Hiding behind the sofa...

Post by **gribbles** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:10 pm 0

I've just been on a major nostalgia trip, downloading loadsa sad 70/80s commercials and theme tunes etc.

One of those llovely notialgia moments happened when I played back the theme to The Tomorrow People. I got a MAJOR flashback to being little and the feeling that the tune gave me. TBH the tune used to scare me - I distinctly remember feeling really uneasy whenever I heard it. (I remember the porgram being a bit pants, but that's beside the point)

Anyway, what stuff on TV used to scare you when you were kids?

I'd also like to nominate Sea-Devils and Giant Spiders from Doctor Who. And those bloody great maggots didn't do much for a good night's sleep either...

strawdonkey · Post by **strawdonkey** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:15 pm 0

There was a game on the Crystal Maze that involved Giant Spiders. I could never watch it, ever ever ever.

Ever.

tryptamine · Post by **tryptamine** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:22 pm 0

Dr Who for definite - I remember being about 3 and hiding behind the curtains when Davaros was on - or most of the monsters from Dr Who actually, but Davaros/the Daleks used to proper schitz me out when they went off on a rant.

I can also remember being a bit freaked out as a kid when my parents took me to see Empire Strikes Back at the cinema - at the bit where Han Solo comes out of the carbon freezing chamber...

Sickboy · Post by **Sickboy** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:25 pm 0

Where were you downloading everything from, mate? Sounds good to me...

My biggest nostalgia trip lately has been the Charley Says... DVD. It's a compilation of all the (mostly) '70s Public Information Films and, as you said with the Tomorrow People music, some bits of it (music, animation, slogans) just catch me and send me right back... I wrote a piece on it for the Guardian Guide a year or so ago - but I lost the original in a computer fuck-up. It'd be quite nostalgic to see it again, actually. Anyone collect old Guardian Guides? Ahem...

I agree about the Sea Devils. Doctor Who was scary because they didn't have the budget to make it *all* freaky planets and space stuff. It's that horrible combination of the mundane and alien - Cybermen wandering around some North London suburb.

And, erm... *Guilt trip*... I'll send that album tomorrow, Gribs.

Post by **gribbles** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:35 pm 0

A good site to start is tv.cream.org. Belting good site, with lashings of programs and reviews. I seldom tire of it..

A good site for downloads is http://www.tv-ark.co.uk/

Oh, and another Dr. Who contender - Autons *shiver*. And you're bang on about the alien/mundane mix in DW. I remember staring at the dummies in shop windows in town, willing them to move - but not wanting them to at the same time...

sty · Post by **sty** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:37 pm 0

The only thing that really scared me on TV was an April fool story on Nationwide.

It was a report that some ancient Roman crosses had been recently found, and any people who looked at the were being visited at night by Werewolves!!

Scared me shitless for weeks, as I thought that since I had seen them myself on TV, I WOULD BE VISITED and killed!!!!!

freaked me out for ages afterwards as well!

everklear · Post by **everklear** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:42 pm 0

That one episode of "Space: 1999" where they're dealing with the radioactive waste eating monsters. (Lots of foam and springs...)

Laughable now.

There was this movie (don't know the name) where these people were lost/stranded in a jungle somewhere and there was a claymation (I think) T-Rex running around stepping on and eating them. Petrified me.

Surfr · Post by **Surfr** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 8:06 pm 0

I remember crying at an eppisode of Grange Hill where someone died stuck to the bottom of the swimming pool by an outlet grate. I think he had dived in to fetch someones bracelet or somthing.

mamemeister · Post by **mamemeister** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 8:22 pm 0

I can recall a program on in the early seventies called 'Thriller' I think. It used to be on on a Thurs / Fri night and was in the same vein as 'Tales of the Unexpected". The opening credits had a white house circled in a soft focus kind of way. The tune that played between adverts was a kinda "Dowwoooooo Hoooooo" noise. I remember an episode where all the customers at a hotel were getting killed off one by one and a detective opened an oven and there was this head rotating on a spit. Seeing it now it would probably look shite but when I was only 5 or 6 it scared the shit out of me!

koworld · Post by **koworld** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 8:34 pm 0

I still get Tommorrow People flashback/dreams even now. Its like somebody taped my brain for all its nightmares then put it into '70s TV.

Sickboy · Post by **Sickboy** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 8:36 pm 0

mamemeister wrote:I can recall a program on in the early seventies called 'Thriller' I think. It used to be on on a Thurs / Fri night and was in the same vein as 'Tales of the Unexpected". The opening credits had a white house circled in a soft focus kind of way. The tune that played between adverts was a kinda "Dowwoooooo Hoooooo" noise. I remember an episode where all the customers at a hotel were getting killed off one by one and a detective opened an oven and there was this head rotating on a spit. Seeing it now it would probably look shite but when I was only 5 or 6 it scared the shit out of me!

Jesus Christ. That's upset me a bit *now*.

everklear - I remember being a bit spooked by that episode of Space 1999, where the monster got on board the ship and they had to change the doors to voice-activated and that woman who could change shape turned into a fly and flew into its ear.

Oh, and one word - THREADS.

PVB · Post by **PVB** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 8:39 pm 0

Those giant maggots on DW.

And in an episode of the original Star Trek there was a large 'face' with funny eyes that was then included in the end titles for the rest of the series.
Will try to dig out a piccie.

Oh, and the TV mini series of Stephen King's book Salem's Lot.

I'd attempted to read the book a few years previously and given up as it gave me nightmares and a slight phobia of the dark <they're next to you/behind you>.

mattley · Post by **mattley** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 9:01 pm 0

when I was a kid the sofa was against a wall so I couldn't hide behind it. Hence I grew up afraid of nothing.

moobaa · Post by **moobaa** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 9:18 pm 0

Yep, the music to the Tomorrow People was well scary.

The thing that used to freak me out as a kid, though, was any show or cartoon that depicted the hero (or, worse, their side-kick) falling under mind-control of their enemies. That stuff used to disturb the shit out of me.

The episode of Birdman, where Avenger gets hit by a mind-control ray (or something), is particularly memorable in this regard. HR Puff'n'Stuff, where the Flute gets controlled by Witchey-poo, is another...

PVB · Post by **PVB** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 9:24 pm 0

PVB wrote:And in an episode of the original Star Trek there was a large 'face' with funny eyes that was then included in the end titles for the rest of the series.
Will try to dig out a piccie.

Here it is:

*gulp*