UFOs on Unsolved Mysteries!
Happy Friday!
Someone told me that they felt the season was moving too fast. While that’s been a problem for me many times in the past, I gotta say, I’ve been feeling the pacing, this year. We still have over a month left, and for once, I don’t feel like I blew my wad too early. Hell, I still haven’t tried (let alone covered) some of this year’s key candies!
Anyway, tl;dr: If you’re feeling like the season is moving too fast, my best advice is to just get out there and have some Halloween fun. Try someplace that’s outside of your comfort zone, too. I say it every year, but relying on the same bunch of department stores won’t cut it!
Taking my own advice, I’m headed out to get a pumpkin this weekend. It won’t be our official Halloween pumpkin — it’s just something I need for a project — but it’ll get me outside and hopefully to a place that I wouldn’t normally ever be.
Tonight’s pick comes to us from James, aka RetroBoyToys. James clearly understood that the quickest way to my heart was with a big dose of Robert Stack. Here’s an episode of Unsolved Mysteries from the show’s seventh season!
James didn’t just pick an episode at random, like I usually do. He has much to say about this one:
“I’ve always loved monsters and sci-fi fantasy horror awesomeness. I would sneak upstairs to watch the good stuff I wasn’t allowed to watch after my parents had gone to bed. However, this episode of Unsolved Mysteries scarred me as a kid. I was a huge fan of Ridley Scott’s Aliens and had a shelf of Kenner toys to prove it. But when I saw this episode, my take on aliens and visitors from another planet shifted.
“I hadn’t really heard of the abductee phenomenon before this. It’s one thing to see a UFO from a distance, but it’s a totally different story if you’re camping out in your backyard and there’s a possibility of becoming an alien science experiment. That possibility freaked me out big time!
“I don’t know what it is about them, but I’d rather come face to face with Predator than a Grey. Those malicious black eyes, and expressionless faces — I couldn’t shake them from my mind.
“One night I had a dream that they were trying to get into my house to abduct me. (Much like the movie Signs.) I woke up sweating and ran into my parents’ room. They tried to calm me down by offering me a coffee mug of water. I don’t know if any of you have experienced this before, but if you finish the last swig of coffee and look at your reflection in the bottom of the cup, it looks like a freakin’ Grey Alien is staring at you! At least, that was my imagination’s spin on it. Needless to say, the cup of water didn’t calm me down much.
“My fear of being abducted has diminished over the years. I even faced my fear head-on by watching Fire in the Sky outside in a tent with my friends. I know the validity of The Allagash Abductions has since been disputed by skeptics and believers alike, but even if it never happened, the thought of their encounter still creeps me out.”
Okay, I totally know this episode and that segment, and it’s one of the show’s all-timers. Great, creepy watch for a Friday night!
Transformers: Dark Awakening!
Neat pick tonight from LBD “Nytetrayn” — and one that stands as another tribute to how creative y’all have been with the suggestions this year. It’s like everyone understands that After Dark has been around for years now, and we’ve burned through most of the obvious choices.
Get set for Dark Awakening, an arguably seasonally-appropriate episode of The Transformers!
LBD “Nytetrayn” adds: “This is a favorite of mine, where the Autobots discover that maybe Optimus Prime didn’t die in the Battle of Autobot City (from the movie) after all!
“I seem to recall this airing on a dark and gloomy day (the 1st of October, going by TFWiki — how apropos) when I saw it as a kid, which helped enhance the atmosphere. Further enhancing it was AKOM’s crummy animation, which made everything look a bit scarier, anyway!
“This is the original version, from before they decided to bring back Optimus Prime in ‘The Return of Optimus Prime’, and had a voiceover basically declare as much in further airings.
“Also, fun little thing: My parents refused to take me to see the movie in theaters, so I wound up seeing this episode (and his return) before I ever got to see him die.”
Yep, this works for me. I’ve lost track of Transformers over the years, but I’ll always be a fan, and if you can convince me that certain episodes work during the Halloween season, I’m all for it.
In Dino Drac news, I’m proud that I got a new article up today. This is Funpack shipping week, which under normal circumstances would mean several days away from writing, let alone any other sort of content creation.
But I’m determined to stick with this mental quota of four new pieces a week until it’s just impossible to do so, and getting that article done means that I’ll probably make it. Stress, probably. We’ll see how tomorrow goes — though I do have something really cool to show you, assuming I can make the time!
I’m more excited about next week, though, since we’ll be releasing a new podcast and I’ll be freed up enough to work on a new video, too. Stay tuned!
A Nightmare on My Street!
Just a quickie for tonight! Here’s the long-thought-lost music video for A Nightmare on My Street, by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince:
I’m sure I’ve run this before, but it deserves all the love it can get. The video was shockingly unearthed last year and, IMO, it lives up to all those years of hype.
Love this song, and so glad we finally have the legit music video to go along with it! The track has quite a history, too — here’s its Wikipedia entry if you wanna brush up!
The Elvira Show!
Our own Brew Berry reminded me that today is Elvira’s birthday! (Well, yesterday was, depending on when you read this.)
He suggested that I run this in celebration. Here’s the unaired pilot of The Elvira Show, from 1993. HOW have I never seen this?
Description, from YouTube: “CBS filmed a pilot for The Elvira Show hot off the heels of the movie, ‘Elvira, Mistress of the Dark’ — though the show’s plot has nothing to do with the movie. I was lucky enough to actually be at the taping of this pilot. The show starred Cassandra Peterson as Elvira and Katherine Helmond as Aunt Minerva. The writing is witty, and full of innuendoes and one-liners that are so bad they are great! Too bad it was never picked up.”
Wait, so it’s Elvira AND MONA?! Count me in. Happy birthday, Cass!
