I have the fondest memories of this show. When I was 8 I would wake up at 1 in the morning and see my dad watching it and I would watch a segment or two and then go back to bed. It was one of the highlights of having my dad. He let me watch a show where ladies boobs were blurred out with USA's logo, and violence was fake but all over the place.
If you have any great memories of this show post about it, FYI someone posted them on YouTube, but I have the VHS copies my dad made. :-)
I sort of remember it, I watched a few episodes. With Sandra Bernhard as the host, right? Seems to me it lasted less than a year before it was canceled.
I think it was sort of similar to a British program called "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" that was syndicated on PBS for a short time. I remember that series better. Before the Internet, these shows were one of the ways we figured out which titles to hunt down.
That show intoduced me to the GIRL AND THE GEEK and the WEIRD WORLD OF LSD!
http://youtu.be/lmbOssbzVfk (http://youtu.be/lmbOssbzVfk)
Quote from: Rev. Powell on August 18, 2016, 02:12:11 PM
I sort of remember it, I watched a few episodes. With Sandra Bernhard as the host, right? Seems to me it lasted less than a year before it was canceled.
I think it was sort of similar to a British program called "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" that was syndicated on PBS for a short time. I remember that series better. Before the Internet, these shows were one of the ways we figured out which titles to hunt down.
This show was the reason why my dad bought "Nudes on the Moon" I have to check out The Incredibly Strange Film Show. The way RWC worked was that you could send them your info to buy the any of the films on the show. They even had a "Reel Wild Cinema Club" where you recieved a shirt, and a catalogue.
I dearly loved this show; it was perfect for coming in at night with a buzz on. The flicks were great, and I even found Sandra Bernhard kinda sexy back then.
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f9BuIapJPo#)
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCIU0N8Dgvg#)
Reel Wild Cinema was a treasure; very funny and yet unlike MST3k respectful of the films they showed, or as respectful as they could be. I mean, Sandra really seemed to enjoy her job and really got into it. Her comments were funny and her commentaries, if that's the right word for what she said, was neither ironic nor snarky. It's like it was a labor of love for her.
:thumbup: :twirl:
I wish the show had lasted longer. This is not the first place I've encountered fans RWC fans. It showed the potential to become a cult classic.
The whole thing was done by, mostly, Something Weird Video, which, at the time, was one of the best and better-known sources for bizarre cinema on VHS.
I enjoyed the guests they would have on the show, like H.G. Lewis, Fred Williamson, David Friedman, and others. It was a real treat to see the people who made the lovely bits of insanity I found so delightful. Of course, they mostly rolled out the same stories I've heard a million times since then, but I heard a number of them for the first time on RWC.
I doubt a show like that could go over these days, unless it was hosted by idiots who would ridicule the films to show how "smart" they are, while screwing up basic facts that 5 minutes of casual research would correct. (Yes, I'm looking at the popular Youtube commentators on crap films, except The Cinema Snob, but he has his own set of issues that frustrate me. Kids today. :lookingup:)
You're probably right. RWC was from the golden age of cable,--the Eighties, into the Nineties--and it was a time that has passed into history, as the saying goes, which is odd (for me) to say since it wasn't all that long ago. There was another one that showed some strange movies, mostly horrors,--was it Joe Bob's Drive-In?--anyway, a Texas guy, and very funny. He was kinda deadpan, a la Tommy Lee Jones, whom he reminded me of a little.
Stuff like that wouldn't go over today. We've become too unsophisticated. :lookingup: Sounds weird, I know, but I think it's true.