Ah, yes. Hives the butler! I would occasionally watch Stella late on Saturday nights (depending upon the movie she was showing). Never as dear to my heart as Dr. Shock or Zacherley, Stella has now taken on that warm and fuzzy nostalgia with me as I remember back in the 80's when there STILL was actually such a thing as local TV programming -- before the conglomerates swallowed up all the TV stations and now only play reruns of FULL HOUSE of FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR!
As you can probably guess from the name of Stella's show SATURDAY NIGHT DEAD followed immediately after NBC's SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE went off each week. Stella was never a vampire or undead or anything like that -- she was just a bizarre trampy "broad" who was admittedly a lot of fun with her double -- and triple and QUADRUPLE -- entendres. She even appears in modern day interviews on the recent DVD release AMERICAN SCARY which attempts to briefly trace the history of TV horror hosts.
Stella is granted a wish by a genie. She is told to close her eyes and her wish will be made real.
So, she closes her eyes, there is a puff of smoke and suddenly, in her hands, she is holding a tiny piano with a Ken doll sitting at the keyboard as if he is about to play something.
"What's this?" she asks the genie.
"It's your fondest wish come true, a nine inch pianist!"
I laughed so hard when I saw that...of course my kid sister was watching it with me, and did not "get" the joke.
Her butler looks like Quentin Tarantino.....
ReplyDeleteAh, yes. Hives the butler! I would occasionally watch Stella late on Saturday nights (depending upon the movie she was showing). Never as dear to my heart as Dr. Shock or Zacherley, Stella has now taken on that warm and fuzzy nostalgia with me as I remember back in the 80's when there STILL was actually such a thing as local TV programming -- before the conglomerates swallowed up all the TV stations and now only play reruns of FULL HOUSE of FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR!
ReplyDeleteAs you can probably guess from the name of Stella's show SATURDAY NIGHT DEAD followed immediately after NBC's SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE went off each week. Stella was never a vampire or undead or anything like that -- she was just a bizarre trampy "broad" who was admittedly a lot of fun with her double -- and triple and QUADRUPLE -- entendres. She even appears in modern day interviews on the recent DVD release AMERICAN SCARY which attempts to briefly trace the history of TV horror hosts.
OH! And I also loved how she used Duke Ellington's THE MOOCHE as her theme song.
ReplyDeleteMy fave SND gag:
ReplyDeleteStella is granted a wish by a genie. She is told to close her eyes and her wish will be made real.
So, she closes her eyes, there is a puff of smoke and suddenly, in her hands, she is holding a tiny piano with a Ken doll sitting at the keyboard as if he is about to play something.
"What's this?" she asks the genie.
"It's your fondest wish come true, a nine inch pianist!"
I laughed so hard when I saw that...of course my kid sister was watching it with me, and did not "get" the joke.
That's hysterical! And a good idea of what it was like watching Stella on Saturday Night Dead.
ReplyDeleteAh those we the days.
Stella can actually be seen today on the (fairly) new DVD documentary AMERICAN SCARY about TV horror hosts.