Idol and The Apple

We had to do lots of takes because I couldn't stop laughing at Mike Birch's ad-libbed lyrics in the American Idol song.

Peter Jackson's first movie: Bad Taste

Before he made Lord of the Rings he made this low-budget splatstick comedy. This episode makes me feel old.

Franchise Face-Offs

This Alien Vs. Predator inspired episode owes a lot of thanks to Professor Kevin Heffern at Southern Methodist University. I called him up to ask for help and he said, "I was just talking about franchise cross-overs!" He truly is a gentleman and a scholar.

Also Mark Douglas plays Sportscaster Dov McCormack. The holiday party co-workers are Bricken Sparacino, Mike Birch, Paul Herbig, Brianna Jacobson, Jonny Fido and Eric Hendricks.

An Oral History of The Star Wars Holiday Special

Happy Life Day!

He Is Legend: Richard Matheson 101

Richard Matheson is one of my favorite authors. For all the great science-fiction and horror he's written, I think his best book is a World War II novel title The Beardless Warriors. My friend Larry summed it up best that Matheson is a "deceptively simple" writer.

None of that analysis appears in this episode, but we do cover his cult-movie work.

Note: you can alseo watch the YouTube version which is 20 seconds longer.

Close Encounters with Bob Balaban

Here's our first interview, we were able to get Close Encounters star Bob Balaban. He was a great sport, really funny and fun to talk with.

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass Roundtable Debate features Lisa Beebe, Paul Herbig, Jonny Fido, M. Sweeney Lawless and Brianna Jacobson.

Now Playing in an Alternate Universe

Here's five classics movies that had almost been made by other people.

Boy we sure do talk about King Kong a lot.

Kaiju Big Battel/ Alien Vs. Predator Fever

Everyone should go see Kaiju Big Battel at least once.

Movies Not on Netflix

Here's a list of films that are not on Netflix. When I called the people were really helpful and cool.

Also, I've since learned that Rock & Rule and Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park are not on Netflix.

Southland Tales

We spent a long night making this one, and I thought we'd win some web-award for making it.

Turns out no one cared about this movie. On the opening week it was played in one theater in all of New York City.

Son of Casting Disasters

More movies almost ruined by bad casting.

Employee Review (the lost webisode!)

AMC hated this episode and removed it from the website shortly after it posted. Maybe it's because there aren't any FACTS. Or maybe it's because we talk about layoffs while AMC was facing actual layoffs. Some people like this episode best of all.

That's Mickey Ryan as the HR guy.

Halloween Adventure

A trip to Halloween Adventure to check out science fiction Halloween costumes.