Saturday, September 20, 2008

USA Up All Night!

It's 11:00 PM on Saturday night...this can only mean one thing. Time for USA's Up All Night. Unfortunately the show has been off the air for ten long years now.
Back in the late 80s to the mid 90s "Up All Night" exposed my pre-teenage mind to such cult cinema classics as "Return of the Killer Tomatoes", "The Toxic Avenger", "Class of Nuke 'Em High", "Bikini Car Wash Company", and "Bufford's Beach Bunnies".

The show was hosted by the one and only Gilbert Gottfried, one of my all time favorite comics. The combination of Gottfried plus all the campy B-movies aired on the show made for a perfect Saturday night recipe.



On Friday nights the show was hosted by Rhonda Shear, who replaced Caroline Schlitt after the show's first two years. Rhonda annoyed the piss out of me, more than Gilbert's voice ever could. Gilbert was soothing compared to Rhonda in my opinion.
The show first aired on June 6, 1986 and was finally canceled in 1998 when the network began to air mainstream films on Saturday nights as part of a major overhaul of its programming and image.



The show would go from 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. with two films hosted by Gilbert. After a commercial break Gilbert would come back to either deliver some quick remarks about the film or continue a sketch or comedy routine which would last all night. After the second film ended they would air a third film without the host segments. Instead they'd use a series of bumpers with the show's theme music and some brief voice over from Gilbert.

If you'd like to host your own "Up All Night" retrospective then invite some friends over tonight and screen two of the following cinematic masterpieces from the "Up All Night" library:

- "Return of the Killer Tomatoes"
- "Kentucky Fried Movie"
- "Private Resort"
- "Vice Academy" (1-5)
- "Zapped"
- "Assault of the Party Nerds"
- "My Tutor"
- "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death"
- "Loverboy"
- "Bufford's Beach Bunnies"
- "Hamburger...The Motion Picture"
- "Toxic Avenger", "Class of Nuke 'Em High", or any other Troma flick from the 80s.



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