# Once-scary childhood memories of pop culture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2012, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783 "2012-07-10T12:34:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/101 "2012-07-12T19:00:32Z")
> [@Winnie](#): > > We visited New Jersey a lot growing up… Man, that would freak me out, too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/102 "2012-07-12T20:12:18Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I thought of another one. The painting they showed at the end of the show Good Times used to freak me out as a kid for some reason… Now that you mention that, I remember being a little creeped out by that. But the ads I used to see for Mummenschanz really freaked me out. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/103 "2012-07-12T20:28:04Z")
There was a cartoon I used to see in the early sixties, probably old even then, black and white. It had some kind of discordant jazz music in the background and there were these creatures who were essentially an eyeball on top of a vertical metal tube, with a wheel at the bottom. These damn things were, I think, chasing something or someone inside a building. I would love to be able to identify this and view it again as an adult. It absolutely terrified me. > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I was afraid of Lady Elaine Fairchild on _Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood_. She scared me as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/104 "2012-07-12T20:37:39Z")
The Hamburgler used to freak me out. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/105 "2012-07-12T20:46:24Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > There was a cartoon I used to see in the early sixties, probably old even then, black and white. It had some kind of discordant jazz music in the background and there were these creatures who were essentially an eyeball on top of a vertical metal tube, with a wheel at the bottom. These damn things were, I think, chasing something or someone inside a building. > > I would love to be able to identify this and view it again as an adult. It absolutely terrified me. I think there were predatory vacuum cleaners in it too, if that rings a bell for anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/106 "2012-07-13T03:10:43Z")
The opening segment of Bonanza, where it shows the map burning. When the Cartwrights are riding through the burning map, I just knew they were going to be burned to a crisp. I was probably more concerned about the horses though. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/eCU0lkWX7S4/hqdefault.jpg "BONANZA Opening Theme") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCU0lkWX7S4) ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/107 "2012-07-13T22:20:43Z")
I’m reading this thread and can’t think of anything that scared me much as a child, which puts me in mind of a Malcolm In The Middle episode where the oldest son is being initiated into a fraternity at college and nothing they do scares him because Lois is his mother, and compared to her everything else is rainbows and unicorns. That’s probably my excuse too, my mother was so effing terrifying nothing else would scare you! Although that “dragon” thing in the episode of Space:1999 was freaky! ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/108 "2012-07-13T23:47:08Z")
Yes it was!! [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tbXhu09m5s) ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/109 "2012-07-14T00:06:37Z")
Oh Dear God I just remembered the scariest thing of all. Soupy Sales with White Fang, a furry white hand that entered the scene from the side, making scary deep voiced _ru ooh-ru ooh-ru-uh_ sounds. [A clip is here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=kQEWUJNkAtk), White Fang comes on at 1:00. We watched it in black & white. That whole show freaked me right out. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/110 "2012-07-14T00:44:01Z")
> [@Corcaigh](#): > > I’m reading this thread and can’t think of anything that scared me much as a child, which puts me in mind of a Malcolm In The Middle episode where the oldest son is being initiated into a fraternity at college and nothing they do scares him because Lois is his mother, and compared to her everything else is rainbows and unicorns. > > That’s probably my excuse too, my mother was so effing terrifying nothing else would scare you! > > Although that “dragon” thing in the episode of Space:1999 was freaky! I can remember being _disturbed_ at, say, the dark tone of the Tenniel illustrations in _Alice_, and of course I was scared by _The Outer Limits_ and such–that was the _point_! But mostly it was my Father (talk about “Pop culture”…!)–the one in Heaven who was constantly reading my thoughts, finding something objectionable in every single one, and threatening to set me on fire because of them. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/111 "2012-07-14T03:01:02Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > I can’t believe that I am the first to say _flying monkeys_. On the other hand I have never seen Wizard of Oz as an adult. I have no doubt the whole thing would be laughable to the now-grown me. On the other hand–_ **flying monkeys** _! Awww Geeze…there you go…Now I’m gonna have feaking nightmares… and those things STILL fuck me up. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/112 "2012-07-14T03:21:02Z")
