Creature Feature
A hosted horror movie show with Russ McCown as Sir Cecil Creape screening at 10:30pm on Saturdays, on WSM-TV, Channel 4 Nashville, Tennessee, USA between September 1971 till December 1973. In 1973, the show was moved to Saturday afternoons. Ken Bramming was the pre-recorded announcer, and made a once on-camera appearance as Dr. Lucifur (Shock Theater 1958-1967 and Mystic Circle 1968-1969)
Local Nashville historian E.D. Thompson writes, in More Nashville Nostalgia, p.136:
Russ McCown was a former film director at old WSM TV, channel 4. Russ retired from WSMV TV back in 1988 after a 35-year career. Back in the 1960s Russ developed a character called Sir Cecil Creape; and in addition to performing short skits he introduced horror films on a show called Creature Feature.
Then around 1970 my friend Elmer Alley who was the program director at channel 4 at the time told Russ it would be nice if he could bring Sir Cecil out again. At that particular time horror films were making another big sweep over the country.
So Sir Cecil Creape and his Creature Feature aired at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday nights on channel 4 from 1971 until about 1973. I understand that Elmer Alley started out writing the scripts but I read from an interview by Ken Beck that channel 4’s former weatherman Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune fame wrote several of the scripts also
Around 1983 when Elmer Alley was looking around for some programs to go on the newly formed Nashville Network, Sir Cecil Creape came out again. He moved his crypt from the WSMV studios to the catacombs underneath the Grand Ole Opry House for his Phantom of the Opry horror film series and stayed for several years on the TNN cable network.
Dave Lawrence writes: In 1971, Nashville had been bereft of horror hosts since Shock Theater went off the air three years prior. That situation was rectified by Russ McCown, film editor for WSMV-4. Inventing the character of Sir Cecil Creape (pronounced ‘ses-cil creep’) the balding hunchback would descend into a dungeon every Saturday night to the tones of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” and greet viewers to Creature Feature. Ken Bramming, formerly Dr. Lucifer, acted as the unseen announcer. Pat Sajack, long before hosting the Wheel of Fortune, assisted in the scripts.
Delivering his lines with a droll deadpan, Sir Cecil would often interrupt the films with skits and comedy, often delivered at the expense of Nashville political analyst Floyd Kephart. Sir Cecil was also active in the Nashville community. He hosted his own ‘Ghoul Patrol’ chapter of the Boy Scouts of America.
Creature Feature ran on WSMV from 1971 until 1973. In September of 1983, Sir Cecil would return, this time on cable. Playing the title character in the Phantom of the Opry on TNN, McCown retained the same costume, but the show lacked the same level of humor as before and was cancelled after thirteen episodes. McCown passed away in 1994.
“Good night, sleep tight, and don’t let the beddie bugs bite”
References[edit | edit source]
https://www.google.com/books/edition/More_Nashville_Nostalgia/8za1hY2NSbwC?hl=en&gbpv=1
https://wpln.org/post/sir-cecil-creape-nashvilles-hometown-ghoul/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9328724/?ref_=tt_mv_close
https://non-productive.com/horror-host-retrospective-sir-cecil-creapephantom-of-the-opry/