This was about 1970-1972 or so. I distinctly remember a show where a woman was terrorized by some animated creatures like scarecrows. Her solution was to light them on fire, and as one of them burned you could see the skull and skeleton inside the body.
I was clearly affected some 50+ years later. Does anyone have any chance of remembering or knowing of that specific episode?
I don’t know, but I think it was associated with night gallery or the sixth sense, but I can’t be sure. I was only 7 at the time.
It sounds a lot like The Night Stalker with Darren McGaven. I can’t find an episode like that, but the time seems right, and it was a monster of the week show.
I looked up The Night Stalker and see the first episode was September 1974. This is too late. I remember where I was when I saw this episode and by October 1972 I was in completely different state.
I do recognize that people’s memories are plastic, but I’m exceptionally confident I was in my neighbor’s house in Standish California with my mom and dad visiting with the neighbors and the neighbor kids; Not in Cole Camp Missouri as an 11 year old with my Step Mom and Dad.
Memory is a funny thing. I remember watching “Touch of Grey” by the Grateful Dead on MTV in 1985. The video didn’t come out until 1989, so I know I didn’t see it in 1985.
They were mobile…as in ‘came to life’ in some sense that skeleton/scarecrows can come to life.
Again, I recognize the chance of misremembering…so I admit the details of what these creatures were could be incorrect…but I AM pretty confident of the timeline ish…1969-1973 at the very outside edges, but probably 1970-1972
In “The Dark Secret of Harvest Home” (1978), it does involve a fire involving scarecrows, but the description doesn’t otherwise match up, and it’s past your time frame.
It could have been an episode of Thriller called “The Hollow Watcher.” Now, it came out in 1962, but I suppose it could have been a rerun or something. Was the show in black and white, by the way? Because this show was in black and white. In any case, there is a scarecrow, a woman does set it on fire, and you do get to see the bones underneath.
It was black and white…primarily because this was 1970-72 and we only had black and white capable TV’s . I’ll see if I can look up Thriller and The Hollow Watcher.
Ok Snooooopy; how did you know or find this?
Edit: YEP!!! That’s gotta be it. I skipped to the critical scene at 46 min. I didn’t remember until I saw it, but the ‘thumping’ of the scarecrow as it walked pinged a long dead brain cell on me. And the characteristic straight lines on the fade outs of this show was something I long forgot about, but instantly recognized when I saw it.
This is most definitely what I was watching. Scared and scarred for life by that particular episode…it made a hell of an impression on me.
