A Little More Thrilled about Chiller

A Little More Thrilled about Chiller by Roxanne McDonald

I know I complained a bit about Chiller TV. I also stayed with it to find some redeeming qualities few other channels can boast.

I was thrilled than chilled—in a bad way—by the repetition of programming on the Chiller channel. And yes, Children of the Damned and other …Damned movies have appeared ad nauseum since then.

But as I continue to watch, I find a couple of characteristics—at least one—that actually delight this self-proclaimed television connoisseur.

One wonderful feature…Hitchcock Presents. First, the old episodes are not those on the SciFi Channel, so they are for the most part new to us, whether new as in never having seen or new as in having seen them so long ago that they feel new.

But second, Chiller has retained the integrity of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents format, using very few commercials–as Hitchcock reportedly and evidently had issues with commercial interruptions (and as we likely were not so money-mongering then as we are now).

During intercessions of an episode, Hitchcock makes his hallmark appearance and statements, commentaries on his craft, the show, or a running theme. He also speaks to the upcoming commercial or introduces it by saying how long the interruption will be. Well, back then, commercial breaks lasted a minute, so the commercial breaks Chiller TV has are also a minute…ONLY a minute.

If you are as fixated on watching the progression of the infiltration of commerce [and yes, I get the irony of the image to your right–>], you likely have noticed how commercial breaks have evolved from loud, long, and

aggressive to louder, longer, and so aggressive we need pills they are advertising to put them out of our misery. They have gone from one minute during the fifties to two minutes and two seconds in the late 70s/early 80s to five minutes in these early double oughts… (…to say nothing of the weird starting times for shows all of a sudden: 9:31? Please. Where do you think that extra minute has gone?)

AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH.

True dat: you pay for non-commercial channels to get away from these aberrations. But you also pay a cable bill or dish bill that in effect sponsors those sponsors.

At least Chiller has let up on us in one area. Gotta give it that.

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