Fans of the Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO Channel 7’s 1965 – 78 weekend horror show NIGHTMARE THEATRE have established that for a time in 1970 STRANGE PARADISE aired as a portion of their show. But what has been less discussed is that the station aired not just a single weekly installment in that after-midnight timeslot, but an entire block of four to five episodes (effectively turning it into a full-length second feature after NIGHTMARE THEATRE‘s midnight movie.) Here is how The Seattle Daily Times announced the new addition to the city’s late-night airwaves:
The thought of watching roughly a week’s worth of STRANGE PARADISE in a single sitting at two o’clock in the morning is delightfully mind-numbing; something akin to a fever dream. Further adding to the surrealism was the fact that KIRO does not seem to have been overly concerned about the sequence in which the episodes were aired. In early June, they announced the opening Maljardin storyline, but note these listings from just a few weeks later:
Some weeks beyond that, the announcements themselves developed an occasional surreal quality, randomly dispensing with the troublesome task of describing the episodes in favor of non-specific lurid imagery or ludicrous alliteration:
Sadly, NIGHTMARE THEATRE seems to have dropped their airings of STRANGE PARADISE after the summer of 1970. But what a wonderful place Seattle’s airwaves must have been in the wee hours of Saturday morning for those dozen or so weeks. You could nod off in front of your television in the middle of an Ed Wood movie and wake up in the cursed corridors of Desmond Hall.
The Conjure Doll – 2/4/17
MALJARDIN 