Chiller Theatre (1961 TV series)

History

Chiller Theater first aired on WPIX in 1961. John Zacherle, known as "The Cool Ghoul," became the host in 1963 and remained until 1965. Episodes originally opened with the "Classic Montage Opening," which stitched together short clips from 1950s fantasy and science fiction films. The sequence kicked off with Vampira emerging from a forest in Plan 9 from Outer Space, then cut to Gloria Talbott in The Cyclops, peering at the monster from inside a cave. More clips followed, ending with a blooper from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman: a giant alien picks up one car but throws a different model into a ditch. The montage ran under a creepy library track called "Horror Upon Horror," composed by British musician Wilfred Josephs.

This opening stayed in use until the late 1960s, when it was swapped for a new intro. That version showed the word "Chiller" painted in white on a black board. As the board was lifted, the gooey paint dripped down like blood, accompanied by eerie chamber music. The bumper was simply that painted title card. The change may have been driven by movie studios starting to charge TV stations royalties for film clips around that time.

In 1971, the painted title card gave way to a claymation sequence featuring a six-fingered hand. WPIX produced it in-house, possibly with help from a technician at Rankin Bass, the company behind the 1964 claymation special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The scene shows a minimal, surreal swamp with a river of blood stretching to the horizon and a dead tree in the background. A six-fingered humanoid hand rises from the swamp. The soundtrack includes a reverberant whistle and ghostly sounds that drop in pitch as the sequence goes on. As the hand emerges, the word "Chiller" grows out of the ground. The hand glides over each letter, snatches them one by one, and sinks back into the swamp. A voice groans "Chillllller..." in an eerie, robotic tone.