Buried By Time

Before streaming, before endless menus of choices, television had stranger corners. Local stations filled their schedules with old horror films, creature features, science-fiction reruns, and regional hosts who could make a cheap movie feel like something fun viewers had discovered in the dark.This episode of Buried by Time follows Svengoolie from Jerry Bishop’s original Chicago version on WFLD to Rich Koz’s Son of Svengoolie, through cancellation, revival, and the later MeTV era. Along the way, it looks at the old film libraries, local station culture, Saturday-night viewing habits, and horror-host traditions that helped turn reruns into memories.Svengoolie is more than a character in makeup. He is one of the last visible survivors of a buried broadcast world, when a host could appear between commercials and make an old movie feel less like recycled programming and more like an invitation.Support Buried by Time:⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/whythankyou⁠Mentioned in this episode:SvengoolieSon of SvengoolieRich KozJerry BishopWFLD Channel 32 ChicagoScreaming Yellow TheaterMeTVLocal television horror hostsUniversal horror filmsHammer horrorCreature featuresSaturday-night televisionAppointment televisionThe lost world of regional broadcastingShow Notes:MeTV’s official Svengoolie page and FAQ were used for the current MeTV era, the Saturday-night schedule, Rich Koz’s role, and the show’s national run beginning in 2011.Northern Public Radio’s “This Week in Illinois History: Svengoolie!” was used for Rich Koz’s June 16, 1979 debut as Son of Svengoolie on WFLD Chicago.The Museum of Broadcast Communications / MeTV announcement was used for background on Rich Koz’s long run as Svengoolie and the museum exhibit honoring the show’s artifacts.The Illinois House Resolution honoring Rich Koz was used for supporting details on Koz writing for Jerry G. Bishop, his 1979 to 1986 Son of Svengoolie era, and the show’s Chicago legacy.Reference checks were also made for the broader 1980s television context, including Fantasy Island’s Saturday-night ABC placement and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” / Motown 25 television moment.

What if the message we have been waiting for is not a voice from another world, but a reflection of our own history coming back through space?In this episode of Buried by Time, we follow the strange idea at the heart of the movie Contact: a signal from beyond Earth carrying an old television broadcast, a memory of humanity sent back with new instructions hidden inside it. From early radio dreams to television leaking into space, from alien messages to the broadcasts we may have unknowingly sent into the dark, this is a story about communication, recognition, and the unsettling possibility that the universe may already know more about us than we think.Support Buried by Time:https://buymeacoffee.com/whythankyouResearch Notes and SourcesThese links support the principal historical and scientific claims in the episode. The Contact and Carpenters sections are used as cultural framing, not as evidence of extraterrestrial communication.Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the discovery of pulsars, University of Cambridgehttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Jocelyn-Bell-BurnellCIA historical account of the Maier sisters, Leon Davidson, and the alleged “space message” tapehttps://sgp.fas.org/library/ciaufo.htmlThe Wow! Signal, SETI Institutehttps://artsandsciences.osu.edu/news/did-ohio-state-really-detect-alien-signal-0BLC1 analysis, Breakthrough Listen / Berkeley SETIhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01508-8Magnetar SGR 1935+2154 and fast radio bursts, NASAhttps://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13751/Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft, Canadian Songwriters Hall of Famehttps://www.richardandkarencarpenter.com/SN_CallingOccupantsOfInterplanetaryCraft.htm

Michael Jackson’s Thriller did more than dominate the charts. It turned a pop song into horror cinema, transformed the music video into a cultural event, and gave Vincent Price one of the most recognizable spoken performances in music history.This episode explores the 1982 album, the 1983 short film, the choreography, practical makeup, MTV spectacle, Halloween afterlife, and the extraordinary cultural moment that made Thriller almost impossible to escape.Support Buried by Time at:https://buymeacoffee.com/whythankyouWatch the official Thriller short film:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaAResearch and sourcesLibrary of Congress, National Film Registry:https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/descriptions-and-essays/Library of Congress, National Recording Registry, 2007:https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2007/Recording Academy, “Michael Jackson’s Grammy Night: 30 Years Later”:https://www.grammy.com/news/30-years-later-michael-jacksons-thrilling-grammy-night/Recording Academy, “Michael Jackson’s Thriller: For the Record”:https://www.grammy.com/news/michael-jacksons-thriller-record-1/Vanity Fair, “The Thriller Diaries”:https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/07/michael-jackson-thriller-201007Billboard, chart history for Thriller:https://www.billboard.com/lists/most-weeks-at-no-1-billboard-200-taylor-swift-the-beatles/

Vincent Price did not become a horror icon by being the loudest man in the room. He became unforgettable because he made fear sound elegant, intelligent, and almost inviting.In this episode of Buried by Time, we look at how Vincent moved from art history and stage work into Hollywood, how films like House of Wax, The Fly, House on Haunted Hill, and the Edgar Allan Poe cycle shaped his legacy, and why his voice became one of the most recognizable sounds in horror history.From gothic cinema to Night Gallery and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Vincent Price proved that horror did not always need a scream. Sometimes it only needed perfect manners, a faint smile, and the terrible feeling that the door had already closed behind you.Thanks for listening to Buried by Time. Subscribe, like the episode wherever that option appears, and suggest future stories in the comments.Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/whythankyou

