images from pop culture that frightened you as a child

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as i child i was disturbed, not by horror films and the like, but:
The Thomson Twins "Lies" video
Gene Simmons (when i was VERY young)
The New Zoo Review (us show starring Chuck Woolery and giant puppets.)
WHAT ABOUT YOO?

― chaki, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Bits from Lidsville and Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Damn Krofft Brothers!

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Specifically this particular show from the EWDG ouevre. I mean, this would scare any five year old, right? ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Willy Wonka scared the shit outta me. Damn Roald Dahl and his stories and his Oompa Loompas to boot!!

― turner, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Ned that show kicks some serious ass

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

I just remember Mr. Rock hypnotizing that king dolt and shouting about "the key! the key!" during his solo. Hey, who wouldn't be hypnotized by this so you could look like this?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

i love charles nelson reilly.

― ethan, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

I always suspected that Bill Cosby was a pedophile.

― R,S., Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

(1) My cousin Brian's Diamond Dogs poster.

(2) On Battle of the Planets, when they pulled off Zoltar's mask, it was "revealed" that he was a she (or was it?), and the Great Spirit thing came outta nowhere to save Zoltar's ass.

(3) Some really cheesy horror film, where this horseman comes out of nowhere and chops off some guy's head (you see the guy's shadow, and the head getting lopped off).

(4) Gene Simmons wasn't scary, just goofy.

(5) When I was seven and the NYCPD had just arrested Son of Sam (my grandmother made us stay up and watch this).

(6) Another NYC metro-area specific incident: "Chiller Theater" on Channel 11, with this hand (with six! fingers) sinking into quicksand just after grabbing each letter in the word "C-H-I-L-L- E-R" and some creepy voice going "Chiiiiiiillller! (Years later, I worked with a lady whose first name was Csilla [it's a Hungarian nane, if y'all care], who said she used to get teased in grade school because of "Chiller Theater").

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Easily the most terrifying U.S. pop culture entity was The Devil in the game show "The Jokers Wild". I'd have to cover my eyes in case it ever appeared. A close second is the dragon in "Tic Tac Dough"

― Brian MacDonald, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Roy Wood from Wizzard. Big scary hairy man w/ make-up!!

― Andrew L, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

wurzel gummige

― Ed, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Twisted Sister. Very scary.

― Jonnie, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The witch from Chorlton and the Wheelies (and following conversations on this theme, I suspect I'm not alone).

― Mark C, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The end of the world and Johnny Cashes voice.

― anthonyeaston, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

An episode of the Flinstones where Fred and Barney fall into a bottomless chasm. Otherwise absolutely nothing: my mum said I always liked the stuff that scared everyone else (and if y'alls lists are anything to go by, she was right).

― suzy, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Obvious kidstalgia answers: The Childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; the witches in the Wizard of Oz and HR Pufnstuf; the strange balloons that fell to earth in some episode of the Tomorrow People; the entire run of Sapphire and Steel.

Pop answer: I remember being very scared of Top of the Pops in the early/mid-seventies, I guess the bands must have been Led Zep, Deep Purple, etc etc. Actually, it was a combination of horror and abject revulsion. I was scared by the Sensational Alex Harvey band on the Old Grey Whistle Test, also.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Rolf Harris's Cartoon Time. FACT!

― Will, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

When I was a wee chap of about three years old, the dragon off Words and Pictures (I think his name was George, ironically) *quite literally* scared me shitless. He would haunt my dreams by appearing at the foot of my bed and ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR in a most obtrusive manner. I would stick my fingers in my ears but to no avail.

― Trevor, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The children of the stones scared the bejeesus out of me. and I'm not talking about Jade Jagger. Chorlton and the wheelies wasn't scary though Mark, it was fantastic.

― chris, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

edna: the bubbleskin jumpsuits in "The Living Skins" featuring the great line "They obviously no longer feel the need to disguise themselves as items of fashionable clothing". and you missed out the scaries thing in tomorrow people -- the credits (ooo, scary sliced pepper!)

The Mad Hatter in the batman telly series frightened me, dunno why. The surrealist paintings my parents insisted on hiring from the library (is that pop culture?)

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

when I was five I watched the day of the triffids, it was awful. I was also scared of the Daleks. I don't know why

― Menelaus Darcy, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The 'Whole Lotta Love' opening credits to mid/early seventies TOTP were quite scary in themselves. Also the trailer for TOMMY in which Roger Daltrey has a shampoo and set in a hairdryer with spikes INSIDE IT, which means they went into his brain. And suicide lyrics like 'Alone Again, Naturally', which my dad would inflict on me with terrifying regularity. There was a schools programme with a haunted house that had bees outside it.

