There was this educational video I watched as a kid that I don’t remember anything about except the ending bit, which freaked me out. It had an animated pair of feet against a black background, and each toe had a number on it. A deep voice would count down from 10, curling each toe as it did so, all the while there would be snoring as well, to represent the video going to sleep, I guess? For some reason the sequence freaked me out and when that part came on I’d run out of the room.
I didn’t re-read the rest of the thread to see if someone else mentioned it, but I could not watch The Incredible Hulk as a child; the transformation from David Banner to the Hulk absolutely terrified me. And I really liked the nice man from The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
The Mummenschanz commercial I remember had them in black body stockings with toilet paper rolls for eyes and mouths. Another tidbit had them with clay faces that they would mold into smiles or frowns. Then two of them got into an argument and started ripping the clay form each others faces. But not eating them, just pulling the clay away.
My husband tells of his older brother running screaming from the living room any time the Kaiser Foil Man came on TV. He was a knight on a horse. I, myself do not remember this commercial.
As for me, The Syncopated Clock scared the bejesus out of me. It used to be the theme to the Late, Late Show and when I was up late on a Friday and that song started playing, I would tell my whole family it was my bedtime and rush out of the room. I remember them laughing. That frightened me also.
The Marcus Welby, MD, opening montage and theme song. Scared the bejesus out of me every time. It was a series of grainy pics of a hospital, ambulance, etc., some of them in red overlay, with a scree! scree! scree! kind of soundtrack.
I think it came on at my bedtime, so it was the last thing I saw on tv that day every week.
The intro (at thirty-four seconds) to this detective series unhinged me. Think it would still be upsetting to children.
Thank you!
Yes, that was my story from 10 to 20.
That song scared me precisely because it was more real than vampires, space aliens, or Frankenstein monsters! I’m afraid it may come to be a very 2013 song!
A search for “in the streets, miguel” “lyrics” sent me to this site: Full text of "The Beat Within 14.05"
but I didn’t find anything, even with highlighting. Your search skills may be more refined than my own, so I’ll pass it on.
More:
If the title was “Shooting in the Streets,” then it was sung on the F 23, 1965 TW3 episode, and was written by Lan O’Kun.
How in the world did this zombie get resurrected?
Interesting to read, and the new posts were relevant, but I’m wondering what brought it back to life…
Me too! You can imagine my reaction when my high school set me up with a counselor while I was having some difficulties, and she looked like Lady Elaine come to horrible horrible life. Extremely creepy.
In the early 80s, Sesame Street had a special called “Don’t Eat the Pictures” where they go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My parents taped it for me and I watched it all the time. There’s a bit where Oscar discovers a room full of broken statues and he sings a song about how “beautiful” they are. At one point in the song, the camera zooms in on this statue/bust of just a head, without a nose. Completely freaked me out, and I would have to look away whenever that point in the song was coming up.
Speaking of Sesame Street, I was also incredibly freaked out by that orange with the rubber-band lips that sang “Habanera,” and from comments I’ve seen on other threads here, it looks like I’m not the only one.
I was often affected by stuff in the uncanny valley. Any kind of dolls/scarecrows/mannequins that were moving, talking or somehow “alive” in TV or movies really bothered me.
Echo!
Echo!
This Sesame Street sketch gave me the wiggins when I was little. H…H…H…
That and the Doctor Who theme made me hide behind the couch.
For your viewing pleasure, the modern “remix”:
