Purple Stuff: Eight Creepy Commercials!
Some of my friends have been shielding themselves from the Perpetually Unsettling News with horror movies. I totally get it, because I’ve been doing it too. I guess it’s a matter of replacing bad and lasting scares with the good and fleeting kind? Considering his bladed glove, it’s ironic how Freddy can take the edge off.
That may explain why we picked this particular subject for the latest Purple Stuff Podcast. It’s an episode that might be more at home in October, but goddamn, it’s exactly what we needed right now.
This week, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit discuss eight of our all-time favorite SCARY TV COMMERCIALS, covering everything from haunted fruit snacks to the time the Gremlins starred in a drunk driving PSA. Lots of heavy hitters in this batch!
>>> Click here to listen to the new episode!
(If you subscribe to the Purple Stuff Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or whatever, it should be on there, too!)
Oh, and if you wanna watch along, here’s a playlist of every commercial mentioned on the show:
Some are from my personal collection; others were only available to us thanks to several YouTubers who work hard to preserve this stuff. (For instance, props to Retrontario for that eye shrapnel PSA!)
Hope you guys dig the show. The Purple Stuff Podcast is also on Patreon, where you can grab an extra bonus episode every month, along with some other things. Thanks for all of your support on there!
It’s still pretty early in the month, so who knows — we may hit ya with another full-length episode sooner than you expect!
Purple Stuff Podcast: Shocktober ’92!
It’s time for a very special episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast! For years, you’ve heard us wax nostalgic about WPIX’s old Shocktober horror movie marathons. Hell, I’ve even written giant articles about it. (Several, actually.)
Today, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit are gonna relieve Shocktober like we never could before: By watching the October 1992 WPIX broadcast of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter!
I’ve spent close to two decades trying to track down this precise broadcast, which I absolutely watched back in ‘92. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter kicked off that year’s Shocktober event on Thursday, October 1st. I’m sure I stuck with FOX until The Simpsons were over, but after that, I was all Jason’s.
My bud Dustin (Trasufoma) miraculously found a VHS tape containing this broadcast, and so graciously shared it with us. It’s f’n beautiful, guys. It was a complete recording too, with all of WPIX’s bells and whistles and all of the original commercials. Thanks so much for this tape, Dustin!
For those who haven’t heard us gab about Shocktober before, it worked like this: Virtually every night in October, WPIX — a broadcast network in these parts — aired edited-for-content horror movies in the 8PM time slot. This was how kids like me saw soooo many horror movies for the first time, including this one here!
On this week’s show, we’re walking you through the whole broadcast. We talk about what WPIX got away with showing on network television, and what they had to edit. We’ll tell you about scenes that weren’t in the theatrical cut. We’ll gush over the commercials and promos. My God, even the hideous snakeman from that old anti-drug PSA makes an appearance. This is extremely our shit!
Click here to listen to this week’s episode!
As a reminder, The Purple Stuff Podcast is also on Patreon, where you can grab an extra bonus show every single month. (And sometimes more than one!) Thanks so much for your support over there.
Oh, and as a companion to this week’s show, I cut together this highlight reel from the Shocktober ‘92 broadcast of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. It includes pretty much everything we discuss on the podcast, from the extra scenes to the cool commercials to that sweet WPIX packaging. Enjoy!
Dino Drac’s March Funpack is here!
Dino Drac’s March Funpack is here, and… okay, yes, given what’s going on in the world, I’d much rather push this off until things settle down. I’m on an unbreakable schedule with these, though, so the show must go on!
UNITED STATES ONLY! VERY LIMITED SUPPLY!
This month’s Funpack is loaded with old-and-new goodies that are sure to give ya at least one night’s worth of trivial joy. From old toys to newish movies to delicious snacks, I’m super happy with how this one turned out, and I hope you guys will be, too.
Standard spiel: The Funpacks are available on a monthly subscription basis. It’s $25 a month (including shipping), and for as long as you remain subscribed, you’ll get a new Funpack each and every month. (You can cancel at any time without penalty, of course!)
Scroll to the bottom for ordering info, or keep reading to learn about everything you’ll receive in this month’s box! Read More…
I’m Telling! (That awesome game show from 1987.)
Big news: I’ve finally identified the name of an old children’s game show that’s been on the tip of my tongue for over thirty years.
It was called I’m Telling. (Properly stylized with an exclamation point at the end, but I hate it when titles do that.)
According to its Wikipedia entry, the series premiered in September of ‘87 and only made it to the following March. It was one of those weird, low-fi game shows that aired directly after Saturday morning cartoons, when most kids were already outside trading bikes or arm-wrestling lizards or whatever the hell kids did out there.
Naturally, I was still inside, clinging to the last bits of kid-targeted programming before every network switched over to five hours of boring bullshit. Read More…