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Back in the mid-seventies in Toronto, there was a regular horror movie on CityTV on Saturday nights called "Monsters we Know and Love," which was hosted by Gene Taylor but also featured a sidekick named Igor (played by Art Nefsky). The hosting was pretty hokey (exhibit A:

), but the movies were actually pretty good (I remember "Son of Frankenstein," and I think, "The Blob."

Is there any evidence that this was the basis for the SCTV horror movie show "Monster Chiller Horror Theatre?" The timing and location in Toronto in the mid-seventies suggests so, but are there any interviews or articles which provide a definitive answer?

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Joe Flaherty, the SCTV actor portraying Count Floyd, has stated that Monster Chiller Horror Theater is based on a Saturday night program he watched as a child in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, called Chiller Theater.

The show, an 11:30PM staple from 1964 until 1983, was hosted by Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille and featured two horror and/or science fiction films of varying scariness and schlockiness quotients. Cardille would introduce the films as himself, then reappear later in pre- and post-commercial segments playing different "scary" characters.

According to Flaherty:

“Whenever I did Monster Chiller Horror Theater, I tried to get a Pittsburgh reference in there ... The movies he showed were not scary. You had to really suffer through those things, they were so bad. There would be long periods of boredom, and then Chilly Billy would come back on, and that was entertaining.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette

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