Before Rod Serling became permanently linked to The Twilight Zone, he returned to television with something darker, stranger, and more uneven: Night Gallery.This episode of Buried by Time explores Night Gallery as one of Serling’s final major television projects, a haunted anthology built around eerie paintings, moral punishment, buried guilt, and stories that often felt less like warnings from the future and more like evidence from a darkened room.We’ll look at the pilot, the paintings, the celebrity guest stars, the show’s uneasy relationship with The Twilight Zone, and why Night Gallery still has a strange afterlife of its own.See the original Night Gallery paintings here:https://www.nightgallery.net/the-paintingsSupport Buried by Time:https://buymeacoffee.com/whythankyou

Rod Serling became famous as the creator and host of The Twilight Zone, but his story reaches far beyond strange endings and black-and-white television.In this episode of Buried by Time, we look at Serling’s life as a World War II veteran, writer, television pioneer, and moral critic of American culture. From early live television dramas to the creation of The Twilight Zone, Serling used science fiction, fantasy, and suspense to talk about censorship, prejudice, fear, war, conformity, power, and the darker corners of human nature.This is the story of a man who turned television into a mirror, and left behind warnings that still feel uncomfortably modern.Support the podcast here: https://buymeacoffee.com/whythankyou

Milli Vanilli became one of the biggest pop acts of the late 1980s, then collapsed when the world learned Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan were not the voices on the records.This episode of Buried By Time looks at the image, the hidden singers, Frank Farian, the Grammy scandal, the lip syncing scandal, the machinery behind the illusion, and the human cost when the fantasy broke.Credit note: The real studio singers behind the records included Brad Howell, John Davis, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco, and Linda Rocco. Their voices helped make the songs famous while Rob and Fab became the public faces of Milli Vanilli.

In 1976, the United States turned 200 years old and wrapped itself in red, white, and blue. The Bicentennial became more than a holiday. It was a national mood, a design style, a marketing campaign, and for many families, a memory of one strange summer filled with fireworks, tall ships, parades, disco, 8-track tapes, TV dinners, Bomb Pops, red-white-and-blue ice cream, classic television, big American cars, and a country trying to believe in itself again.But beneath the celebration, 1976 carried another story. America was still living in the aftermath of Vietnam, Watergate, inflation, oil shocks, and a deepening distrust of institutions. Gerald Ford, a president who had never been elected to the office, led the country through its birthday year while Jimmy Carter campaigned as an outsider promising honesty and trust. At the same time, the darker outlines of modern America were beginning to appear.This episode looks at the unease underneath the Bicentennial surface: Patty Hearst and the strange questions her case raised about captivity, coercion, radical politics, celebrity, and media spectacle; the swine flu scare at Fort Dix and the controversial national vaccine program that followed; the Chowchilla school bus kidnapping, where 26 children and their driver were buried inside a moving van and survived through courage and teamwork; the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Philadelphia, where a patriotic gathering turned into a public health mystery; the first Son of Sam shooting in New York; and the early crimes later tied to the East Area Rapist and Golden State Killer in California.The story also reaches beyond the United States. In the same Bicentennial year, the Entebbe hostage crisis unfolded in Uganda, the Soweto uprising exposed the violence of apartheid to the world, the Tangshan earthquake devastated China, and Mao Zedong’s death marked the end of one era and the beginning of another.America at 200 was not simple nostalgia. It was a country caught between memory and warning, trying to celebrate its founding while already living inside a more anxious, media-driven, global, and unstable modern world. For one summer, those two stories existed side by side: fireworks over the harbor, disco on the radio, children eating patriotic freezer treats, families watching familiar TV shows, politicians asking for trust, and beneath it all, the future beginning to show through.America at 200, 1976 Bicentennial, U.S. Bicentennial, July 4 1976, Gerald Ford, 1970s America, Chowchilla kidnapping, Legionnaires’ disease, Patty Hearst, Son of Sam, disco, Bicentennial celebration, America’s 250th anniversary.

Marilyn Monroe was not only a bombshell. She helped build the shell. In this episode of Buried By Time, we look at the carefully constructed image of Marilyn Monroe, from the famous “switch” she could seemingly turn on in public, to the makeup, clothing, possible cosmetic procedures, vulnerability, glamour, and performance that turned Norma Jeane into one of the most recognizable women in history. Beneath the blonde hair, soft voice, and glowing public image was something more complicated: a woman who learned how to become a myth, and a myth powerful enough to survive her.Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jeane, Hollywood, bombshell, 1950s, beauty image, public persona, fame, movie star, celebrity mythology, The Seven Year Itch, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.