In order to differentiate from this thread, here we will discuss not actually terrifying / scary stuff like “Twilight Zone” episodes, but the silly, trivial things that wasn’t supposed to be scary, but creeped you out as a kid.
For me, it was the Vegetable Soup segment “Outerscope” about a bunch of neighbor kids (actually puppets) who build a rocketship (called, naturally enough, “Outerscope”) out of wooden planks and pilot it into outer space. They visit a whole bunch of allegorical, surreal worlds in which they learn about tolerance, multiculteralism, the value of a good education, and other assorted “valuable lessons” that mid-70s PBS shows specialized in.
What was uniquely disturbing about “Outerscope” was that the kids were puppets, but with real human hands. The puppeteers would stick their adult-sized hands out the sides of the kid-sized puppet-bodies. Only their hands, mind you, not their arms. So these puppet-kids had giant hands & wrists jutting from their sides, but no arms.
It was like watching a puppet show about kids with thalidomide birth defects.
Evidently, I wasn’t the only kid who thought these puppets looked very ‘wrong’, because later ‘Outerscope’ segments had puppets with regular manniken-like (anatomically appropriate) hands. But the early Outerscope segments just creeped me out so badly that I couldn’t stand to be in the room when my brother watched it.
I was always creeped out anytime the “Techical Difficulties Please Stand By” thing would come up onscreen. I would think, “oh no, the tv people are being attacked by monsters” or something equally kid-like.
It still creeps me out a little, though, cuz what if monsters really are attacking them?!
Too funny, I was freaked out by both the Outerscope puppets and the giant spider from Gilligan’s Island.
I was especially frightened by the Lady Elaine puppet in the Land of Make Believe on Mr. Rogers. First, it freaked me out because I didn’t understand if she was supposed to be a man or a woman. She looked like a man, but her name was Lady Elaine. Apparently I was not very tolerant of a wide range of gender expression when I was a preschooler. Also, I thought she was an alcoholic because her nose was red. Granted, I didn’t know what an alcoholic was, but it seemed bad.
I think I have puppet issues in general. I also remember being frightened by a puppet version of “Beauty and the Beast” that I saw on TV. The beast was ultra-creepy!
The final shot of every episode of The Banana Splits, in which the animated characters transform into static pantings on a wooden fence, has left me with a general sense of unease for almost 35 years.
Some kind of horror Afternoon Special (aired in north Georgia during the afternoons in the 70’s) that had something walking surreptitiously around the deck of navy ships with green feet and red toenails, that’s all I remember now, but totally freaked me out as a punk kid. Ran out of the room a couple of times.
Oh man, was I ever afraid of the Incredible Hulk when I was about four years old. Of course it was my favorite TV show, but every time Dr. Banner got annoyed and started turning into the Hulk, I’d lose it and run out of the room screaming.
Of course then my mom would calm me down, and I’d return to the TV set to watch more. Right, no reason to be afraid, there IS no such thing as the Incredible Hulk. Mom’s right. Except this one time….
We went to Universal Studios in California. They had a show going on where several actors were dressed up like “classic” movie monsters from back in the day. There was a Dracula, a Frankenstein, and a Wolfman all doing their thing up on stage. Slightly unsettling, but my mom and dad were right there, and my mom kept explaining that they weren’t real, they were just regular people dressed up in makeup. I was about 50/50 in believing her, but I sat, ready to flee at any moment. That moment came a few minutes later when the Incredible Goddamn Hulk threw open the doors at the back of the theatre, and came running and screaming down the center isle. Let me tell you, food I had just eaten was hurrying its way through my digestive tract just so it could play a part in the shitting of my pants. I went absolutely and instantly into run for your life mode, because the Hulk was here, and here to do something (I don’t know exactly what) to me. I was gone in an instant. My mom had to chase me down, while laughing hysterically, and didn’t catch me until I was on the far side of the theatre. I still don’t like the Hulk on a certain level, and I’m getting my mom a rock for mother’s day.
Just about everything in Gumby and Pokey, including the claymation animation technique itself, creeped me right on out.
Speaking of animation, any of the '60s cartoons that were done with that really cheap animation effect where they superimpose moving lips on a picture of the character.
Lastly, George “The Animal” Steele on Studio Wrestling. All that body hair, for one thing.
All I’m going to say is that Sid and Marty Krofft have a lot to answer for. Even most of their supposedly friendly characters spooked the hell out of me.
I’m so very glad that some one else was is afraid of music! To this day the opening credits to Dr. Who give me goose flesh. I’ve had nightmares of just that sound and the weird colored swirling lights. :eek:
On Mr. Dressup, when I was still a toddler, they had a puppet come on sometimes called “Aunt Bird”. I hated that puppet. It scared me half out of my wits. I don’t remember exactly how my young mind made these stretches of connections, but I remember at some point seeing the cover of one of the Eagles albums (maybe a greatest hits?) in my father’s collection, and there was a bird skull on it. Freaked me out. Aunt bird. And then, Aunt Bird needs a counterpart, right? Well, in my wee brain, I somehow thought that “Uncle Albert”, from the Paul McCartney song (Wings? I don’t know), and I was scared to death of that song. Even today, if I hear that damn “I’m so sorry, Uncle Albert”, I get kind of antsy. Aunt Bird. My father would play that song at night when he thought I was sleeping, but I would be wide awake, scared, imagining dozens of Aunt Birds jumping out from under my bed and scaring me to death. Could be where I started being an insomniac.
Aunt Bird. Christ. Maybe this should go in the trauma thread? Damn Aunt Bird.
Another moment that spooked me was watching Davy and Goliath. I used to love the show, for whatever reason, but then one day, Davy was playing around a… well? An abandoned mine? I don’t remember, but I knew it wasn’t a good idea as soon as Goliath said, “I don’t know, Daaaaaaavy.” Well, Davy fell in. It would show him laying on the ground, injured, or something, unconcious… it freaked me out. Refused to watch that show again. From that day forward, I was strictly a Barbapapa girl.
I had nightmares about a late 1960s cartoon PSA for a character called “Johnny Smoke”. It was right when tobacco companies had to start phasing out TV commercials. I believe that Johnny Smoke was a cigarette with a bandanna on it to make him look like a bandit and there were lots of dead cowboys after he went through town.
