July 2007

Ghoulardi, the '60s TV beatnik horror movie host from Cleveland who happens also to be the father of film director P.T. Anderson (Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love), died in the '90s but lives on on YouTube. The screenshots are from his afternoon show, a segment where he showed fan art. Great stuff--the middle panel is the purest Gary Panter.

Count Gore de Vol, a mainstay of '70s UHF programming in Washington DC, also enjoys an undead life on the web, with his own site and various YouTube clips. In this one he takes us on a tour of his horror memorabilia. He looks and talks much like Brent Spiner, and in fact also played "Captain 20"--a Vulcan kid's show host.

Yet no trip down local TV memory lane would be complete without mentioning Petey Greene's Washington. Greene is the subject of a new Don Cheadle movie but there is no way an actor in a typical '00s Hollywood blandathon could be anything like the real Greene, an ex-con and civil rights activist who lorded it over his eponymous show from a throne-like rattan chair. "Characters" like this aren't allowed on the open airwaves today--he's too honest and real--but he lives on this clip, at least until it is removed for the inevitable terms of use violation.