I saw plenty of late night SF/Horror, but my fondest memories are for the CBS prime time movies- not B movies but A-minus perhaps- run a couple of years after they’d had their in-theater runs. The Valley of Gwangi, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Andromeda Strain, Five Million Years to Earth, Soylent Green, The Omega Man, Silent Running and many others.
As others have mentioned, in Detroit during the early 70s it was the Ghoul on at midnight on Saturday night. It wasn’t about the movie though, it was about waiting for the breaks when the Ghoul might decide to blow up a pile of kielbasa with an M-80, right in the studio. Or something similarly counter-culture/half illegal, which us 10-year-olds would do our best to replicate after school on Monday.
Oh yes!
Late night, Saturday Afternoons and the 4:30 movie on ABC where all prime spots for Sci fi and Horror. Watching that stuff and reading about it is how my love for that kind of stuff (and reading) grew.
I’m a Detroiter here too, Buffalo Bilious and one memory that sticks in my mind of The Ghoul is when he picked his nose and wiped it on the camera lens. My teenage brother laughing hysterically while I watched in horror.
Also remember the Chiller movies on saturday afternoons that showed the freaky 70’s effects with the musical interlude of Led Zep’s Whole Lotta Love.
I also remember while the parents were on vacation, we had a bunch of people over and watched a B-movie called The Creeping Terror which turned into a comedy for us since we were all on acid.
The good old days.
When I think of late night tv, I think of Night Flight and Snub TV.
In Buffalo, NY in the early 80s there was a show called “the Cat’s Pajamas” with the requisite staple of weird flicks - Barbarella, the Shining, Pink Floyd’s the Wall, the Song Remains the Same. I have very distinct memories of watching La Planete Sauvage and Eraserhead - with no advance knowledge of either of those films. I was seriously traumatized by watching the latter film, yet unable to look away.
Also, anybody remember a late night video show called either “Night Flight” or “Night Tracks”? I remember it was considered the ‘cool’ video show that aired videos from metal bands or things like Robert Fripp & 50 acoustic guitarists performing King Crimson instrumentals…all the stuff that MTV was too lame and timid to show.
I have one particular memory about watching one late night movie that may need some explaining: around the early-mid 80s in Buffalo, there was a short-lived late night movie series called “Randee’s Pajama Party.” The host - Randee - was a vapid, bubbly, chirpy bimbo with teased out 80s hair who was totally the wrong personality type to be hosting a late night movie show. (She seemed more like the host of a morning local daytime talk show.) Anyway, I happened to discover that “Randee’s Pajama Party” was going to air a movie called Making Love, about schmaltzy film about a guy coming out as gay.
The young’uns out there who’ve grown up in a world where gay marriage is a national movement and every sitcom is required to have a gay character probably can’t understand what it was like to be a young gay teenager in early 80s (or earlier) in suburban America. Apart from an occasional “fag” joke, or news report how all homosexuals have AIDS, there was no mention of homosexuality, and certainly NOTHING you could relate to or identiy with. The seedy mag store that your older brothers get straight porn mags from doesn’t even storck gay porn mags. So, when you learn that the stupid late night show is going to show a movie that is reputed to be even timidly pro-gay (and show two good looking actors KISS!), that became a major event for you - something to sneakily stay up and watch while nobody else was around.
Anyway, the movie was…OK. The kissing scene was pretty brief, but gratifying. But my experience of watching it was marred because of the host - Randee - and her condescending, insulting attitude toward the movie. Of course, there were half a dozen commercial breaks per hour and intro/outro comments from Randee. She made it absolutely clear that she was uncomfortable with the subject matter, kept apologizing to the audience for showing the film at all, and after they showed the one kissing scene between two men, she practically gagged on camera and actually said “I thought that scene should’ve been cut!”
I kept wanting to scream at the TV “Look you stupid bitch! Who do you think is bothering to watch you shitty show but fags?”
Happily, the Randee’s Pajama Party show was cancelled a few months later, and to my knowledge 'Randee" never did anything else in her career. And that was fine with me! 
:smack: Should’ve read the post directly before my own] before I posted this!
I occasionally catch old monster flicks on Saturday night on Sevgooli, which is run on METV (which is associated with the local station WCIU). I get to see the old classics (like the Wolfman, last night), but i have to endure “Horror Host” Svengooli. Dear Og, I never missed MST3K so badly as when watching him. Except when watching other horror hosts, beside whom Svengooli is Laurence Olivier. We’ve taken to simply muting the TV when the host segments come on.
By the way, some of the MST3K gang --the RiffTrax guys, are going to be doing a live" riffing of *Strship Troopers" on August 15, broadcast to theaters around the US.
The Andromeda Strain was an “A” movie, so I won’t post my love of that movie. The TV versions are badly cut up by the way.
Classic B or even C movie, “Monolith Monsters”. I seem to be the only one to remember this.
Q was fun too.
I love Monolith Monsters. It might be the first movie in this broad genre I saw.
Haven’t read the whole thread, but in the 1980s, the USA Network had a weekend-night program called “Night Flight”. It featured a lot of music that MTV wouldn’t play, bizarre short films, and even weirder independent features. The two I most remember were “Urgh! A Music War” and “I Was A Zombie For The FBI”.
That movie was beyond atrocious.
ETA: Google didn’t give me anything for “Randee’s…” but “Randi’s…” had multiple hits.
“The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” starring Don Knots.
Another vote for Gilbert Gottfried and Rhonda Sheer introducing me to the world of B movies. 4 movies a week. On the one hand, I saw all the Bikini Ski Schools…years before I was probably old enough to see them. OTOH, I saw some insanely bizarre B movies. I think one of the strangest ones was Motorama. I saw it on Up All Night and then many many years later when I was in college I tried to find it again (by posting here I think) because I liked it and wanted my roommate to watch it.
It wasn’t as good and was about 10 times stranger then remembered.
ETA, according to the thread where I was trying to find the name of Motorama, I was also watching Zapped Again. Totally forgot about that movie. Watching the trailer for Zapped, I never saw that, but I saw the sequel (Zapped Again) a handful of times.
Me too! KTVU (“Capt. Sum Tin Wong” fame), channel 2. Bob was awesome! Whole lot of good movies, classics like* Night of the Living Dead, Creature from the Black Lagoon*, and some stinkers, too. (Village of the Giants)
Was it THE Chilly Billy? (who was in Night of the Living Dead) How cool was that?
I remember THEM! Those giant ants…
And the old Tarzan movies! Johnny Weissmuller.
And the Sherlock Homes films, starring Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce.
And that old Captain America serial that the UHF channel in Milwaukee re-edited into a film.
And the Hope/Crosby Road flicks. And Abbot & Costello.
And my beloved Godzilla films. 
I was flipping through channels and ended up watching The City of the Dead, a horror movie from the 1960s. I was expecting it to be cheesy, but it was incredible. A woman enters a mysterious city of witches who get together once a year to make human sacrifices. Spooky and atmospheric.
Ok, I’m going to try this again.
Also featuring a very young and pretty Scott Glenn as one of the ruffians on motorbikes! I saw this movie way too many times.