WFIL TV Channel 6 DOUBLE CHILLER THEATER!

[Vinnie2012]

Anyone remember this classic horror/sci movie showcase that ran on WFIL TV from 1963 or so till 1968 late night Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings?

They ran some pretty awesome movies during its 5 year or so run in the 60s.

She Creature
The Screaming Skull
The Amazing Transparent Man
Man Without a Body
The Giant Claw
island of Doomed Men
Creature of the Walking Dead
The Angry Red Planet
Killer Shrews
Invisible Creature
Cat Girl

the list goes on and on some of the greatest and not so greatest of horror sci fi films were shown on that classic 1960s ch 6 saturday late night showcase

Anyone out there thats old enough remember how the shows opening and closing sequence went?

Im sure channel 6 used the same spiel used to introduce and close movies even in those days as they do/did will the Million Dollar Movie/Big Show today.

 

[BXH1]

In 1964, I was in 6th grade and would sneak downstairs at 11:00 to watch "Double Chiller Theater" on Philadelphia's Channel 6, keeping the volume extremely low. I still remember the local announcer starting off the movies: "Eerie spine-tingling tales. Tales of unknown worlds. Tales of the supernatural. Double Chiller Theater." I searched a local newspaper archive and found the first reference to "Double Chiller Theater" in the listing of Saturday, March 21, 1964, 11PM, "Dracula". Other memorable thrillers shown were "Forbidden Planet", "The Giant Leeches", "Attack of the Crab Monsters", "Killer Shrews", and "Creature with the Atom Brain". One night, my mother caught me watching DCT and that was the end of that. However, I still enjoyed one week a year, that was dubbed "Science Fiction Week", when the Early Show would feature sci-fi movies, like "Beast From 20,000 Fathoms", "Kronos", and "Teenagers from Outer Space". I have many of these movies on DVD and Blu-ray.

 

[John]

"Eerie spine tingling tales...tales of unknown worlds....tales of the supernatural....Double Chiller Theater!!!" "The Amazing Colossal Man", "War Of The Colossal Beast (sequel)", "The Wasp Woman", "Terror From The Year 5000", "Black Sunday (a.k.a. "The Mask Of Satan"), "Earth Vs. The Spider", The Giant Gila Monster" "Beast With A Million Eyes", "It Conquered The World", "Terror In The Crypt", "Black Sabbath", "The Bat", "Phantom From Space", "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" "Ghost Of Frankenstein", Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman", "Dracula", "Frankenstein", "The Mummy".

 

[anotherguyTN]

A lot of these movies except for the classic Universal horror movies show up on different PD streaming channels on Roku.

 

[Vinnie2021]

That show was actually part of a 1963 element of channel 6s late night movie title umbrella named The Big Movie. Every night on channel 6 there was a different movie genre Westerns Comedy Drama Adventure, but the most popular of the Big Movie elements came out of weekend movies the Saturday night Double Chiller Theater and Sunday night when Cinema Six aired.

At first the Saturday night chiller was only one movie , but was so popular that it expanded to a double feature and thus became Double Chiller Theater, and later in 1964 added a third movie under the title Hollywoods Best. Double Chiller Theater ran for many years until 1971, when the then new owners of Channel 6 Capital Cities shortly after it became WPVI cancelled it and replaced it with the Saturday Big Movie eventually called the Million Dollar Movie, hate mail flooded the station to no avail, guess DCT had run its course after 8 years.

Cinema 6 ran also became a seperate program out of the Big Movie running for many years as the second feature on weekend evenings and the overnight weekend movie until it finally got cancelled after 42 years in 2005 by Disney in favor of making money with informercials. When Cinema Six started , they originally ran foreign movies.

 

[Vinnie2021]

Incidentally Paul Norton was the voice on the opening narration of Double Chiller Theater.