When I was about 8 or 9 I went with my aunt and cousins to see [this](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059914/) sci-fi movie at a drive-in theatre. I was absolutely traumatized by a scene where the “failures” of genetic engineering were locked up in a cell. It really messed me up at the time. Years later I bought the DVD on the internet and the scene that bothered me so much was brief and very un-scary and…well…laughable. ---
**Author:** ![dada2fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ccd318/32.png) [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/113 "2012-07-14T05:48:59Z")
Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play album cover. It didn’t help that when you turned on the light in the basement of my home a shadow appeared on the ceiling caused by pipes, the furnace and basement type fixtures that from a certain angle looked like a ballerina. I just knew it was the same one from the album. And she was evil. ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/114 "2012-07-14T22:02:16Z")
Sesame Street used to have a segment on the letter I where they would show it as a tall obelisk with the music from 2001. The intensity of that music DISTURBED me when I was a kid. I always had to leave the room. The part where the guy’s face melted in Poltergeist. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/115 "2012-07-14T23:08:13Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Yes it was!! > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tbXhu09m5s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tbXhu09m5s) I _hate_ you!!! > [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > But mostly it was my Father (talk about “Pop culture”…!)–the one in Heaven who was constantly reading my thoughts, finding something objectionable in every single one, and threatening to set me on fire because of them. He never really bothered me. Still doesn’t TBH ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/116 "2012-07-15T04:25:40Z")
> [@Runestar](#): > > Also, the Abominable (“Bumble”) Snowman from Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer sent me shrieking from the room when I was a child - at least when he first appeared (I was OK once he was a “humble Bumble” 🙂 ). Couldn’t watch that scene for many, many years afterwards. Another Rankin-Bass work that didn’t necessarily scare the bejeezus out of me, but still had it moments was [Mad Monster Party](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5fe7D14Jp8). With you, Soylent, on the Honeymooners’ moon(until I started to appreciate the show), and Quimby, et. al. on the beauty of randomness of the Star Trek TOS closing credits ([Balok?](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ko09bkZ7O-c/TDt9GsVhGMI/AAAAAAAAAQc/ZYm9yRqUuYc/s400/scary_face.jpg))…the Doomsday Machine had me more worried than normal, too. [Athena](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hdZ8oyKJygg/TZbiH3erJiI/AAAAAAAAAV8/jFesJU759uo/s1600/vm3.JPG) from “Lost In Space” didn’t scare me so much as piss me off, obviously…(“They were so close!”) ---
**Author:** ![CWN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@CWN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWN)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/117 "2012-07-15T11:38:46Z")
When I was a kid every so often the “5000 fingers of Dr T” would be shown on TV, I liked the movie but had to leave the room when the **[elevator operator with the weird eyes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqy4xcXgtxM)** would come on :eek: ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/118 "2012-07-15T12:33:56Z")
This is weird, but the monster Jerry Lewis turned into in the Nutty Professor. It really scared the crap out of me. ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/119 "2012-07-15T14:59:11Z")
Salem’s Lot scared the bejesus out of me. I was five when it aired, and for some reason my dad let me watch it with him. Anyone remember In Search Of, hosted by Leonard Nimoy? A lot of those episodes were incredibly creepy and remain so to this day. Excellent use of music in that series. I’ve been re-watching many of them on Youtube recently. Those Time Life commercials owe a lot to In Search Of. The monster Louis Jourdan became at the end of Swamp Thing terrified me too. ---
**Author:** ![debminerva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58f4c7/32.png) [@debminerva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/debminerva)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783/120 "2012-07-15T20:56:05Z")
My scary childhood memory is something I believed to be a freaky dream until the invention of the internet and I was able to google my dream. Turns out the bad dream (a wedding with dead-like guests and a witch and a giant) was the Japanese’s version of Jack and the Beanstalk (1974). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack\_and\_the\_Beanstalk\_(1974\_film)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk_(1974_film)) or [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074705/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074705/) I had nightmares for well into my 20s in which I am being chased and I can directly connect it to this cartoon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-scary-childhood-memories-of-pop-culture/627783.md?page=7)