I am yet to recover from any of the above.

― Peter Miller, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Dear lord, I had forgotten how disturbed I was by Tommy. Why did my parents let me watch it?

Not pop culture, but my parents had a papier-mache lion's head in the house, which scared me. Also scary was dragon puppet my mother made; it kept me from going upstairs alone.

― rosemary, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

I was frightened of the 'bad moon on the rise';

The evil doll Dido in 'A Candle in her Room' by Ruth M. Arthur;

The boulders with eyes in 'Marianne Dreams';

A woman in one of the Green Knowe books who turned down the last cake then made it slither across the table and into her handbag when the grandmother wasn't looking.

― Nancy Drew, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Fireball XL5, when Starry Steve and the gang discovered an abandoned Mary Celeste-type mining village on Mars, all cobwebs and half-eaten food.

At primary school we were shown this TERRIFYING little UNESCO movie abt the scourge of leprosy in the third world, blimey. What I recall: small African kid wandering unaccompanied through gleaming hospital, opens door to see sisnister doctors operating: it was like Coma on the Congo. Needless to say I nevah gave a penny!!

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

'all cobwebs and half-eaten food.'

That reminds me, Miss Havisham in the old B&W movie of 'Great Expectations.'

She terrified me.

― Nancy Drew, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

the safety films warning kids not to go into empty buildings, farms, building sites and somewhere else I ca't remember were absolutely terrifying. I 'm sure the teachers loved showing them to the whole school just to see all our wide-eyed petrified faces.

― chris, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The farm one introduced me to a previously unimagined by my five year old self utterly horrible way to die: drowning in a big vat of cow shit.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

We had a poster on our classroom wall that said:

'Johnny couldn't see the danger in flicking rubber bands. Now Johnny can't see at all.'

― Nancy Drew, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The farm safety films were indeed terrifying. I developed a detailed mental map of all the huge vats of cowshit in the area. But the films didn't mention the mental bastard dogs guarding the huge vats of cowshit.

― Peter Miller, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

I really never wanted to be run over by a big JCB, so that only my foot was left witha bloody stump attached, and wearing such baaaad trainers!

― chris, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The twilight zone, which my aunt/babysitter would insist on watching because she thought it was funny to watch me freak out. The theme music alone would make totally hysterical with fear.

Ozzy Ozbourne, but now I wuv him (or at least Black Sabbath).

― Nicole, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

― Nick, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Thriller's video, first watched on New Year's Eve. The Wizard of Oz in any version. PACMAN in Atari games, especially the soundtrack.

― Laetitia, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

The Wheelies in Return to Oz, Gollum in the animated Lord of the Rings film, the evil bunnies in Watership Down, Mr Fever who came to our school and gave a talk about playing on the railway and shouted BANG! at us and made us jump out of our skins. We didn't see the farm danger films, but the toddler son of my mum's friend drowned in a slurry pit so that was warning enough for me.

My sister and I also had a mad ritual of hiding behind the settee when Morph threw a tin of paint at the camera at the beginning of every episode.

― Madchen, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and the Cybermen and the Daleks' jelly brains which were like the demented centres of jaffa cakes. The Daleks themselves I was OK with, but those brains... *shudders*

― Madchen, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

And the Tripods. I stop now.

― Madchen, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

ooo the railway children where the tree falls down on to the track. i thought the trees were coming to life and walking down the bank to wreak havoc. i did, really. it was a scary thought.

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Tadeusz, I grew up in CT and saw that same "Chiller" thing over and over as a child... I used to pretend it didn't scare me but it did. I was also terrified after seeing the commercial for "Suspiria" (in the middle of the day!)... now it's my favorite movie.

― Sean, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Prince. It was his overt sensuality/sexuality.

― helen fordsdale, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Brer Rabbit.

― Samantha, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

RABID DOGS.

Pop culture in the North = ACE!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

"hotel california", "where evil grows" and "seasons in the sun" all seemed satanic to me as an oldies am radio addicted 9 year old.

― fritz, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Return to Oz was a nightmare, the Sphinxes in the Neverending story, the enchanted Turkish Delight in the Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. I was a wussy kid.

― 1 1 2 3 5, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

OH!---The biggest one of all: there was a shed by the riverbottoms that had an anarchy symbol graffitied on it. I knew it was the site of horrifying Satanic ritual! Satan was THE number one scariest thing, ever, to me.

― 1 1 2 3 5, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Not pop culture, but the shadow coming over the armchair during the opening credits of 'Armchair Thriller'. *shudders*

― Will, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Moira Stewart's hair.

In primary school (aged 5-6 maybe) on more than one occasion several classes were for no particular reason were dragged to the school hall to watch this video (NB there were video players in the classrooms) called, I think, The Gazump. It was a poorly drawn cartoon about a big brown slug-thing that went around swalling ("gazumping") things. I think it was the sound of the word that scared me most, and it was said repeatedly. Gazump. Gazump. Gazump.

I remember overhearing this horrible (NB v.horrible, don't read on) Radio 4 story about a prince who was into thinking so decided he didn't need a body, so got the palace rats to eat it. He then decided he didn't need a head either, so got the rats to eat that, leaving only his brain, which the maids decided was a shrivelled prune and threw away. Yuk.

― Graham, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Shadow Coming = entertainment of the future? Like shadow boxing but more filthy.

― Nick, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

the commercial for dynamo detergent where the little blue jug they call dynamo got huge.

also, the abcs spelled out in fireworks on sesame street.

― maura, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 164 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Also, Les Dawson. After an episode of his show where he turned into the Incredible Hulk. After that, I always ran out of the room when Blakety Blank was on.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Thursday, 9 March 2006 20:09 (4 years ago) Permalink

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Thursday, 9 March 2006 20:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

e.t.
twisted sister
david bowie in 'the labyrinth'

― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 9 March 2006 20:43 (4 years ago) Permalink

I love how this thread betrays everybody's ages.

Yeah, also with Time Bandits. the face coming at the camera, etc. But the kid losing his parents at the end made me never watch the flick ever again.

It didn't help that my elementary school would routinely use that flick as a student babysitter(another fave from that era: The Electric Grandmother).

Who remembers the Twilight Zone movie?

saw this when I was 8 and FREAKED MY SHIT OUT.

― kingfish da notorious teletabby (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 9 March 2006 20:58 (4 years ago) Permalink

When i was 4, i think, I was freaked out by a Disney audio storybook(on vinyl) for Mary Poppins. Something about the scene where all the prospective nannies get blown away by the wind scared me so that I ran into the next room until it was done, then went back to the record player to listen to the rest.

i was a dum kid.

― kingfish da notorious teletabby (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 9 March 2006 21:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

TZ the movie! that gremlin was freaking john lithgow and me out. that might've been my introduction to the gremlin in fact. also, that bit at the end where the teacher gives the kid a ride home and enters that world totally frightened me.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 9 March 2006 21:20 (4 years ago) Permalink

― Peter Densmore (pbnmyj), Friday, 10 March 2006 06:31 (4 years ago) Permalink

http://www.blairmag.com/blair6/madame/elaine.jpg

― Peter Densmore (pbnmyj), Friday, 10 March 2006 06:33 (4 years ago) Permalink

I had a reoccuring nightmare involving The Count from Sesame Street. The dream involved being stuck in a huge supermarker and there were tons of these different colored Counts chasing me around it.

I saw an episode of Spiderman on the Electric Company one time that terrified me. He was crawling around, doing his Spiderman thing, and suddenly he started looking right at the camera. I thought he was looking at me. Suddenly he wasn't Spiderman anymore. He was trying to communicate with me. I ran out of the room screaming.

I was also terrified of Revelations. Not really pop culture, except that the reason it scared me so bad was because my mom was reading all these freaky 70s end-of-the-world books at the time, and they became strangely intertwined with the bible (GWB scares me for this reason).

There were a few things that frightened me that caused fascination, and later on: Love. Ozzy Osbourne was one of them, and Dr. Who (Tom Baker era) was the other.

Great thread!

― josh in sf (stfu kthx), Friday, 10 March 2006 07:33 (4 years ago) Permalink

*supermarket

― josh in sf (stfu kthx), Friday, 10 March 2006 07:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

I have to add Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters 2.

― elmo, patron saint of nausea (allocryptic), Friday, 10 March 2006 15:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

Oh, I'm sure there was tons - I was a fraidycat for a good while.

The only thing that I can remember -really- clearly though is:

Freakin' Cocoon!
Ughh!

One scene in particular: Creepy Steve Gutenberg skulks around and for some unwholesome reason hides in the pretty girl's closet and peeps at her undressing. Sort of titilating, oh yes, though I wasn't quite sure why yet (I was indeed young!)
And then... the skin... came off! AND THE SCARIEST THING IN ALL OF THE WORLDS WAS REVEALED! GLOWING! A DEAD, BENIGN-YET-TERRIBLE EXPRESSION ON ITS FACE! FLYING RIGHT AT STEVE/US!

Too much!
"V" never scared me half as much.

― Øystein (Øystein), Friday, 10 March 2006 15:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

haha.

more please.

― pisces, Monday, 21 May 2007 02:53 (3 years ago) Permalink

ALL OF THEM

― Abbott, Monday, 21 May 2007 02:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

― onimo, Monday, 21 May 2007 06:51 (3 years ago) Permalink

Surely all the Doctor Who and Stephen King ones don't really count, because you're supposed to be afraid of them?

Anyway, for me it was Queen.

They scared the bejesus out of me.

― accentmonkey, Monday, 21 May 2007 07:59 (3 years ago) Permalink

Yes, I posted a Bohemian Rhapsody still upthread somewhere.

― onimo, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:07 (3 years ago) Permalink

We are of an age.

Do you, or does anyone else, remember a clown who used to have a show on BBC children's programming in the 70s? I think his name was something like Charlie Corelli. Anyway, apparently I used to be frightened of him and his programme, because it mainly consisted of people hitting each other, and I couldn't understand why people would be so horrible.

― accentmonkey, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:12 (3 years ago) Permalink

Charlie Caroli.

He is still going - I saw him at Zippo's circus a couple of years ago. Catchphrase - "Right Children!" "Right Charlie!"

― Dr.C, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:17 (3 years ago) Permalink

Oh Christ! Here he is!

Run away!

― accentmonkey, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:19 (3 years ago) Permalink

I loved Charlie Caroli as a kid. Went to see him at Blackpool Circus and everything.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

Charlie Caroli.

I can't find an image of him, which is just as well. The thing I used to hate about his programme was that it seemed to be nothing but week after week of Norman Barrett and his performing fucking budgies.

xposts

― aldo, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

Oh god, the budgies! NOOOOOOO!

― accentmonkey, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:25 (3 years ago) Permalink

I loved those budgies too! Norman Barrett was ringmaster at the circus.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:25 (3 years ago) Permalink

I thought Dr C must be mistaken. I've managed to Google Charlie Cairoli - we was spelling his name wrong - and he died in 1980.

http://www.charliecairoli.com/new_page_1.htm

(I seem to remember somebody, maybe a son?, taking over the persona tho.)

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:31 (3 years ago) Permalink

This thread is making me really sad now for the days when Blackpool was the most magical place in the universe before it got ruined by pissed-up scum.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:33 (3 years ago) Permalink

xp Perhaps it is his son, because the picture I found was certainly taken after 1980. Isn't that what they do, anyway, these CARNIES?

― accentmonkey, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:33 (3 years ago) Permalink

Yes it was his son I think, but his son is pushing 60.

The ringmaster at Zippos is still Norman Barrett, or at least it was when I last went, 2 yrs ago. Norman still looks exactly the same as in the 70s.

― Dr.C, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:35 (3 years ago) Permalink

http://www.zipposcircus.co.uk/photos/photnor.htm

Still going

― Dr.C, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:37 (3 years ago) Permalink

Sweet. Norman Barrett is Rock and Roll.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:40 (3 years ago) Permalink

His budgie show is still flippin' dire though.

― Dr.C, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:44 (3 years ago) Permalink

I don't get the budgie hate. I also keep thinking about Freddy Parrot Face Davies. 70s TV could sustain 2 budgie acts, apparently. (Insert Adam Faith joke here.)

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:45 (3 years ago) Permalink

This thread is making me really sad now for the days when Blackpool was the most magical place in the universe before it got ruined by pissed-up scum.

-- Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:33 (1 hour ago) Link

When would this have been? About the 1890s?

― Ned Trifle II, Monday, 21 May 2007 09:56 (3 years ago) Permalink

Blackpool was still lovely in the 70s you heathen.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:00 (3 years ago) Permalink

I prefer Greenwich.

― onimo, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:01 (3 years ago) Permalink

I mean people were pissed-up, no doubt, but they weren't scum. Last time I went was 2001 and it broke my heart.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:01 (3 years ago) Permalink

Oh yes, I went to a wedding in Blackpool in the early 1970s and my family still talk about it as the most drunken time they ever had ever. And they liked a drink. Freud wrote of Blackpool "I would sooner live there than here (Vienna) rain, fog, drunkenness and conservatism notwithstanding,". Probably.

Blackpool has always been full of drunks but that doesn't stop it being magical. Kids still love it.

Also - 2001! It's all changed since then, they've got new rides and everything.

― Ned Trifle II, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:06 (3 years ago) Permalink

I think I'm just mourning my childhood.

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:07 (3 years ago) Permalink

The first episode of "The Changes" - people going mad and smashing up TVs, cars, and anything else technological, then the main character (a little girl) becoming separated from her parents as they tried to flee London.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Monday, 21 May 2007 11:16 (3 years ago) Permalink

When Prince Adam turned into He-Man, my 3 year old self thought he was being set on fire!

― the next grozart, Monday, 21 May 2007 11:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

Think someone already said Pink Floyds the Wall. But in particular, the marching hammers. And there was a section on the Another Brick video showing a playground with the hammers marching in the background.

As a kid I actually thought that whole album was just about school, with all the Scarfe artwork on the sleeve being of different types of teachers.

Rofl at myself

― Ste, Monday, 21 May 2007 12:31 (3 years ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ak3z2Pm7Iwg

― chaki, Friday, 28 March 2008 00:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

The video for Tom Petty's Don't Come Around Here No More scared the bejeezus out of me - especially the scene of Alice-as-cake with slices being taken out of here abdomen.

Also: The Dumbo pink elephants; the yup-yup bugs from Sesame Street; various Scooby-Doo monsters; and, on down the road a bit, the Shining twins (which, unbeknownst to my parents, I caught on television way too early in life)

― Pillbox, Friday, 28 March 2008 01:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

― lou, Friday, 28 March 2008 12:27 (2 years ago) Permalink

Two things spring to mind.

1. As a hyperactive child, growing up during the mid-late seventies in the UK I would get up very early in the morning and turn on the tv even though there was nothing actually broadcasting, and this used to scare the hell out of me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMrbxYrMmOc

And I can see judging by the comments I was not alone, I think part of the reason was that it used to just cycle around and around.

There would be a couple of minutes of silence and then that awful jingle, then nothing, then the jingle again until some smooth BBC voice would announce a programme.

When I first heard the Conet Project I recognised some of that uneasiness in the signifying jingles they used on some numbers stations.

2. The last four minutes of Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds, absolutely trouser threateningly horrible to a 5 year old.

― MaresNest, Friday, 28 March 2008 13:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

I can see what you mean about the Open University thing.

There were a few things which used to terrify me when I was a little 'un in the early 70s. Firstly, those trade test transmission things that would be broadcast on ITV in the mornings, telling you about work that was being done to transmitters in Chorley or whatever - I seem to remember they had graphics of transmitters and a big IBA logo (could be wrong) and it all seemed technical and scary. They really did my head in.

And another one - my parents had a Music For Pleasure album of "Peter and the wolf" and the album cover gave me nightmares. It was this bloke (the narrator) sitting behind a papier mache display of the story - animals, woods, wolf etc. Something about the look on the man's face and the music itself did it for me. Even now, I've got the main theme going through my head and it's sending shivers down my spine - that was very strange music for kids. A few years ago, I found a copy of this album in a charity shop and bought it. Haven't played it though - still too scared.

Finally, on a side issue, does anyone know where I can get a full version of "Bart" by Ruby? For people of a certain age, it's a very evocative piece of music. Ah, schools and colleges...

― Rob M v2, Friday, 28 March 2008 14:12 (2 years ago) Permalink

the OU thing is like something out of the prisoner

― DG, Friday, 28 March 2008 14:15 (2 years ago) Permalink

I can see what you mean about the Open University thing.

I can't. It's quite calming.

― DavidM, Friday, 28 March 2008 17:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

Isn't there another thread like this, where recently people were talking about that woman getting turned into a robot in Superman 3?

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 28 March 2008 17:15 (2 years ago) Permalink

various Scooby-Doo monsters

I was so scared of Scooby-Doo that I would scream whenever it came on tv.

Also, I made my mom leave the theater during Ghostbusters beacuse I couldn't handle it. I was 7!

― ENBB, Friday, 28 March 2008 17:18 (2 years ago) Permalink

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