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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Vintage vampire movie posters and ads

Posted in advertising, Dracula, monsters, movies, pop culture, vampires with tags advertising, AWESOME-tober-fest, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, pop culture, vampires on October 21, 2011 by Paxton

This is the end of vampire TV week. Next week begins movie week. In celebration, I’m forgoing looking at a TV show today and I’m just going to present you with a potpourri of scary vintage movie ads featuring vampires. You can see more of these ads on my other blog Held Over.

First lets see some newspaper ads.

This is a 1952 ad for a revival of the Dracula stage play. This was an adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel that originally ran in 1927 and starred Bela Lugosi. It was this adaptation that Universal remade for the 1931 film in which Bela reprized his stage role as the Count.

This is a 1992 ad for Francis Ford Coppola’s rather indulgent adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel.

This ad is for Love at First Bite starring George Hamilton. It’s a 1979 spoof of Dracula that has the Count getting kicked out of his Transylvanian castle and having to move to America and blend in with the people of 70s New York.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone (1980)

Posted in cartoons, Dracula, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, TV shows, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, cartoons, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, TV shows, vampires on October 20, 2011 by Paxton

Here we are on Day 4 of Dracula TV week. Today we are looking at one of my favorite Halloween cartoon specials. Today we are looking at the special, The Flintstones Meet Rockula & Frankenstone.

The special was produced in 1979 but aired for the first time in Oct 1980. It featured the voices of Henry Corden as Fred, Mel Blanc as Barney, Ted Cassidy (Lurch from Adams Family) as Frankenstone and John Stephenson as Count Rockula.

The special starts with the Flintstones and Rubbles visiting the game show Make a Deal or Don’t. They win a trip to Rocksylvania to stay the weekend in Castle Rockula.

The ancient Castle Rockula has been turned in to a fancy hotel. The Flintstones and Rubbles attend a Halloween party dressed as Rockula and Frankenstone. They accidentally discover a trap door into a secret laboratory underneath the castle. While in this laboratory, a random bolt of lightning awakens the real Frankenstone monster. The real monster goes into another secret passage and awakens the real Count Rockula who has been asleep for the last 500 years.

Count Rockula immediately orders everyone out of the castle. While herding everyone out the doors, he meets Wilma, mistakes her for his bride, then, when he realizes his error, he decides to take her as his bride anyway even if it means killing Fred.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Dracula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Posted in Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires with tags Angel, AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dracula, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires on October 19, 2011 by Paxton

Here we are again at hump day. Hump day in the middle of Dracula TV show week. Today we are going to look at Dracula’s appearance in one of my favorite shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Dracula would make his Buffy-verse debut in the first episode of Season 5 in Fall 2000. Why it took Whedon 5 seasons to get Dracula in this series is beyond me, but here he finally is. To me, having Dracula as the “big bad” for a season makes perfect sense. You make him evil like Angelus, but calculating and cold. AWESOME. In spades.

Anyway, Dracula travels to Sunnydale to meet the famous Buffy and make her one of his concubines (you and me both, Drac). After a nice battle in the cemetery between Buffy and a nameless vamp, we get a misty reveal of the Buffy-verse Dracula. And he looks like the living embodiment of nerd rage.

F**K. YOU.

THAT’S Dracula. WHAT. THE. F**K, Whedon? He looks more like a douchey street magician than he does Dracula. Oh, Whedon, you sonova—-. Why? Why do this? It’s like you are mocking the entire idea…….wait, hold on, just…..(calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean) let’s talk about the episode, shall we?

Like I said, “Dracula” comes to Sunnydale to make the famous Buffy Summers one of his concubines. And to go along with that ridiculous outer appearance he also has a douchey Euro-trash accent. So, the writers are checking off ALL the boxes under Dracula Cliches. Vaguely European accent? Check. Long hair? Check. Red lined cloak? Check. Incite murderous rage in Pax for the lazy Dracula portrayal by the writers/producers of a show I love? Double check. But I digress. AGAIN.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Forever Knight (1992)

Posted in monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires on October 18, 2011 by Paxton

Day 2 of vampire TV week. Yesterday we talked about Dracula The Series from 1991. I mentioned that one of the guest stars in that show would go on the next year and star in his own vampire series. That vampire series was Forever Knight.
Forever Knight title This show originally began as a 1989 TV movie named Nick Knight on CBS starring Rick Springfield. For the broadcast series, CBS recast the lead with Geraint Wyn Davies and renamed it Forever Knight.

In a way, this show was sort of a precursor to Angel. Nick Knight is a Toronto police detective on the midnight shift. Nick is also an 800 year old vampire. Born in Roman times, Nick was once a very violent vampire reveling in chaos. Nowadays, Nick refuses to feed on human blood and subsists only on bottled animal blood. He keeps his vampiric nature a secret and occasionally uses his supernatural abilities to catch the bad guy. Some of Nick’s abilities include super strength and speed, heightened senses, flight and low level hypnotic/psychic powers. There is one human, the city medical examiner, who is aware of Nick being a vampire. Two other former vampire acquaintances of Nick show up later on and continually try to lure him back into his less than civilized ways.

The show ran for three seasons and has garnered quite a cult following. In 2004, TV Guide listed it #23 in a list of the top 25 “cult shows” of all time. There were three books released based on the series. The books contained original stories that furthered the story from Season 3 after the show was canceled.

There was also a soundtrack released for the show and the entire run of episodes was released on DVD. You can get all three seasons as well as the original TV movie with Rick Springfield off Netflix. Neither have been added to streaming, however you can watch them on Amazon Instant Movies.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Dracula the Series (1991)

Posted in Dracula, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires on October 17, 2011 by Paxton

Thus begins week three of AWESOME-tober-fest. This week begins TV week. Let’s start things off with a little known Canadian vampire TV show, shall we?

Today, we are looking at Dracula The Series. This show originally aired in 1991. In this show, Dracula poses as a wealthy tycoon named Alexander Lucard (A. Lucard…get it? Like we don’t get enough backwards Dracula references). Dracula had plans every week for some dastardly doings. The group opposing him was led by Gustav Van Helsing and his nephews Max and Chris. At the very least, the show followed the lore of the books in that Dracula could walk in the daylight, but loses his powers when doing so.

The show had several guest stars that were famous in Canada. Geraint Wyn Davies would appear in several episodes as Gustav’s son who was turned into a vampire. For those that don’t know, Geraint would go on to star in his own vampire TV show one year later. But I’ll talk more about that show tomorrow. Other guest stars include Kim Coates who has starred in tons of movies and TV shows like Waterworld, Prison Break and Sons of Anarchy as well as Barry Morse from The Fugitive and Space: 1999.

Here’s the intro to the show: